First the good news, which has been pretty thin on the ground lately. I got an achieved for my OU maths course. As the result is only either achieved or not achieved, I am pleased! I am also on target at the moment with my Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis course.
Luke has been pretty poorly the last few days. He woke up on Thursday morning about 6.00am with a dreadful cough that sounded just like croup although according to the doctor he grew out of that when he was 3! He was also holding his throat and slightly gasping for breath so I rang NHS Direct. The man on the other end of the line could hear Luke and after a brief conversation with him, he decided we needed an ambulance........pronto! The fast response car (which is probably the wrong name) was here within about 4 minutes. The ambulance was here no more than 2 minutes later. By 6.35am we were at the hospital which is usually a good 20 minutes drive. I cannot praise the ambulance staff enough, they were great and really put Luke at ease. The hospital however were completely different. We were greeted by someone who I assumed was a nurse. He asked the ambulance crew what was wrong with Luke not because he was triaging patients but because "he is a nosey sod" (his words not mine!) He then said to Luke "I give you a 50/50 chance of making it to Christmas" followed by "Have you have a sense of humour transplant?" Once we were in the cubicle Luke said he didn't want that man treating him. Can't say I blame him really.
Following from that, Luke needed the toilet which was heavily spattered with blood. Later on Luke said "There is blood marks on the floor" When I looked down I saw he was right and there was also a blood soaked dressing on the floor under my chair too. It was disgusting. The stupid thing is that I was so worried about Luke at the time, it never even occurred to me to complain to anyone. One of the nurses/auxillaries commented that she wasn't going to deal with another patient because he stinks. If we EVER need to go to hospital by ambulance again, I will be asking if we can go to St Mary's instead. If they say no we will get there under our own steam or not bother!
Luke was discharged about lunchtime with one dose of steroids and calpol to take but he has been poorly for a couple more days. His temperature has remained about 39-40 degrees despite best efforts to reduce it. He has been a lot more like his normal self today thankfully.
Colin's works recently announced that they would be making approximately half the workforce at his office redundant. The remaining staff are being relocated to another office that will be a little further away from the city centre, still he is just grateful to have survived the 2nd round of redundancies this year. Fingers crossed that is the last of the job cuts for him.
I am suffering from cross stitch withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately our Christmas tree goes in my stitching corner and I have nowhere to put my lamp. This means that I am reduced to stitching on 14 count aida with my eyesight. Also I can't manage very long without my eyes hurting so there is nothing to show at the moment. I have however been thinking about my goals for next year. I will post them at the start of 2009 though!!
As this is likely to be my last post before Christmas, I would like to wish everyone that celebrates it a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. If you do not celebrate this one, I hope you have a safe and restful holiday period.
