Winter Blues #10

 

FRIDAY

My dad suffers from acid reflux and it can be brought on by a lot of bending or movement so I always tell him to get any stuff moved in his room during the day to give his stomach time to settle before he has a big meal, meaning his stomach is ok when he goes to sleep. On Thursday night he spent five hours from six pm to 11pm moving stuff about and ended up feeling sick all through the night. As usual his acid reflux has quickly become a chest infection. He tried phoning the doctor this morning to get medication ie antibiotics or steroids for his chest but was told that nobody was available to talk to him and he had to phone back on Monday at 8am and there might be a chance to talk to someone. Great. None of the six nurses or eight doctors can make a two minute call or write a prescription? It seems if you don't have Covid, the GP is in no rush to deal with you. You ask for a phone consultation but they are too busy to call you. But when they want to discuss your medication or question you about something, instead of phoning they send you a letter demanding that you phone them, only to be told 'We'll phone you back' when we have time to deal with you???!!

 

One of the guys came up today to do some prep work for the fence, digging up the old posts and concrete from what remains of the old fence and digging all the holes ready for the posts and concrete for the new one.

 

SATURDAY

The guys arrived at just before 9am this morning and left at about 6pm. They've got the entire back fence done, having worked their collective assi off today. Tomorrow they are coming to finish the front fence and do a check of the settings for both security lights to get them just right for it. They were kind enough to also cut down a big bush that was raging out of control and becoming a spider haven right beside the back door. 

 

A big blue envelope from the NHS arrived with me today and I've been offered the first dose of the Covid vaccine next week, which was a bit of a surprise. The down side is that it isn't at any of our local vaccine centres in my town area-it's about 13 miles away in Clydebank. However to get there we just drive down the motorway and over the bridge then down into the town. We know exactly where the place is and my dad is keen for me to get it done and get an hour or two out of the house for essential travel! 

 

My beloved St Mirren scored a late penalty to grab a great win against the difficult to beat Ross County! I was so happy when that went in with about ten minutes to go! 

 

SUNDAY

The guys were back about 9am this morning to work on the front fence. They finished up at noon so that is both fences completed and they look great! Worth the wait in the end! My dad and I have decided we'll varnish the fences ourselves-Scott was willing to do it but it could be a long wait as he still has a backlog of jobs from last year because of Covid and the lockdowns and we want to get it done before the weather gets nice and the wasps come out! Cold is good, I can paint in that if I have to! I'm also a bit fitter now than I was then and don't have those pesky sore elbows that plagued me in 2019. I'm still not looking forward to doing all that bloody painting all over again! Later this week I'll try and get started if the weather isn't damp, once I've dealt with the vaccine trip.

 

TUESDAY

Asda delivery day. I was in the middle of my morning exercises when they arrived 40 minutes early. I'm glad the guy couldn't see me struggle to get up off the rug and stagger to the door, puffing like a set of ruptured bagpipes! To be fair, the guy was delivering to another house on our street and took a gamble that I might be ready for him and I was so that was ok. Better that than late anyway. More salads and healthy snacks to get my face into while I'm still in the mood to eat it all. Fruit seems to be a real problem-it's constantly sold out for delivery except pineapple for some reason. It's annoying but I'm not heading into a germfest supermarket just for fruit. I guess I'll need to stick with the tinned stuff.

 

My dad's chest infection is clearing up ok with the medication. He'll be fine to drive me to Clydebank tomorrow and he'll stay in the car while I go in.

 

WEDNESDAY

9.30am-Vaccine Day and despite having went with my dad for his, somehow I'm a nervous wreck going for mine. I have no idea why because I'm fine with it being safe and I've been hoping to get it quickly, and I have no issue with needles for straightforward injections like the flu jab each year. 

 

11.30am

OK I'm just back from Clydebank, having been given a shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine. When I got to the centre I walked in, used the hand wash thing then stood behind one woman to present my letter of invite. Five minutes for all that and I was sitting with the nurse. She went through a list of questions about my identity, allergic reaction, when I had a flu jag, my general health and then I got the jag and a few safety instructions. I was told I could go without the 15 minute wait as I wasn't driving. I found that strange because the 15 minute wait is to check for allergic reactions before you leave so I stayed in the car park for safety and then home. Very easy, no fuss day as the vaccine centre was quiet. Relief that it's over and I can relax the rest of the week! 

 

Y'know the one thing about going to that place today was that my brain seemed to stop workingwhen I went in and I wasn't taking in the simple instructions like 'date of birth' and 'follow the orange barrier'. I felt like a right idiot needing to be told twice. You can tell I've been in the house too long and had little contact with real people! The fact that I'm also starting to fancy one of our regular postmen shows I've been in lockdown too long!

 

On the plus side I treated myself to a new Game of Thrones T Shirt which arrived today! Bit of an appropriate moment for it to arrive on vaccine day! (That is not me modelling it!)