So things didn’t quite pan out as I had expected with the bee sting. I assumed the antibiotics, prednisone steroids and antihistamine the doctor prescribed would do the trick. But I spent Saturday to Tuesday unable to walk, and the very swollen leg elevated. The pain was excruciating.
By Wednesday I was crawling the walls, with boredom, which I suppose made a nice change as I had been crawling the floor up until this point.
So I decided in my infinite wisdom that keeping the pre arranged lunch date I had booked would do me the world of good.
And in a sense, for my head it really did.
For my foot however I may have tipped myself over the edge.
I had a wonderful time at lunch. I met a dear friend and we chatted for hours. We had such a lovely catch up. The day was gloriously hot and sunny, which in itself was a rare treat.
The whole time I was thinking gosh my foot is really hurting.
Not surprising really, as during lunch it had swollen so much I could no longer get my shoe back on and the blister itself looked appalling…
The things I’ll do for lunch hahahahaha
Dress from Kate Spade, Shoes from Hermes
The restaurant is in the most beautiful setting.
I would thoroughly recommend Le Talbooth, in Colchester for lunch. I can’t think of a more perfect location.
So I did indeed have a lovely time. I was glad I went.
The drive home was a bit serious, as driving with a swollen pus filled leg isn’t ideal.
I got home, tried to get to Chris in his garden office, unfortunately walking was an issue and I literally fell through the door…while he was on a video meeting. So Chris muted his call, jumped out of his chair and picked me up from the messy squashy heap on the floor I had become.
Not my finest hour I can assure you. But not my worst either, so no harm done. ;)
I hobbled round to my next door neighbour, she’s a retired nurse so I thought she’d know what I should do.
…A&E was what I should do, so I did!
A&E (ER) is an interesting place. No one is having a great day. Not the staff (it’s a wickedly awful place to work, I have no idea how they do it day after day), and certainly not the patients.
But amongst that awfulness there is a lot of humanity. I made friends with two people in the queue. As you do. True British bulldog spirit at its best. ;)
My entire visit to A&E was about 5 hours. Which isn’t really that bad. But had I had an alternative I would have preferred it and pursued it.
I tried my own GP (my regular doctor), a private GP I use and the online GP and no one had any appointments, so A&E was the only place to go.
I saw the triage nurse, who was a bit abrupt as I hobbled to her room for assessment. I said I wasn’t sure if I should be here, but I’m in a bit of a pickle.
She said “what is the problem!?”
I just showed her my foot, by this point show and tell was the easiest, simplest option.
She recoiled and said “what is that!?!?”
“Bee sting”
“Yes” she says in a softer tone, yes, you most definitely need to see the doctor. She also complimented me on my very pretty dress, which was very sweet of her as I felt pretty grotty by this point. :)
So at least after 3 hours of waiting already, I was rightly, entitled to be there. Until that point I felt like a fraud. There’re so many poorly people and too few, over worked and under valued, staff.
I saw the doctor and he could not have been nicer and kinder. We chatted for ages, whilst he lanced and drained my blisters and cut away the dead skin. I was blown away by his dedication, in the face of what can be a dangerous place to work as it turns out. I was shocked to hear assaults and verbal abuse are common place. He had also lost 8 friends, all doctors in the first wave of the pandemic. So the fact he was even there that night draining pus out of my foot was nothing short of heroic.
He was a foreign doctor. I mention this because the next hopeful to run the NHS, Ms Dido Harding, wants to “rid” the NHS of its reliance on, in her words “foreign” staff.
I, assuming that past events, like her diabolical running of Track & Trace, would automatically take her out the running before she even applied. But I’m obviously very stupid. Because she’s front and centre to get it.
Our glorious National Health Service is highly staffed by incredible, wonderful, caring, dedicated “foreign” workers. Take them out of the equation and Steve the plumber from Solihull might be conscripted to plug a few holes in people.
Not his area of expertise by any means but at least he’s a born and bred Brit!
Give me strength!!!
What I want is good, competent staff. I have no care or interest where they come from. My wonderful Iranian oncologist saved my life, Sam’s incredible, Indian oncologist saved his life, the Indian doctor I saw on Wednesday night, in A&E didn’t save my life but he did make it a lot more comfortable and better.
I am very grateful to ALL who choose to work in the NHS. I was clapping, through lockdown for all of them funnily enough. Not just the home grown ones.
I can’t actually put any photos on here of how my foot progressed. It is far to grim. If you thought last weeks photos were gory, oh my goodness you were wrong. It got a whole lot worse.
I can send them to you on request, should you be into that sort of thing. Hahahahaha
I am finally on the mend, the doctor drained my foot and doubled the dose and length of time of the antibiotics.
I finally feel like progress has been made. I now have to go to the nurse at my GP practice for a wound check and dressing change, like I’m a pensioner, with ulcerated legs.
I did say to her yesterday, shall we just leave it at that. She said, no, let’s give it till the end of the week, we don’t want to fall at the final hurdle.
So back to OAP wound checking clinic it is. Hahahahaha
Anyway, once I was drained and with a bit more leg elevation the swelling began to go down. And I felt well up for our weekend away.
We had it planned for a couple of weeks. I really didn’t want to miss out. And really there was no need. The foot was now a size that fit in shoes…always a bonus I find. And on top of that we had just a relaxing, chilled out time planned. So no reason to forgo it.
The weather had turned, from glorious sunshine to monsoon rains.
So chilling out in the hotel was pretty much all we could be bothered to do anyway. Outside looked most unappealing.
I didn’t know till we got there but Chris had upgraded us to a corner suite. It had the most amazing views over the river, it was perfect. London in all her glory. Even if it was tipping it down with rain.
Dress from French Connection, shoes (below) from LV bag from Ralph Lauren.
Look at her! Showing off and wearing shoes!!! Hahahahaha
The suite was amazing. And the most amazing thing about it? TWO toilets!! I thought this was just a fetish of mine because of my colostomy bag changing. But my friend pointed out that two bathrooms works out well for all couples, bagged or not.
I find having my own space to change my bag in very reassuring. It isn’t very romantic for a weekend away to stink the room out with the very cloying bag change smell. Two bathrooms cures that worry.
The Ostomy room sprays, the ones designed specifically for stoma owning are very good though. Well worth buying in the UK if the NHS won’t supply them. I used to get my room sprays free, but cut backs mean I have to pay for them. But I would say they are well worth the money.
The Ostomy room sprays cope far better with the smell than normal regular room sprays.
I guess having a stoma could put a lot of people off staying in hotels. I understand that. I appreciate I have it easy because I have a colostomy, which is a thicker, firmer output. I have never had a night time bag leak.
I know ileostmies have a tendency to do so if you have a high output. Which does add a sense of peril to nights away from home.
The pouch content firming products might be a way to give a bit more confidence in your appliance. Morform is great. Other makes are available. :)
We stared at the view for ages. Overlooking the river into central London is a perfect location.
St. Paul’s in one direction, and the glorious Savoy in the other.
Sea Containers, is a very cool and modern hotel. It’s not my usual choice for a 5 star hotel, but as we can’t go abroad, we decided to try out many and varied hotels in the UK.
My taste is not rooted in modern. But I appreciated it for what it is. It’s a great place to stay south of the river.
Chris booked us into a restaurant he has been to a few times for business lunches on The South Bank.
I’d not been before but it was very nice.
I chose my outfit based on my rather wider than normal shoe fitting. Louboutin were definitely off the menu.
The restaurant was fantastic. The walk there due to a lack of cabs was less so. But we decided the 0.75 of a mile trek back to the hotel after wasn’t worth it. So we booked our first ever Uber! Hahahahaha
I know! We’re so modern and up with the times. I was a very impressed. Probably mainly because I didn’t want to walk. But it was a great service. I’m not going to go overboard though, I appreciate I’m a bit late to the catching an Uber game and therefore don’t really need to sell it to you. Hahahahaha
I still prefer black cabs, but Uber is perfectly useable. :)
We had a fabulous night out. I’m very lucky because I have a husband that’s not particularly into watching sports on TV. So although England were playing we were out dining in a beautiful restaurant, enjoying each other’s company. With other obviously like minded ladies and gentlemen.
We’re a bit the same like that really, we’ll go to watch anything sports wise in person, live, and very much enjoy it. But no interest in watching any of it on the telly. I couldn’t be more grateful. :)
We headed back to the hotel with full tummies and happy hearts.
Am I disappointed that the UK government have grounded us and won’t let us leave? Yes!
Do weekends away salve that said disappointment?Absolutly yes!
The room’s breakfast was described as a “grab bag” to the room. We had no idea what this actually entailed, but we decided that we’d eat what we fancied from that then go down to the restaurant for brekkie.
Well, it turns out, we love “grab bags”. I went to the front door to get it, not having high hopes. But it was bloody delicious!
Two fresh made croissants, two fresh made pan au chocolat. Yoghurt with granola and fruit, fresh squeezed orange juice and an apple each.
I am a big fan of proper croissants. They taste of France in a way that the super market ones don’t.
Croissants in bed is the height of hedonism and decadence…I can’t imagine anyone is doing that at home! The crumbs! Oh the crumbs!
I love breakfast in bed in theory, I don’t love it so much at home in practice.
We abandoned the going down to breakfast bit. There was absolutely no need.
We arrived a bit early to meet our friends at a little Italian restaurant Ben and Kaitlyn had discovered and recommended.
So Chris said let’s go for a walk. It’s not a part of London I know well, but we ended up in a bit I know very well. Hatton Garden, the jewellery capital of the city. I love a good window shop down there. I am - part woman, part magpie. I can while away endless time perusing the sparkly windowed shops there.
I saw a ring I liked and Chris said “well try it on then”. So we did. I was at this point just window shopping and time wasting till it was time to meet our friends for lunch.
Chris apparently had different plans as he told the shop assistant that we’d take it!! WTF?!? I was just playing dress up with it.
I said a few weeks back that the secret to a happy marriage is to not marry a dickhead to start with, but I will also add, marry someone that can still shock and awe you 27 years into it!
It’s only a little ring, but it means a lot. Apparently I was bought it for being supportive and understanding while he’s been focused on work.
Well if I known I’d get presents for that, I’d have been the most supportive wife there ever was! Hahahahaha
I was so shocked. Like, really really shocked. I felt very appreciated too. He’s a gooden that husband of mine, I really like him. :)
We then dashed off to meet up with James and Tanya. We had arranged the date as a picnic. But the weather was predicted to be grim so we booked an indoors eatery.
The food was good. The company was better. We love spending time with them. When you’ve known someone for 20 odd years you tend to enjoy their company, or you probably wouldn’t still be friends over 20 years later. ;)
We had a wonderful catch up. And food. Two of my favourite hobbies. :)
A slow mooch round London followed, ending up in F&M, where Chris and James partook in their second dessert of the day.
I’d already desserted at Faro, the Italian we had lunch at so I sat this one out.
On Wednesday, sitting in A&E I missed dinner time. When I got out of there it was far too late to eat. I kept saying to Chris on the way home and the following day too, “I missed a meal and I really miss it”.
Now, thinking back to the cafe at Fortnums I keep moaning I missed a dessert. They looked amazing, and huge!
I think it’s safe to say these are rare occasion for me to miss a meal. Hahahahaha
Sunday was Father’s Day. I made Chris have a lie in. Not sure if he was that keen but I insisted that is what happens on Father’s Day.
I had bought all the food for the day a few days prior. Breakfast was a roaring success.
Ben joined us in person and Sam and Zak via FaceTime.
Our greatest achievement in this life has been to raise the most incredible young men. They are without a doubt amazing. With what they’ve both been through in their lives, and to be as grounded and as fun and genuinely good people, as they are is testament to how incredibly strong and brave they are.
We are both so proud of them. :)
Breakfast was great… Lunch was a bit of a disappointment.
I scaped the table, but I fell short on the food. Which is me all over to be honest.
As I was still hobbling about at the time I bought the food. I thought Tapas would be nice, easy and something a bit different. We’ve never had tapas before. It’s not our go to food.
Well I stocked up on all M&S’s tapas, only for us to find the reason we don’t go to it, is because we don’t like it.
A dismal failure, but the table looked beautifully Mediterranean, even if the weather was choosing not to be.
My scaping has gone to new dizzying heights, Sam and Milly bought me a book for my birthday, which was fantastic, but it’s really piqued my interest even more, so I bought another book and now have a designated Scaping station.
I can now grab what I need rather than have it spread all over the house.
I have got some great ideas in the pipeline. :)
Not all of it world fit on the shelf, but at least the majority of it is in one place.
The scaping game is strong in this one…
Keep well. Stay safe.
*We’re having Junemas this weekend. We missed out Christmas with the family. We sacrificed being together in the name of keeping each other safe.
I’ve said it many times before, I didn’t want to catch Covid (which I didn’t, so yay me) but more than anything I didn’t want to pass it to anyone. I couldn’t have lived with it if I had unintentionally harmed someone.
So Christmas we were alone and it was horrible. I was very sad. And cried most of the time. It was not a happy Christmas, but it was the right Christmas for us, it was also legally all we were allowed too.
So I said let’s celebrate it at a later date. And June 25th and 26th seemed the perfect antidote to a rotten December Christmas, and smack bang in the middle of the year.
So here we are at Junemas! It’s a thing. Google it.
Some of us are getting together for the 25th and then all of us getting together on Saturday 26th June, which is fake Boxing Day.
Which also happens to be my favourite meal of the year. Cold meat, mashed potatoes and pickles. It’s actually a very summery meal if you think about it, we served it for our marriage vow renewal 10 years ago, and that was in July. :)
I wish you a very happy Junemas! :)
xx