Up The Farway Tree

It's nearly 2 weeks since I got home and I'm now more or less feeling back to normal. I even felt well enough yesterday to venture out with Seb for the first time in weeks. It was very showery, so I bided my time waiting for a sunny interval, and when the sun did eventually put in an appearance I quickly ushered Seb out the door. We had only gone 10 yards down the road when the sky became dark and brooding, the wind whipped up from nowhere and then the heavens opened. Seb continued to prance along merrily, seemingly oblivious to the deluge of rain which poured upon him. On the other hand, I was far from prancing and definitely not merry. I battled with the umbrella in slightly comical way as it resisted my efforts strongly, before defiantly blowing inside out and rendering itself utterly useless. Luckily I did have a little hood on my coat so I battled on and braved the elements. Obviously I could have just turned back at this point (only being 2 doors down from my house) and this would have been the sensible and, dare I say, 'normal' thing to do. If however you have ever seen Seb prancing, and even more important, doing so merrily, you wouldn't be able to turn back either. He would have been so upset. After all, a little rain never hurt anyone. Did it?

15 mins later we arrived back home, both absolutely drenched; me puffing and panting, and Seb still prancing away merrily. I stared at this muddy, wet and rat-like creature. Then I stopped looking at myself in the mirror and marched Seb right upstairs and straight into the bath. Now to let you understand, bathing Seb is normally a two person process. One to hold him in the bath, and the other to hold the shower spray and shampoo his coat. Obviously I do not have 4 arms, so what ensued proved to be an interesting act of contortion, a battle of wills and another good soaking for the pair of us. Holding him in the bath with one hand, I managed to hold the shower head with the other, and spray his coat, the shower screen, the wall and my eye. Momentarily blinded, I nearly didn't notice him trying to climb out the bath. Caught just in time he was held firmly back down and shampoo applied. He then proceeded to make things even more awkward my squinting his head backwards and trying to drink from the shower spray, managing to nearly choke himself in the process, as I would suggest that drinking with your head upside down is not advised. On eventually getting him out of the bath, he was so exhilarated by the whole process that he dived about wildly in the hall for a while, dragging the wet towels back and forth in a vain attempt to get me to chase him. As I was simply ignoring this behaviour, he then dived back into the bathroom and grabbed the toilet roll off the holder, sprinting down the hallway like the Andrex puppy. Seemingly he thinks he could have a career in TV. I personally think he is more destined for the stage. Little prima donna that he is.

The other thing to report on, is that I did eventually phone the hospital about the pain at my peg tube site. This decision was made at the weekend when I went to one of those retail parks with Andrew to get a couple of things for the house. After successful getting what we needed, Andrew then tells me he wanted to look in B+Q for something. By this point my peg tube was so painful I could hardly stand, never mind walk, so I said I would just wait in the car. And wait I did. I waited very patiently; first reading all the messages in my mobile inbox, then the ones in the outbox, before finally sending some new ones. Finally he arrived back, looking very pleased with himself and carrying a suspiciously large box.

Yes, we are now the proud new owners of what is essentially a giant hoover for the garden. Clearly we needed a hoover. It is obvious that we live in an orchard, surrounded by trees just ready to drop all their leaves and litter our garden. Come the autumn, we shall not be able to see the grass, and may be in danger of losing the dog under a blanket of soggy foliage. Sadly, this is not the case. We have in fact one tree, and half of that hangs over the back fence into someone else's garden. Andrew insisted however that we also required the 'blowing function' so that he could blow grass cuttings off the decorative stones. Obviously.

So off he goes into the garden carrying this beast of a machine. It is in fact so large, that it requires to be held by its sturdy carrying handle, and balanced underneath by a wheel, as its too heavy to be simply carried around. To help you understand the power of this instrument, I will tell you that Andrew would not let the dog into the garden " because he will come to investigate and what if I 'sook' him up". Good God. So there he was going up and down the lawn, hoovering away and blowing things about. When he comes in I enquire about the success of the new toy, only to be informed "well the hoover bit is ok, but I don't think much of the blowing bit...I think maybe I should have got the 'turbo' version". Really?? The turbo version? How about the version that has a long handle and metal prongs. I think its called a rake. Apparently they are good for clearing leaves. Or so I've heard.

Anyway I totally digressed there. I was saying how I decided to see someone about my peg (just got caught up in that story for a second). I saw the nurse who specialises in peg tubes, who told me the tube itself was in good working order and there was no evidence of infection. I then saw the doctor, who felt it was more likely to be a problem in the muscle and he thinks because I have been actually eating recently, the muscle is just being stretched more. The upshot was that I have some more tablets to take, and these seem to be helping. Thank goodness. While I'm on the topic of weight I'm pleased to report that I've gained a kilo in the last couple of weeks. I'm also pleased to report that last night, for the first time in months, I actually felt hungry. Embarrassingly enough I didn't actually recognise what it was and told Andrew I had " a weird gnawing sensation in the pit of my stomach", to which he replied "would you like some supper?" I had it again this morning, and you have no idea how exiting it is to actually want to eat something. Sad I know. To monitor the process I have also indulged in a set of digital scales. They come with the offer of 2 free issues of Weight Watchers magazine. How ironic.