News & Updates from Susan Donaghie
The last couple of years have been really tough, won?t bore you with the details, and I decided to get my knitting needles out for the first time in years just to have something to occupy myself. To my amazement I found having something to do with my hands eased the stress and help me to cope.
I didn?t have the necessary concentration for designing, hence the drop in production, but the knitting I could lose myself in. I also joined some local knit & chat groups which gets me out of the house, another plus, but one of the best things is the summerhouse we had put up early this year when the back garden had a major revamp. I love sitting out there in the fresh air with the doors wide open and although the garden faces north the bottom corner is a real sun trap.
I spend hours out there with my knitting and a book leaving himself in sole control of the TV remote lol.
It has become my little retreat away from the computer, the TV and the phone. Forget the Costa del Sol, give me my little summerhouse any day, just hope I don?t get withdrawal symptoms come winter!
Well I, for one, won?t be sorry to see the end of 2012! The year started badly with my husband, Jim (see photo), being seriously ill and off work for 5 months.
He eventually underwent an operation and returned to work in June. It was a very stressful time as can be imagined then just when we thought we could breathe a sigh of relief and get back to normal I had a nasty health shock a few weeks ago. I had noticed a few symptoms and went exploring the internet and as a result I asked Jim to check my blood glucose levels on his monitor - he is type 2 diabetic - he insisted I get an emergency appointment with my GP.
I was sent straight from the surgery to the hospital! There tests confirmed that I had sudden onset type 1 diabetes which is very rare at my age.
My glucose levels were very high and I was started on insulin immediately. It was a tremendous shock and my life seems to have become a constant round of doctors, dieticians and diabetic nurses while my insulin levels are monitored and adjusted.
It is very hard to accept that something as simple as eating has now become a daily balancing act to keep my blood glucose levels within safe limits. Hopefully, as time goes on, I will cope better as I learn and understand more about the disease, but at the moment I still panic if my monitor reading goes up a few points.
One of the most frightening things was developing blurred vision though thankfully that is now improving and I can see to do my designs again. Looks like no boxes of chocolates for me this Christmas, so roll on 2013 and here?s hoping it is an improvement on this year.
At last this week has seen the end of what has been a very difficult year so far.
My husband, Jim, has been off work since 5th January with a very serious ? and extremely painful - health problem, which was made worse by serious breakdowns in communications between the various health professionals themselves, and between them and ourselves.
It is because of this that we are still not sure what was cause and what was effect. It began with what seemed to be a simple urinary tract infection but that escalated to acute urinary retention within 24 hours.
No less than 5 doctors in 5 days (out of hours emergency cover) failed to take appropriate action for what is clearly designated a medical emergency.
Even more so as Jim has a chronic kidney disease.
He was prescribed various antibiotics and painkillers and sent home to give them time to ?kick in? as they termed it. He had no sleep for 5 days and 4 nights and was in constant pain which worsened almost by the hour until he by day 5 he was in agony.
At that point we insisted on intervention and he was eventually catheterised which brought immediate relief. Then began the long saga, which I shall not bore you with, but because Jim has chronic kidney disease there were different specialists involved.
Basically, the urology department weren?t liaising with the renal clinic which led to prescription errors and his GP - who was supposed to be our go between - wasn?t liaising with anyone and none of them were keeping us informed! We were left for over 2 months with absolutely nothing being done before finally having an appointment to see a urology consultant and being put on the waiting list for an operation.
During that time it was impossible for Jim to sit upright for any length of time, or walk or drive the car for any distance due to having an indwelling catheter.
This also cause constant irritation and painful bladder spasms. But at long last he had an operation on Monday, and hallelujah, everything went really well and he is home and getting back to normal.
It was classed as a major operation and he will need 4 - 6 weeks recovery, but it is such a relief to be able to move on at last. With that big worry removed I look forward to being able to concentrate on my designing again.
Do you ever get that sinking feeling when you get back from the supermarket and realise you have forgotten something vitally important?
Of course you do, we all do at times and it happened to me this week.
But I?ll bet with you it isn?t a tub of cheese spread and that is what I was guilty of this week. Why is that so important in our household?
The cats. I made the mistake of putting a little on a saucer when one of them was off their food and now it is a ?must have? daily treat, and woe betide me if it isn?t forthcoming.
No-one, but no-one can do the silent treatment like cats if they don?t get their own way. Talk about sending you on a guilt trip! It was many years ago that I discovered that cats love this product.
One of my favourite snacks was cheese spread on cream crackers and one day I got up to answer the phone leaving my plate of crackers on the coffee table.
I returned to find Whiskey, one of my many cats at that time, licking the spread off the crackers. Thereafter whenever I had cheesy crackers so did Whiskey. Wouldn?t eat it off a saucer though as he liked the crackers as well, so I had to put the spread onto a cracker then cut it into bite sized pieces for him.
Tricky that as the crackers tend to fly all over the place when you break them and you get your fingers dreadfully sticky too. Whiskey was also partial to tea and would go round dipping his paw into the dregs at the bottom of the tea mugs then licking the tea from his paw.
In case anyone doesn?t believe me - look at the pic!
I am sure that many of you have masses of lovely spring daffodils filling your gardens with colour, but this is now my only survivor!
Why?
Thanks to Crunchie and Marmalade aka ?The Kray Twins?, the ginger tabbies from next door. We had planted loads of miniature daffodils to naturalise in the border under the conifer hedge and they were doing well - until the boys decided to start using the border as a lavatory!
The little monsters are quite blatant about it and will watch me through the kitchen window while doing their business. We hadn?t realised until this spring that the bulbs had either been scattered far and wide or buried too deep.
But here is the proof in the picture - one solitary, 6inch high daffodil bravely announcing that spring has arrived. Am I upset about it?
Absolutely not. If it is a choice between cats and flowers then cats win hands down. I was involved in cat rescue for 17 years and had my own feral cat sanctuary for most of that time.
Although I can no longer do that work, we still seem to be a magnet for all the neighbourhood cats! Mind you, that may well be because they come to see if Bertie has left any food in the dishes lol.
Bertie being an enormous black & white stray who decided to move into the back porch about a year ago.
I say ?moved in? but he comes and goes as he pleases.
He has his own bed in the porch where he can get out of any bad weather and there is always dried food there for him.
Pouches of cat food are available on demand, i.e. when he yells at the back door! We also have three indoor cats - Xander, Kerry and Kirsty, though Kirsty has sort of been renamed Dolly Dumpling as she is as broad as she is tall. Oh, did I mention that I am an ardent cat lover lol.