A VERY BELATED UPDATE - TO LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING
Hello again dear reader, and welcome back to my blog.
Stardate, Monday, 23rd March 2020.
Well, what has happened in the past 14 months, I hear you ask. In truth, not very much in relation to Janet and her recovery from her stroke of 21 months ago. Really!! 21 months??
I have been quite tardy in updating this blog, diary or whatever it is meant to be.
Anyway, Janet has been at the doctor very regularly, had her painkillers changed, had blood tests and has had regular bouts of physiotherapy, both at the Borders General Hospital and more recently at the local community hospital here in Peebles.
The upshot is that she still has severe pain in her right side, arm, hand and leg and although she is still mobile and able to walk down to the local shops, she feels that over the past year or so, the pain has actually got worse and that this has changed her mentally as well as physically. She hardly ever gets a good night's sleep, but ironically, over the past few months, she has stopped taking a nap or rest after lunch.
We did visit the Borders General Hospital back in November, where Janet was seen and examined by two neurologists - and their thoughts on the best way forward was for Janet to have an injection in her neck, which - hopefully - would work its way down her arm to her hand and help alleviate the chronic pain. Alas, we are now 4 months down the road from there, and despite her GP twice chasing this matter up, Janet still waits to hear about an appointment to administer the said injection.
As mentioned, Janet is on a couple of painkillers, but is also using a gel which is meant to dull the pain, liquid morphine and more recently anti-depressants.
Well, we do have that in common, as I have also been on anti-depressants since last August. Certainly dulls the senses a bit and makes me feel more tired than normal I think.
And now, just to compound matters, the world is seeing COVID-19, which has created havoc world-wide since the start of this year and has been present in the UK, for the past 8 weeks or so. This COVID-19, more commonly known just now as the CORONAVIRUS, is a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways, brought about by this virus, which started off in the Wuhan province of China in November last year.
The World Health Organisation pronounced this to be a PANDEMIC about 3 weeks ago, and numbers wise worldwide, we are currently at the following stage:
No one has ever encountered anything like this in their lifetime (unless they were old enough to have lived through the Second World War) and it's all very stressful and, to be honest, scary!
The next post will not be left so long, hopefully.
That is my update for now. Over and out.
Stardate, Monday, 23rd March 2020.
Well, what has happened in the past 14 months, I hear you ask. In truth, not very much in relation to Janet and her recovery from her stroke of 21 months ago. Really!! 21 months??
I have been quite tardy in updating this blog, diary or whatever it is meant to be.
Anyway, Janet has been at the doctor very regularly, had her painkillers changed, had blood tests and has had regular bouts of physiotherapy, both at the Borders General Hospital and more recently at the local community hospital here in Peebles.
The upshot is that she still has severe pain in her right side, arm, hand and leg and although she is still mobile and able to walk down to the local shops, she feels that over the past year or so, the pain has actually got worse and that this has changed her mentally as well as physically. She hardly ever gets a good night's sleep, but ironically, over the past few months, she has stopped taking a nap or rest after lunch.
We did visit the Borders General Hospital back in November, where Janet was seen and examined by two neurologists - and their thoughts on the best way forward was for Janet to have an injection in her neck, which - hopefully - would work its way down her arm to her hand and help alleviate the chronic pain. Alas, we are now 4 months down the road from there, and despite her GP twice chasing this matter up, Janet still waits to hear about an appointment to administer the said injection.
As mentioned, Janet is on a couple of painkillers, but is also using a gel which is meant to dull the pain, liquid morphine and more recently anti-depressants.
Well, we do have that in common, as I have also been on anti-depressants since last August. Certainly dulls the senses a bit and makes me feel more tired than normal I think.
And now, just to compound matters, the world is seeing COVID-19, which has created havoc world-wide since the start of this year and has been present in the UK, for the past 8 weeks or so. This COVID-19, more commonly known just now as the CORONAVIRUS, is a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways, brought about by this virus, which started off in the Wuhan province of China in November last year.
The World Health Organisation pronounced this to be a PANDEMIC about 3 weeks ago, and numbers wise worldwide, we are currently at the following stage:
- 372,634 cases
- 16,314 deaths (including 6,077 in Italy and 2,207 in Spain)
The UK has reacted slowly to this crisis, but as I write, we are in the process of a total lockdown - i.e. all schools, hotels, pubs, restaurants and leisure facilities had been ordered to close with effect from last weekend. And now we are told that all non-essential shops are to be closed, which will leave only supermarkets and chemists open. Also, for the past 3 weeks, there has been panic buying from all supermarkets and this has caused huge shortages in all kinds of food and (unbelievably) toilet rolls! No-one know why this latter item is sold out, as the virus does not cause diarrhoea, or similar. And all online shopping with supermarkets is not possible as they have no shopping delivery slots available, until at least June / July!!
Everyone has to self isolate for the foreseeable future and over 70's are to stay indoors for 12 weeks! Anyone who does go outdoors for a brief walk or to shop for food, must ensure they are at least 2 metres away from any other person.
The UK has had currently 6,650 people who have tested positive for coronavirus and the death toll stands at 335.
No one has ever encountered anything like this in their lifetime (unless they were old enough to have lived through the Second World War) and it's all very stressful and, to be honest, scary!
The next post will not be left so long, hopefully.
That is my update for now. Over and out.
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