It all happened at once

Hi everyone

Just to let you know that I have been a bit quiet with blogging for a while because a lot has happened at once. (Well over a few days, one after each other.)

I am currently signed off work until the end of the week with a chest infection. I am on 1000mgs of antibiotics a day and they make me drowsy, dopey, feel sick, feel dizzy and give me stomach pains. I have got some anti-sickness tablets that are helping a bit.

Last week, on Wed 16th of October, I spoke to my mum on the phone and she was clearly not with it and very ill. She saw a doctor and he gave her antibiotics and anti-sickness tablets but told her not to take the antibiotics until she was eating again but she was too sick to eat much at all.

On Thursday 17th of October, I went to a meeting with my Grandma’s care home Manager about the poor care that she has been receiving. My dad had to be there too for legal reasons. His idea of what needs to be done to improve the care in the home and mine are sometimes not the same so the meeting was a bit stressful. I was glad that I stuck up for my Grandma’s rights. We have a special bond and if I didn’t try to improve the quality of her life whilst she is still alive, then I would never forgive myself.

Work in my day job was very stressful last week because there were two different customer issues that needed to be resolved. One of these issues went on for 4 days and the other became bigger. I am pleased to say that none of these issues were through any fault of mine. I was trying to get them resolved for the customer but both were beyond my control for resolution. I had to wait for the relevant managers to taken action and keep the customers happy in the meantime. It was hard work.

After work on Friday 18th October, I spoke to my mum on the phone. My mum had seen a doctor at home and had been told to go immediately to Torbay hospital in Torquay. I arranged to stay at my friend’s house in Torquay that night and by the time I got to the hospital it was almost midnight. I took the latest train as I had to clean, feed and settle my guineapigs for the night. I had never left them on their own overnight before.

My mum has a rare eye condition that affects her kidneys and at that point they thought it was a kidney infection.

My mum was on a drip and exhausted, I stayed briefly to check she was okay and I told her that I loved her. The receptionist said the consultant would be coming to see her the next morning some time between 8am and 10am.

I stayed over my friend’s house and had about 3 and a half hours sleep.

I headed back to the hospital on Saturday 19th of October to see what the consultant had to say. He said she had pneumonia. Me and my mum were a bit shocked.

I had taken the day off work to spend it with my mum and later she told me to see a Devon Doctor on call whilst at the hospital about my chest infection. It was a good sign that my mum was telling me what I should do. He tested my chest, diagnosed me with a chest infection and prescribed me 1000mgs a day of Clarithromycin antibiotics. Which is the maximum dose for severe infections. I had these antibiotics earlier this year for a severe chest infection but the 500mgs a day didn’t work and only double that dose would work. The side-effects are too bad to work with.

When I got home on Saturday night after seeing my mum at the hospital all day, the right side of Cinnamon’s face was swollen up like a tennis ball. I phoned the emergency vets and took him straight to the vets in a taxi. The vet said he had an abscess and they could operate and drain it or I could wait until Monday to see my own vet. After Peaches’s sudden death, there was no way I was going to risk it and so he had surgery that night. The vet phoned me to say he had come through the anaethetic okay and to collect him tomorrow.

I ate a late meal then checked Daisy, just to make sure she was okay. I found two lumps on her stomach. I phoned the emergency vets and they said if she is eating and drinking then not to worry at the moment and to see my vet on Monday.

The next morning, Sunday 20th October, I called into work sick with my chest infection. I found a third lump on Daisy’s tummy and she hadn’t eaten or drunk hardly anything all night. I phoned the emergency vets and took her in. He couldn’t find any mites and he said he believes that they are fatty tissues and nothing to worry about it but to take her to see my own vet when I take Cinnamon at the end of the week for his check-up. They gave Cinnamon back to me to take home with Daisy. They asked me to syringe feed Cinnamon for the next 24hrs until he is eating all of his own foods again. He ate it from the syringe for them, but not for me. He hated it. Luckily he was eating his own foods almost straight away so I didn’t have to syringe feed him as often as every 2 hours. Daisy started eating too. The vet had concluded that Daisy must have been off her food and drink because she was pining for Cinnamon.

To cut an even longer story short. My mum is out of the hospital but still not well and my dad is cooking and cleaning for her. She had to come off one lot of tablets because they were making her have severe hallucinations and she phoned me up terrified. Without going into all of the details, she was seeing a younger version of me whilst I was talking to her on the phone. There was worse but I will leave it at that. The only trouble is, those tablets were the ones that I have to take for my chest infection. Although they gave her a higher than normal dose of 1500mgs. Without leaving an 8 hour gap in between tablets. My mum is worried about me still taking them.

I am drowsy from those antibiotics that I am taking. I finish taking them on Saturday night. The anti-sickness tablets that I am taking are for dizziness too. These also make me drowsy. Apologies if there are any mistakes in this post because I am really not with it.

Cinnamon, Daisy and Snuggles are all off to the vets tomorrow at 4.15pm to be checked over. Snuggles has been doing some face twitching and going on her side a little. It could be her heart and lung condition.

If I am well enough, I have to go to the hospital for a chest x-ray on Friday morning. There is no appointment, I have to go to the x-ray department with my doctor’s authorisation form, between 8am and 4pm and wait.

Apologies for the longer than usual post but I wanted you to know why I am not able to blog as much at the moment or interact as much on social media.

To look at the positive, I am blessed that my chest infection was diagnosed on the same day as Cinnamon had to have surgery because I need to be at home to look after him and give him his antibiotics.

Thanks for sticking with me. I am blessed to have such supportive and loyal blogger friends.

Write as soon as I am able to.

Sandra