[Chirley]

Hi everyone,

I've been in hospital for a few days, had my 5 units of blood and had a blood stream infection treated. Now I feel great. Oddly enough I didn't get high fevers with the infection. Just my usual grumbling low grade one that I get every few days anyway.

The Department of Roadworks from the Council were very apologetic that my neighbours and I weren't notified about the roadworks. They phoned me twice just to make sure that everything was forgiven. They have come back and resurfaced the road with new bitumen (at night again) but I was in hospital so it wasn't a problem for me. This time they did leave a letter in the mailbox to advise us that the work was going to happen.

My doctor says that I cope with 5 units of blood so well that next time he is going to give me 6. Here I was hoping to have less blood more often and here he is increasing the amount of blood. The only good thing about all this is that the nursing staff and meal ladies etc know me very well now. They are just so lovely. The Nurse Unit Manager of the ward I go to tries very hard to make sure I get a private room. I have told her that I'm happy with whatever is available but she still gives me preference. The nutitionist that comes around with the menus always writes on my dinner menu that I can have a glass of wine. The nurses now trust me to keep an eye on my own imed drip machine and fix things if they beep. I only call them if they need to change a bag of fluid or antibiotics or blood has finished.

On a down note. I finished my book yesterday. I was not warned that the book Marley and Me would make me cry. I had just finished reading the book and was blubbering like a baby when my doctor walked in. Talk about embarrassing. When he found out it was the book making me cry he laughed at me. The book made me want to go home to my dogs so badly that I was up, showered, dressed and packed by 6am today and then my doctor was late. I was pacing around the ward annoying the nurses, so they rang him and asked him to come and discharge me. I rushed home and hugged my dogs, I think they were as happy to see me as I was to see them. Unfortunatley, I can't find my cat. My cat, Betty, has never been missing before and it's a bit of a worry. I hope she comes home soon.

Sorry to bore you with my story but I'm just really pleased to be home and feeling well.

Wishing the same for all of you.

Chirley