I’m writing this on the day that England beat Australia in the FIFA World Cup semifinal. It was an exciting match and I’m still on a high from it.
For those who don’t know me so well, I’m a football nut. Every time I visit a country I pick up the National football shirt. Then when it’s the Euros or World Cup I can wear whichever shirt takes my fancy and enjoy the competition.
I’ve recently come back from a trip to Ireland. My oldest and youngest grandchild flew out and joined us for a week. We made the most of it but it was a challenging break. The weather was awful. I’ve been there in mid winter and had better weather. I managed to get the kids to the beach on the last full day they were there. We were all in coats and wellies. They had fun scrambling over the rock pools.
Another thing that went wrong is that I finally picked up covid. I’ve not had it up till now. The medics were all very surprised by this. It’s bloody typical when I’m up in the mountains of Kerry and the nearest hospital with a haematology unit is 2 hours away. Before I travelled to Ireland last October which was my first trip out in over 3 years, I made contact with the Irish cancer services and Cork University hospital. That stood me in good stead. I rang and spoke to one of the haematology registrars. He was so helpful. He rang Kings and spoke to my team in London. Then he sent a prescription for the specialist medication that clinically extremely vulnerable people need to the village pharmacy. The woman who works there and happens to be our nearest neighbour, brought the medication up to me. What a fantastic service and very quick too in getting me the needed medication.
Maggie and Sönke had it too. They spent a day in bed. I looked after the kids and made them laugh in my attempts to cook for them. Sönke asked me if I was bionic because I just got on with it. I told him I was used to feeling ill. That makes it easier for me to push on. Also I think the Paxlovid medication helped. After finishing the medication I tested negative. Then a couple of days later I started to feel rough again and sure enough was positive once more. It’s called rebound and can happen to those who are immunocompromised. Maggie and Sönke are clear now but 3 weeks on and I still have it.
Kings saw me yesterday and told me they want to see me once a week until I test negative. Today I’ve started to cough more and have a tight chest again. I shall keep an eye on what’s happening and get back in touch with Kings if I get any worse.
In many respects I’m glad it’s finally happened. It’s good that I initially responded well to treatment. I hope it means that my poor long suffering family can stop being so anxious. I will still be careful as advised but not so isolated and cut off from everyone and everything. I need to get back to some semblance of normality. It’s been awful feeling so cut off from the world.
One of the silver linings to all of this is that, despite being in the same house as 3 positive adults, they didn’t get it. It was so lovely to be able to hug them again. That Kerry airport hug bas they left to go home will stay with me forever. Can’t wait to start hugging more people.
If the weather and covid wasn’t enough to dampen our spirits in Ireland, we also had a problem with the water that stopped working and bees in the dormer.
I still have happy memories of playing games with the kids. Pass the Pigs, Yahtzee and Jenga were the favourites. Molly loved going out wearing my wellies which fitted her perfectly. We went on a wander to the “Bat house” It showed me how poorly served disabled people are who want to be more active and out and about. I got shaken to death. Lol. The kids thought it was funny. I really need an all terrain scooter that can get me out and about. The problem is it needs to break down into the car. Also the ones that do this are very expensive. I shall have to remortgage the house. I may say this in jest but it’s a serious issue that disabled people can only do normal things if they can afford it. It’s not right is it?
Enough of my ranting. At least while I’m recovering from the covid fallout I have plenty of good football to watch. I’m looking forward to Sunday when I hope we will be bringing it home.
