Yesterday was my Sophie's birthday. She was at Mudlarks Cafe for the day (well until 3 o'clock) Mudlarks is a vegan cafe in town and they do a lot of work with young people with special needs. Sophie attends every Tuesday with a staff member from the local collage. She serves, cleans and even takes the money they are all very pleased with her and she has always wanted to work in catering. She does the same on a Wednesday at a local hospital... again with a support worker. She love it and maybe one day will be able to work independently?
While there I had time to make her a almond and chocolate Birthday cake. Plus, as I had now somehow made my computer work with my Cricut machine Amy and I used it to make her birthday cards. We just about finished everything before she got home just after three. Mum and dad came round for cards, presents and Sophie's dinner choice Cornish Pasties made by my mum. Another labour of love as these are very fiddly and take her most of the day just to make five. Yet again no time for dolls of the plastic kind as the human one took priority LOL. Not sure if I will be able to post tomorrow as dad is having heart surgery...although I might be so bored I drive you nuts with numerous posts while we wait. I tell you one thing I'm not looking forward to tomorrow, it will be a long one too as dad needs to be at the hospital by 8:00am so we will need to leave at 6:30am!  |
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So I missed out yesterday as we spent the day at the hospital with my dad. Up at 5:30 so we could be there by 8:00. Booked dad in and nurse had some daft idea we was going to dump him and leave... so put her right on that one LOL. We did leave dad while he was having blood test etc and went for breakfast in the hospital restaurant. Restaurant is mediocre at best but the croissants were warm and the water hot even if they did not sell Earl Grey tea (who in this day and age does not sell Earl Grey tea?)I did know they didn't sell it from last time so we had our own supply with us. Then a walk into the village to get a newspaper as the shop on site did not open until 10:00. It's a quaint village with this little road of cafe's, undertakers (2 in one village), pet groomers, and a couple of beauty shops plus a mini-mart. Oh, a very large shop selling fishing stuff? Anyway we went back and we took dad a paper. He could not make his ipad work as he needed to log in to the hospital wifi. So I fixed that for him and then we left him to it for a while.
They had a pavilion restaurant run by hospital volunteers... for some reason I thought if you volunteered you was somehow a nice polite sort of person WRONG! I asked if they had Earl Grey tea (back to that again) and she said they did so I asked for three cups. Before I could say anything she slopped milk into three cups along with the teabags and a woosh of hot water. At the same time screaming at the (2) people behind us that they would have to wait as she was on her own! Funny thing was I was sure there was a another woman standing there? Maybe she was a ghost of volunteers past? Anyway I said we did not want milk so she wooshed the cups along the counter and started again. We pointed out that most people who drink Earl Grey do not take milk "well how would I know that?" she screeched! We decided as we did not want to wear our teas that we would say nothing. After tea and a read of newspaper and fiddle with ipads mum fancied a couple of slices of toast. Having ordered to toast she was told by Ms Screech that she would call when it was ready. A couple of minutes later "TOAST"we yelled across the room. When mum went to collect it it had spread on it(mum does not like spread only butter) Ms Screech was informed and toast landed in the sink!!!! More toast was made and butter supplied. Once Ms Screech had finished her shift were noted that others ordering toast were given theirs with butter on the side and even a serviette!!! boredom was setting in so we went for another walk into the village this time purchasing five delicious looking rock cakes. Back at the pavilion and the nice ladies behind the counter supplied four cups of Earl Grey tea with no milk. I was phoning through to the ward every 30 minutes dad was due to go down at 12 but did not go until 2 due to an emergency. The weather having been cloudy in the morning was lovely and warm so it was off for yet another walk this time around the hospital grounds. A brief history of Harefield Hospital. Harefield Hospital was established in 1915 in Harefield Park, an estate owned by the Billiard-Leake family. They offered it as a hospital to the Ministry of Defence of New South Wales to treat soldiers from Australia who had been injured at Gallipoli and on the Western Front. Harefield Hospital has evolved from a war hospital to a tuberculosis hospital and then to a centre of excellence for transplants and the treatment of heart and lung disease. The hospital began life as series of wooden shacks intended as a temporary convalescent centre during World War I. The present hospital was opened on 8 October 1937 by the Duke of Gloucester, with many of the wards featuring large open areas to give patients access to the fresh air. Amongst the hospital's roll call of distinguished cardiologists were Paul Wood and Walter Somerville. Arguably, the hospital's most famous surgeon was Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub, who performed the UK's first heart and lung transplant at Harefield in 1983. Under the leadership of Sir Magdi Yacoub, the Harefield Hospital transplant programme had begun in 1980 and by the end of the decade he and his team had performed one thousand of the procedures, while the hospital had become the leading UK transplant centre. During this period there was an increase in post-operative survival rates, a reduction in the recovery periods spent in isolation. Today, the hospital advertises as being "one of the largest and most experienced centres in the world for heart and lung transplants" and having "jointly pioneered work in the development of 'artificial hearts' (also known as left ventricular assist devices or LVADs)". The grounds of the hospital also house the Harefield Heart Science Centre, where research is performed into the causes and treatments of heart disease. In a January 2008 the trust announced that Harefield Hospital had become the leader in the south east of England for treating acute heart attack patients with primary angioplasty and coronary stent insertion to reduce the length of hospital stays. So you can see why I wanted my dad to go to Harefield and not one of our not very good local hospitals. After a walk around it started to rain by now it was 3:30 visiting time so even though dad was not due back to the ward yet we decided to make our way back and wait for him. As it happened dad was back and asking for a cup of tea (not Earl Grey and he has MILK LOL) He was looking better than he had in a long time ... very strange as other than shooting him with dye through his main artery in his arm they had done nothing as all was working OK. We think it could be the pink soap he used for a shower before his procedure? Had a nice chat with the doctor (poor guy was terrified of me and kept backing away) I thought at one point he was going to end up in the Gents toilet!!! He said dads heart was working fine but was worried about his HIGH blood pressure, this was odd as last time it was very low?? So dad is OK but still no answer as to why his blood pressure is high/low! I wont go into the details of my conversation with the doctor but as I said he did try and back up into the toilet. THEN they told us dad could go home but he need a ribbon test, this could be fixed to him at the hospital and after he has worn it for 24 hours it must be returned by post asap. They would then read the 'ribbon' and decide if a pacemaker is required. By now it was 4:28 and the lab closed at 4:30 Humm??? Anyway a nurse phoned the lab and somehow talked someone into staying late and doing it. Few! Next up we had to wait for this blow up tourniquet thing on dads wrist to be deflated at 2ml a time from 13ml this can only be done every half hour! The tourniquet is so he does not bleed to death as he has a whole in his artery. By eight o'clock that evening he was all done and we could at last go home. M25 (motorway) is always bad and it can take up to two hours from Harefield to home but the road was strangely quite and we arrived home exhausted within an hour...then it was straight to bed. Today I rest and tomorrow I play with my dolls (I hope) |
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Yesterday was lovely and quiet did not get up until 10:30 then as I was laying on my bed chatting to a friend on the phone the bedroom door opposite flew open and all hell let loose. I have eight cats and one Ashley HATES and I mean want's to kill HATES my baby Belles Izzibelle and even more so Anibelle. Anyway the belles live for the most part at night in Sophie's room and by day in my room. Ani will go out very occasionally but Izzy wont! Anyway Ani and Ashley were playing 'kill the cat' under the door when the door opened (no idea if it was not closed or if a cat got it open but it opened) It was just a good job I was still in my room or I think I would have had a very poorly cat (or two) so all I could see was a screaming ball like a football (soccer ball) after all they are both black and white. Jumping up I risked my life (well hand) and plunged it in the middle prying the two screeching cats apart,I scooped up Ani and pushed Ashley with my foot out of the door calling for one of my girls to lock Ashley in my bedroom. All was well and fur worked as a protection on both cats....me? Well I was OK I thought until I went to leave Sophie's room and wondered what the warm wet sensation was on my foot? Looking down on a small pool of blood I realised my toe had been lacerated! It's fine now.
Rest of day was OK and I even got a little doll time
Cabot Clark
Don't you love the bag of goodies he came with? Not had chance to take pictures yet but will for tomorrow.
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