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Barmy Blue's Bland Blog

One Way or Another

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So tomorrow's the surgery.
But before that I never told you how it ended.
Yes. I did have covid too. I mean it was pretty obvious but it is ever so slightly possible that I might have just had a bad cold while Mum did have covid but highly unlikely. I did a test a couple of days after mum went back to work. I was feeling better but not normal yet and I mostly did a test because I wanted to have it confirmed. A faint but still existent line. So yeah. I did also have covid. about two days later I did another test and it was clear. We're not completely as we were before. Mum said that a colleague who had it was coughing for weeks despite a clear test. The lateral flow test is just to tell you if you're still infectious it seems but you can still have symptoms for 12 weeks. Any longer than that and it becomes "long covid". So I still have a few symptoms. Mostly it's just an irritated throat that's steadily decreasing in sensitivity. For example if you walk passed a smoker normally you don't cough much or at all. Walking passed one with covid symptoms could start me coughing. Today we passed an ice cream van parking. The exhaust got me but I'm not as quick to cough as I have been. So yeah, that's covid. Did I tell you about the whole to do about getting tests? No. I couldn't have because I wrote before my birthday and Mother's day I think.
Oh well we had covid over Mother's Day which was annoying because had planned to sneak out that morning or the day before and get flowers. I was waiting for the Mother's day flowers to come in on the 25th and then see what they had round the corner. Luckily I had some little somethings last time we went shopping so I could still mark the occasion just not quite as planned. I got a vase because we didn't have one that would accommodate all the daffodils mum gets in spring. It wasn't what I'd planned but it's nice and very spacious compared to our others. I'd planned to put the special flowers in it but never mind. And a murder mystery book I found out existed online and then saw it in store. Perfect. It has a similar style cover to another one she liked, different author but it does say "if you like that one you'll like this one" so hey why not. She didn't know I got it. I'd also debated getting some cupcakes but it would be two days before my birthday and it's generally expected that there be cake so probably not a wise idea. But then of course we got covid. So I presented mum with the vase she already knew she had and a picture of some flowers online and explained the original plan. This was in the early hours after midnight. I saved the surprise book until we went to bed and got up (Yes we go to bed between 3-6am these days). When I get up (she falls asleep downstairs all the time so she doesn't sleep long upstairs and she does the first dog walk so she gets up a few hours before me even when she's not working) I present her with the book. So yeah, we still had a little Mother's day. Actually I might have told you about it.
Then two days later was my birthday and the day after that mum went back to work. She had a very faint line on my birthday so she probably technically shouldn't have been out but she was clear the next day for work. She got me a cake and had ordered some catalogue things for me. Collapsible plant pots and extendable canes for climbers. She apologized for it. No need. These are really nice and I'm keen to get growing things again this year. I have a bunch of seeds I want to try. My throat was still irritated so I worried about eating cake. Just the hint of a crumb might start a coughing fit (I was having mashed Weetabix with honey warmed up for breakfast every day and I have a collection of cup-a-soups I got for emergency food last year so I had those once in a while for lunch. I don't normally do lunch. I also stopped drinking carbonated water, which I always drink, in favour of squash. It was kinder to my throat. My father liked orange squash. That's why we randomly had it. I'd gotten it for the last Christmas he was here. They were out of date by now but never mind, still tasted good. I'm actually still drinking squash. I haven't gone back to my old drinks. I worry the fizzy was giving me excess gas even though I watered it down. I wonder if I've somehow been posessed buy my father's spirit. It's fun flavours of squash though, not just orange. He was just a plain orange man. I have peach and a blueberry one at the moment) Anyway. Cake might upset my throat. I had some little post of flavoured custard I'd recently found. I'd gotten them last year, put them away and forgotten about them so they were a bit out of date. They have warming instructions. So warm custard and chocolate cake. So that's how I ate the cake. Mum had some too.

Getting tests was tricky. It was right before the rules were to change and tests would no longer be free, just a few days in fact. She went to a pharmacy. They didn't have any. So she went looking for tests and found one at a pharmacy further away than she would have liked to have walked. They gave her the tests but insisted that she come back with her phone because she didn't have it with her at the time. She did explain that it's not a smart phone, just a phone. So later she went back with her phone and it's not really what they wanted and gave her a leaflet with a QR code and a website. So I looked it up. You're supposed to go online and order a test then get a collection code then take it to the pharmacy and THEN get a test. So that they can check the test requests. So she HAD to come back with a code for their records, even though some others on their list also hadn't had codes. Sigh. So I go online, get to the government website and it's a form. Unfortunately it's not set up for "I already did a test and have covid so I need another test to see when I'm clear so I can go back to work". It's set up for "what kind of test do you need? Do you have symptoms?" Yes. "If you have symptoms you need a PCR test not a lateral flow test" No. You don't. From what I can see PCR is to make sure you don't have covid and not know it, like going travelling or something, not to check if you're still infectious after the 2 weeks isolation period which is no longer the standard rule anyway because we've just started "opening up" and it's no longer requires but "people should use their common sense etc". Basically for our situation it was useless because we're NOT ordering a test, we already have it and if this collection code is just to track stuff does it really really matter? I reported mum's positive test (I didn't know you needed to do that for the first one so I reported the still technically positive result one day and then the clear one the next day so it would look a bit weird in the system. I didn't report myself purely because I don't go out and interact with other humans and when I do I'm with Mum so we basically count as one person for infectability. Of course I have covid too because we're in the same house. But I'm not going out and putting people at risk just by existing so I thought it would give statistics that don't give the full picture) So in the end we didn't bother going back with a code. I hope that wasn't a huge problem. Why couldn't you have just given her the leaflet in the first place (even though it had literally no information on it save for go to this website) sigh. I asked mum if we hadn't already had a few tests at home already and she'd had to go through all this to get one, would she have done it given that she thought she just had a bad cold and not covid? The answer was no. Think about it. She could have taken covid to work and not known it. The vulnerable are all vaccinated but some of the younger ones think it's all a conspiracy so aren't vaccinated. Is it bad that I kind of hoped those kinds of people would get covid just to see how bad it really is? For me it wasn't. But for others they've really suffered and for people to say it's all a hoax makes me question whether humanity deserves to survive. If you have a GENUINE reason that you can't be vaccinated like allergies or compromised immunity they you are completely exempt from my contempt because you don't have a choice. But it's for those people that those of us who can should be vaccinated. Anyway.
That was how the covid worked out.

In other news.
We have baby foxes in the garden. Little baby foxes. They're so tiny and adorable and already quick at stealing food (it's not really stolen, we give it to them, but they run off with it fast and sneaky). Two baby foxes. An adult watches them. Mum thinks it's Baby Girl all grown up because of a mark on her back. I can't remember it, I just remember she was more shy than Prince from the year before. The garden's VERY overgrown so they hide easily. They're very cute.

Today, walking Yuki, I saw a cat sitting at the edge of the road. I don't know this cat but I've seen it once or twice. Last time I let it sniff some catnip because it was on a wall hissing at Yui. I hoped it wouldn't run into the road as we passed. The people of the house were out front so I couldn't hang around asking it if it wants to be friends (yes I do that kind of thing. I like cats). There was a car stopped further down the road that tooted. I guessed they were waiting for someone. As I got closer I saw something astonishing and hilarious (to me at least). There was a goose in the road blocking the way. At first I wondered if it was a very good fake. Then it moved. Holy crap. WHY IS THERE A GOOSE IN THE ROAD? I kept laughing. Nice goose. It moved a little but came back to the middle again and we were getting close now so I took us into the road to shoo the goose. I think it was more intimidated by the dog than me. It took off running and flapping and took off. A bit low but they're water birds, they can't go from still to up like pigeons. We live near to a little river, no so much that you'd notice but it's there. So although odd it was kind of near to where it should be. The best I can come up with is that it's a young goose and got confused by the reflection of sun on the asphalt and thought it it was water then got confused. I wonder if I did the right thing. The car had a family in it. Surely one of them could have gotten out and shoed it off. They could have been afraid of it. It didn't seem to be hurt because it went off pretty quick. I do wonder if it escaped from a garden and maybe someone was rehabbing it. I doubt it but it is possible. But if that's the case they should've kept a better eye on it and it does need to learn that roads are not to be trifled with. I also wonder if it had a nest nearby maybe. But shouldn't it be closer to the river? Either way don't hang around on roads troublesome goose. It headed roughly toward the river. And I decided to go and look for it which greatly confused Yui. Then I decided to go back home and get mum to have a nice family walk along the river. I went out with her for her night walk (it was actually early morning) before bed during the first lockdown for the exercise and we'd go along the river sometimes. It was much quieter then though. It was a nice day today and people were home from school and work. But it was still a nice walk.
I've been wondering what to do for our last day together. I REALLY hope it's not our last day but the risk of anesthesia on such an old dog. I have to be prepared. I'm trying not to think about it too much. I worried a lot for a week last time and it was fine. But what if it goes bad this time because I didn't worry? Firstly don't be silly and secondly if you have that kind of power over the world then I don't want that responsibility.
I wondered about giving her a special meal but couldn't really think of anything.
She was off her food last week but we happened to go shopping and to the pet store and got her some new treats. She loves these freeze-dried turkey nuggets (it's a food but we give it to her as treats and food) well she did love them. She seemed to go off them. It might have been her teeth hurting but I do wonder if she's bored of the same flavours. The same brand doo beef ones too. She can have beef but it needs to be lean. I doubt it's lean beef but screw it. She might not be alive much longer. She deserves something nice. So I got them and some lamb ones too (they're tiny treats rather than food nuggets). Lamb is a fatty meat so she shouldn't be having it but hey. She does deserve it. I also got sliced turkey meat. I like to tease her with it. You peel off a good sized piece and dangle it over her face to sniff and when she tries to reach for it you pull back a little to tease her. If she doesn't make a move to the meat then you know something's wrong. She was enticed to eat. I call it dangle meat. I also got a pot of "0% fat" goat yogurt because back when the vet said no chicken and low fat foods and I asked how we were supposed to give her her pills (because no peanut butter either, that's how we were doing it before) and she suggested natural yogurt. She's never had yogurt, we managed without it but I wondered if we should try it to make her eat now. She did like milk and cheese before. But we haven't used it because the dangle meat and new treats did the trick. It might be useful when she comes home from the surgery. When I speak of it I prefer to speak of her coming home. I've been taking a few extra pictures and videos. Verbally I say a last video of you with teeth. I don't want to say the last video I'll ever have of you. I am worried. This year seems to be a different year than usual. My father died. We got covid. But to be fair my father was dying anyway and we were going to get covid at some point. I'm just grateful it was now and not earlier. Is just. Is this the year that the things that have built up happen? Well hang on. My father died and we got covid. But would we have got covid now if we hadn't gone to his funeral? Most likely the two are linked and not a wholly separate event. We'll see. Either way she'll be out of pain and that's the most important thing. Because she is in pain. She's clearly in pain. And one way or another it's going to stop.
So Yeah. I just wanted to record this time really.
She's generally well in herself or as well as she can be at least. She's still been doing well with her swimming
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Comments

  1. tailor STATELY's Avatar
    Be safe... be well.

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor STATELY
  2. NikolaiI's Avatar
    Hope you are well always, Bluebird.