Challenging week

 It has been a challenging week. At the beginning of the week Nicky was still getting worse, so she arranged an appointment with the GP on Tuesday afternoon. The GP confirmed that Nicky had bronchitis and sinusitis, but that her chest sounded clear. With the infection being viral, there was no medication that could be prescribed, but some additional painkillers were in order to manage the symptoms and assist with the pain caused by congestion, coughing and vomiting.

As the week progressed Nicky started to improve slowly. The periods of incessant coughing and coughing induced vomiting started to subside yesterday. She was able get a little more sleep and keep a little more food down. The washing machine has been very busy with regular changes of PJ’s, dressing gowns and bedding. Some of the laundry has been dried outside but the winter weather has deteriorated over the last couple of days.

While Nicky has been unwell she has cancelled all her commitments. I have been running errands and doing the shopping. The grass in the back garden has been cut and I went to the quiz on Wednesday evening. We came 6th with 101 points.

A couple of jigsaws have been completed, and another one started today. We have also been enjoying continuing listening to Stephen Fry narrating the Harry Potter books. We’ll finish listening to the Order of the Phoenix tonight or tomorrow.

During Friday night - Saturday morning Nicky developed a severe pain in the left side of her abdomen. Then, mid morning after a late breakfast she was startled to see blood clots in her vomit. After a call to the Health Line we went off to the Emergency Department at the hospital. We returned home 5 hours later relieved. The chest X-ray was clear and no evidence of anything “bursting” was found. The pain in her abdomen seems to be a strain related to all the coughing and vomiting. The blood probably came from abrasions caused by the same. We thoroughly enjoyed our tea and crumpets after our afternoon in the hospital.

I started to feel unwell with a respiratory infection too on Friday morning. It currently hasn’t materialised into anything to disabling, but I’m not sleeping as well as I might.

In addition, we have had sad news from Claire and Ryan. Their rescue cat Rose has died. Rosie had suffered a series of UTI’s but took a major turn for the worse late this week. Her age was not accurately known but Rose reached quite a vintage age.

Finally, a couple of anniversaries were reached on Thursday. It was Felicity’s 85th birthday, and five years since we first saw the section where we now live:

Take care, Rick and Nicky.