Autumn Weather

Mmm, 100% grey cloud s'morning again and it is a bit cooler today. Still hotter than average but colder

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It's Fixed!!

And me and TechnoTimmy were at last able to, after a few erroneous attempts managed to get the video's on Neil Cooking page. We hummed and hawed attempting to upload videos then gave up, uploaded them all to Youtube and published the links at the bottom of my page.

So HOORAY etc

OT

And Sarah the OT came round later and by lord, didn't we make an excellent treat for Freya's birthday

Busy For Community

Then I went to Trysordy and did my bit for recycling.

And they did compliment me on my photos for the website which I took last week, which was nice

And in the audience today was a couple of kids, one of whom made a rather excellent model of Shaun The Sheep while I was watching

Summers Over

And there is 100% cloud over a much colder day s'morning.

Ooh, by the time I came out of Trysordy it was only 70% cloudy and much warmer

Fark, now it is 85% clear blue sky again

BLINKIN' FLIP, now 100% even tho they had terrible rain storms in Cardiff

Wot A Day

Oh I haven't been able to come to terms with today properly. This AM was mad and maddening and effective and made me feel good etc then the rest of the day at gym and clinic felt a bit odd in comparison

Technician

Then later today I nipped to see an Asthma technician and we discussed my medication etc. She did say in future they would call me in for a mega peak flow reading then afterwards they would be able to tell which effects are from me smoking for years and which are asthma, the asthma should all be minimised

Gym

After such an exciting and hectic morning we headed to my old gym class and it went OK

Morning Shopping

Phew, me and Timmy went to Argos and spent £60 on a new monitor, which we have just fitted before I need to nip to gym

It's Broken

Oh dear. So s'afternoon my PC monitor switched itself off. I switched it off then back on again. It worked, picture on screen for a couple of seconds then died again. So I restarted the PC - still nowt. I was about to cry when Alex looked on the back of the telly to see if it had the right connecter. Which it did and I was so grateful when he got it working. Luckily TechnoTimmy is in tomorrow so I suspect we shall be shopping, unless he miraculously fixes it.

Its really strange now, it is about twice the size of my original monitor and too big for me to be able to see both sides of the screen without moving my head, but it works

To Hot To.....

But it does seem a smidge cooler today.....

S'morning we nipped to Morrison's and did a weeks shopping.

Trouble looking for frozen food that is not really fattening, again

Evening Out

And me and Alex went down through Swansea to Mumbles which was a bit beautiful and very coastal, it was a bit strange, we seemed to be looking across to a place which was a mile away. Strange but very worthwhile

What A Day

So me and Alex headed out to buy a fan 'cos it's so hot ATM.

But everyone had thought of that first.

So we called in at The Range, Waverleys and in the end to that awful Tesco place. None of them had a big fan or a small fan, sold out. Ach well

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Earrings

And on the shop tonight SmallPaul said "Strawberry bags look silly on your hands" and my pockets were full but I invented a way of carrying them

Wot A Day

So I relaxed s'morning then Sarah came and I have been non stop busy since then, it was after 5 o'clock before I managed to stop and have a nap, now I am hungry etc etc

Drs

Then after a quick lunch we went to the Doctors again, to see about my cough. She (not my usual Dr as it was an emergency visit) listened to my chest, said "Awww" and gave me another course of antibiotics for a week and said I could leave the phlegm waterers.

She also gave me a stronger brown inhaler just one for now, hopefully my normal one will be strong enough when I finish this

Lastly she gave me an AeroChamberPlus which is supposed to make my inhaler much more effective. Someone tried a much larger device last year which I couldn't get on with at all but this one seems loads better and my chest feels better already, after having 2 blue and 2 new brown inhalations

But my cough seems better already, more phlegm etc so I AM getting better

FTF

First things first, so she came here and was saying "Yes, coughing" etc, she stretched my arm loads as it has got worse thru coughing etc. Then she said "Walk up & down" and said "Wow". After the injection into behind my shin last week my foot it turning over much less. I was walking almost without having to concentrate and my foot was not turning over, almost as if I had my Bioness device on, but I didn't

Before FTF

So they delivered my cover and frame for my VegTrug s'morning and I had to get out in the dreadful sun to supervise (and take pics) of Paul building the cover. Which actually looks rather good now and I think it will be effective

Bother

And because of yesterday's crisis we have called off gym today and told SaraH to come here instead to do her worst on my here instead

Scared

So I was sitting outside while Gareth pottered at the plants then I started thinking.... then I woke up while Gareth shook my arm and said "You OK?".

Dunno, I had passed out again

Aussie Cricket

So I am listening to the cricket test match on Radio 5 live sport and now the Australians have started bowling England and so far it is 26 for 3

Lordy we are supposed to win

289 for 7 at the end of play today so we came back very strongly after such an awful start

Lie in

Now I have learned how to switch off ny alarm clock when I don't NEED to wake up, so I switched it off last night and I didn't get up until an hour after my alarm clock was due.    

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First time in years

Now I am being careful to keep my fluids up etc. Last night I went to bed lateish and I didn't wake up for a pee until it was getting up time s'morning

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Scary Creature

Aargh, I had to call TT out of bed a few minutes ago because there was an enormous creature flying about the living room, getting freaked out that he couldn't find a way back out. I think it was a bat, he had to attack it with a towel to make it be still for a minute in which time he put it out

Mmmmm

So Timmy told me today that they met up with Denyse yesterday and she mentioned how the chocolate or yoghurt peanuts and raisins that I have been buying as a snack are dangerous (choking) and very fattening and I would do better to go back to purchasing a bar of Green&Blacks organic chocolate like I used to as it is less fattening

Edible

And for a snack today I had 6 or 7 ultra fresh organic strawberries from my Trug. Just mmmmmm     

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TechnoTimmyfied

So TechnoTimmy came in today and even before I had time to show him my list of queries the postman brought an enormous armful of Techno crises, which we had to deal with.

Then we got stuck into my crises, the sending email from my phone in plain text is still query and TT is currently sitting behind me with my phone in his hand.

Listening to Radio 5 turned out to be no problem, instead of approaching it thru my browser he said "That radio app, use that" and it just worked, once we had found the station

And lordy BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP, TechnoTimmy finally found, downloaded and installed an App that sends plain text emails, so I can now now send Ixion emails if I am not sitting at my PC

OTness

Then SaraH OT came to see me, with a bag full of food and we together made a Spanish Omelette  with (steamed) spuds, a courgette, some mushrooms, a red pepper and 5 eggs we used in the end

It was delicious in the end

And she did comment on how much more mobile I am and how much more useful my right arm is these days

But I was chopping up veg with my right arm, it was cutting OK but I couldn't make the knife go straight down, it was 30-40 degrees off vertical. But then I realised if I took ½ step back, away from the surface I was cutting on then I could cut properly. Very very strange but I hope I remember it

Recycling

So we nipped up to the Recycling Place just up the road where again I was taking photos.

Today the MOtheeirS who knows how to work their camera wasn't there so I could't get the autofocus to work. I gave it to Alex and said "Help", he made puzzled sounds then pressed "Reset" which seemed to work

But FWIW I had a pee before we went, was there for 2 hours without a pee and didn't need to go straight into the loo when we got back. Gosh, the days of peeing every 15 minutes are long gone, phew

GYMing

And I am off to Gym in a bit for today's lesson

And I managed to only interrupt my exercises thru coughing a couple of times but I still can't get up the last piece of phlegm

My head is exploding

And this morning we had to watch the video of the speech and language therapist showing me how to swallow liquids properly again.

This is why my head is exploding, I am having to re-learn everything, or learn it for the first time as my accident has caused some problems/issues

Early

So I didn't have a lie in s'morning, my alarm clock went off at 8AM but I had been up since 7.45

Oops

So Timmy has phoned and said he can't come in today as his 18 month old son is covered in spots and he can't come here as we don't want/need infections

So we have got Alex doing an extra now to cover up for it

But Tim will be able to come in on Wed morning, apparently it's just the chicken pox

Out

So me + Paul nipped to Saundersfoot and had dinner there, it was spectacularly beautiful but a tourist destination, not much else

Can't multi task

So as Denyse is gonna Skype me s'morning I thought I'd better cheat with my electric razor. So I went into the loo for my morning routine and took a the razor. So I shaved half my face and tried to do other things - to no avail. So I finished half my face and turned off the razor.

Pee, pee, pee, I managed suddenly.

I shaved the rest of my face and turned it off again.

Within 10 seconds I had started my poo

So I can't shave and use the loo simultaneously

Lie In

So my alarm clock goes off Mon - Friday at 8 am. Usually at the weekend I am up any time between 6.30 and 7.45 but today I went to the loo at 6.45 then went back to sleep.

I didn't wake up/get up tol 8.50!!! A lie in

More Fluid

And, although I am shopping for the week tomorrow, me & Gareth had to nip to Morrisons to buy a load of mineral water for me to keep drinking

SLT

And Sarah the SLT came to see me today and did loadsa stuff about me swallowing. She did say that swallowing food my head needs to be bent forward as I have been doing, but we tried it with drinks but I couldn't manage it with swallowing liquid but in the end we decided between us, drink normally max of 2 mouthfuls then look at my plate, head forward to swallow it.

It feels very strange but my swallowing is evidently much better so I need to practise this so it becomes as habitual as eating with my head forward

But it pisses me off big style, I had my accident 10+ years ago and only now am I so well that issues like swallowing matter/can be noticed.

9½ years ago I was too ill for them even to notice issues like this

A Fan

And we had our usual Friday night tea of Naan bread pizza's and Alex hasn't tried one before and he liked it enough to say "I will have to try that at home". Which was nice

Lunchless

And I didn't have lunch before I went to the 1pm gym class today which was OK, but I told Alex to take us to Aardvark to do our shopping immediately afterwards which meant it was much too late for a lunch when we got back here. So I polished off my yoghurt from yesterday and called that lunch.

So roll on dinner now

Much Shopping

And after we went to 4 shops, with a car trip from one to the next, we finally found somewhere that sold proper v shaper pillows, not combinations of 2 pillows like I used last night. We bought one then had to drive to another shop to get pillow cases but in the end we did it. It's fitted now, lets see how it feels later

And it felt fine when I was napping this afternoon

Better

And after sleeping with an improvised v bed thingy I am all in favour of buying a proper one today. I coughed some in bed but my chest feels better and lighter already

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V shaped

So I am in a bed tonight with a v shaped double pillow. It is supposed to be lifting up my shoulders/back as well as my head and so far it does that and is well comfortable

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Cool

And at about 11 o'clock tonight I went out into the hall and it still has an open door to the garden on it and at 11 o'clock it felt cool there. Cool.

Hooray 

Talented Visitor

Then later a "finished my GCSE" Freya came down to see me and was playing my electric guitar, the first time she has played at all in about 4 months and I was a bit jealous at how talented she is

Veg

And me and Paul had a bit of a look in the vegTrug today and pulled up some excellent radishes. There were a few left and we took them indoors and made fresh, organic food with our lunch

Sara physio

So Sara came round all over lunch hour and talked about coughing, showed us loadsa techniques etc, and talked about the after effects of the drug on my arm too

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And she wants to meet me outside gym next Friday and come along and see how hard they work me in my new Friday class

A Week Since

And Sarah the Physio is coming to see me tomorrow and it is also supposed to be the day the injection I had last Thursday takes hold but as since then I have narrowly escaped going into hospital etc I haven't even remembered which bit of my arm is supposed to be better

Dentist

Well, I had to go to the Dentist s'afternoon and she drilled out almost a complete tooth before replacing it. It was a bit scary having someone drill so much but she has finished now

She did comment on how much more mobile/walking I am as she hasn't seen me for 6 months, which was nice

And my teeth felt horrible all the way thru the very nice curry I had made for dinner

And as the pain killers wore off there was no pain or discomfort which I am very grateful for

Choking

When Denyse was here yesterday as she is in charge of "caring" for me it occurred to me, perhaps randomly, that it is now weeks, possibly months, since I have choked

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Warm

So here I am, sitting outside just wearing a t-shirt(1) at a quarter to 12 at night

(1) and trousers etc

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Clean My Teeth

And I am a bit nervous as I have a dentists appointment tomorrow.

They are gonns fix the wonky hole in my tooth

What an afternoon

Later Denyse came to see me, for why I dunno, I think she just had to see me before she went on holiday and she upset me a lot by saying no beer until your cough is mended.

At the time I was angry etc but now I think "Yes, fairy Nuff"

Half way thru our conversation I came over feeling all feint, Denyse said "Are u OK?" but I was, just etc. It is such hard work coughing as I can't breathe while coughing etc

Treasure House

So then we went to Treasure House where I did more helping recycle stuff. Today they were loading a van and I had to make notes (on my phone, translated later by a MOTheirS) of everything they loaded.

And someone told my that I will be taking more pictures next week

Early to rise.....

Erm.... and I was wide awake earlier so I gave in and got up at 7 AM s'morning....

Hot

And it is still too hot at half past 6 in the evening, it has been way too hot all day

Still borderline too hot at 22.00

GYMming

And I had another session with that Sam (who said she won't be here on Friday!!) in my older gym class and it went OK. I said "No ta" to cycling as my cough is still here slightly

Docs

And Denyse has just phoned me and said she had phoned the doctors and made an appointment (16.40 today) with the pleasant chap that I saw the last few times I went so today he is gonna be sick of the site of me but she is gonna email a list of what we need to hassle him about

Gosh, that went well. So he said re choking to try Carbocisteine to thin up my mucus and make it easier to get up. In answer to all the other queries he said "I will write to him and her and them, and them" etc etc

Eek, I had my first tablet a couple of hours ago and already my coughing feels really different, a lot less proper cough, just a bit like an irritated throat

(All links work now, properly)

My Cough

So I hardly coughed at all today, then this evening I was coughing loads for a couple of hours. Then for another couple of hours I was hardly coughing at all again.

Shrug

Birds Singing

So I was sitting outside tonight as it was so warm and about 9.30 my attention was grabbed by a couple of birdies singing lovely songs as they flew around. Now I don't know if the time of year is even close etc but it did occur to me that these birdys were singing "I want a shag, I want a shag" if I was even a bit close I am a bit jealous. Where can us middle aged cripples shout that?

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Bath Hot Day

And I had a bath this afternoon, I turned the hot tap on a little bit and the cold tap loads more and it was quite comforting in the end.

Gosh but it's hot sunlight today

Still conscious

And I nipped to Morrison's s'morning, did a small amount of shopping and got in the car to come home. Nervous, nervous, nervous but I made it home, conscious the whole way

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Peeing

Then s'morning I had a pee into the toilet.

It still amazes me how much longer it takes me to have a pee these days.

My bladder is so much better

Better?

Well, I am feeling normal again today and everything seems normal once again

What a day

Swear, swear swear

Whoops. Or sh#t

Gord. I was coming back from shopping in town when I passed out for about 15 seconds

Since then we have been sat in hospital. No lunch, no nap and we have just got out at 18.00 hours

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Blinkin' flip. I am back home now, have had some tea and settled down. Flippin' knackered tho

All out

And tonight me and Alex went and got Freya, a few minutes after she came Paul came to replace Alex and all 5 of us went out and had a really nice meal and pudding in Con Passionata

Fatherless

So we had to go to't gym without my father as he was stuck here supervising 2 plumbers who had come to fix the hot water. As it wasn't warming up very well and a MOS looked in the manual and said "Oh, but this is too low", we phoned the landlord and he phoned the fixers. But I had to go to gym when they were here so my father stayed and watched over them etc

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And when I came back, after lunch I was able to have a hot bath, awwwww

Today

So we nipped into gym today, me, Alex, and my mum. It was as hard work as ever but I am beginning to notice improvements, as usual it was blooming hard work but my mum commented on how I am improving.

We had to leave my father behind as there was a workman in the house

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Wrinklies

Gosh, just got rid of my parents, until tomorrow morning

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Good lord, that was a bit chaotic. They were both really positive about seeing me as folk have been telling them how remarkable it is that I can even hold a conversation etc. So they are coming to new gym tomorrow  etc etc

And they were both rather positive about my Naan Pizzas that we had for tea 

Horse-brutality

So I have just been over to t'hospital and had some injections in my arm and leg (BoTox apparently) but now I am supposed to be napping as we will see my parents after we get back

And it will take a week before the injections work on me apparently....

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I am becoming obsessed

Lordy, every minute of the last few days unless I was eating or otherwise busy was spent playing Solitaire.

Busy wiv Gareth

So there is nowt on my timetable for this morning but immediately after lunch me and Gareth and heading over to Neath Port Talbot hospital where I have an appointment.

After we come back my parents are here and I am cooking them food for tonight.

They are going to a hotel tonight then coming and staying here from tomorrow 'til Sunday

Tonight NOT Tomorrow

So I decided better go shopping tonight rather than tomorrow as a)I wanted stuff for my parents tea and b)I had run out of whiskey so I filled both

My Thyroid

And Denyse has just phoned to get the results of yesterdays Thyroid test and apparently it is clear - my Thyroid is functioning normally

And yes, we went into the Doctors and asked for a printed copy of the report to show to Sarah tomorrow

Team Meeting

Then Timmy didn't leave when AwesomeAlex arrived s'morning then within half an hour Denyse and the rest of the team have arrived and are currently "meeting" in my kitchen.

Dunno what they are talking about, it must be "me" in some direction

Busy Visit

So we (me and Timmy) went to the doctors and asked him about loada stuff.

First and foremost was the Thyroid Function Test which after talking about it he gave me a card to have blood texts done and then we will find out more. So Denyse will phone him for the results tomorrow

Apropos of nothing I had another brown inhaler off him

He also gave me some tablets to try and cut down on my cough, which did get a lot better when I switched to a new blue inhaler yesterday

Lastly he gave me a list of questions to fill in (tomorrow with Denyse too) about Sleep Apnea, which I may also be suffering from

Then last of all we nipped to the hospital where someone took my blood for the Thyroid test

New Socks - and I tried on my new pair of socks today to no avail

CouponDropDown

And big crisis.

An ad had placed itself/been placed on the front page of my Blog. I looked, tried to eliminate it, reset my PC and went for a bath.

It was still there.

A number of other procedures were followed, each with a restart until at last one worked. There is still a small band at the top of http://hippoin.blogspot.co.uk/ which says 'Ads by...' but there are no ads

Striving

So me and Gareth (a newbie, a bit settled in by now) are off in a bit to Monday's gym class

And it went well, even if I was coughing loads. But I have an appt with the Doctor tomorrow so I will mention my cough get some ventolin too

Bloody Sunday

Well, we nipped to superdoopermarket earlier, got all that was on my list.

After we came back I had a haircut as my haircut-worthy MOS is off for a bit after today

Dinner

And I made the usual Saturday night treat of scrambled eggs, beans and toast. I managed to make it all in the microwave tonight, unlike last week when for some reason I decided to try it in a sauicepan again and made it nearly uncleanable.

And tonight I said to Ed, "I might need some help buttering toast" but I managed the whole cooking part of it, the only help I required was lifting it

Little Old Lady

Then s'morning Sarah Bailey the speech and language therapist came to see me, 13 minutes before she told me last time she was due. We talked about how well I communicate in various situations and from that she worked out what we will talk about in a fortnight when I see her next.

It was quite good, she suggested coming back in a fortnight, I will be busy with my parents next week

Across The Universe

Then we nipped into Aardvark for the usual shop which went OK

Friday's Gymming

And we (a team) went to gym today and I nearly had to cry - no Sam today 

We did our usual extra work at Friday's class and I was exhausted by the end. One of the other students was in the lift back down with me and she commented on how much better I seem rather than 6 months ago

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Panic ye not

So we are heading off to my PromotedClass in a bit, me, SmallPaul and AwesomeAlex as a dream team. Hopefully it will be good

Better this month

So Iechyd Da folk night seemed better this month, more attendance by musos etc, I actually enjoyed it from start to finish this month

And this peeing every 15 minutes thing is so in the past. We left here at 6 to go and fetch Freya and I didn't go to the loo from then 'til about 10.45

Oh what chaos

So I was heading for the bath s'afternoon when suddenly I thought "Where's the washing basket and half my washing?". Oh dear, outside on the washing line (and sitting next to it) and it started raining about 7 minutes ago, it was cloudless when we put it out last night 

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Dry Day

So the swimming session that I was trying to make excuses for big style turned out not to happen. It was Alex had to come today to see how it's done but he forgot his trunx

Out Tonight

And we went out tonight, eventually into The Drover and I had one pint and 2 double JD and Honey

Quiet Day

So as I am having a quiet day today we went to the supermarket s'morning and bought a pinta milk and not much else.

Then s'afternoon we are having such fun that I am paranoid about saying it's too quiet in case Denyse tells me off for saying 'I'm Bored' as she supplied a list of "fun" that I can do

I want one

These Pirate Socks that I could only find one, with a hole in it, s'morning

Oh dear, I have bought one (OK, two) from Amazon now....

Dinner

And for dinner tonight we had Kievs with cous-cous which, I think, was an awful fattening garlic butter type meal, but the "What you have eaten" on my iPad didn't think it was too bad

Recalling

So today my MOS said "Okay dokay" to me, I thought in return "Out comes pooh", told him so and we both laughed and shrugged.

Later, when I was having my late nap, it occurred to me, it's Winnie-The-Pooh isn't it, from one of the stories, possibly "The Search For Owl"

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Late Sleep

And because we had had such a hectic day today it was nearly tea time before I went for my "early nooneraft" nap

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Nutrition

And we went into town to see the nutritionalist, me and Denyse and NaughtyNick. Gosh, we learned bugger all, I need to exercise more, nowt about eating (we took my iPad with diet recorder) nor drinking too much, basically she didn't know and was a bit negative feeling about my gland in my kneck

Politics

And today while recycling a MOS from there was working alongside us and chatting, she noticed my humanist badge and commented on how the Mayor of Carmarthen is an atheist this year and had caused some strife by having his meetings away from the church, just in a room

Recycling

So we are off to Trysordy in a bit to take more photo's for their website. Which is quite good and interesting. Last week the camera ran out of battery half way thru so I had to get stuck into proper recycling work but they know it has to be charged today

And today the interior "taking pictures" space had been taken up by SAND from Carmarthen who were busy having a meeting so we sat outside, in the sun, and sorted out broken socks from thread etc

Dull

So I have nothing on for the rest of the day but...... dunno actually

Gymming

And we went gymming again today, as ever I worked really hard but on the cycle at the bottom of the foot pattern my right foot insisted on moving straight but my toes went loads downwards, it would come back into proper position half a second/a few degrees later but it felt wrong, so I only did 5 mins instead of my usual 10

Naughtyness

Then today I have got my MOS from England, the cover chap, but it seems OK so far...