31/08/2008 by Aileen.

John cheerful - great family reunion yesterday - Ali flying back to Scotland - I’m at a Roadchef with my last contact on Internet until I return to Mart’s on Wed.

Have ordered a new router from Virgin, but doubt if it’ll come before then.

Goodbye world. I’m going to spend the next few days reading, writing, doing Photoshop tutorials, using that strange thing called the telephone and maybe clearing the garage.

See y’all on Wednesday evening.

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29/08/2008 by Aileen.

One if John’s ‘wounds’ is not doing well, and his consultant, who has been on holiday, said bed rest for three weeks. He also said, ‘We were very lucky!’ Everyone seems to be saying that if the abscesses had been left any later he’d have been brown bread. (In fact, one of the nurses used that expression.) So we need to stay positive and hope the three weeks pass quickly. Then there’ll be the gradual sitting up for longer each day, but hopefully that won’t take more than a week.

M and F are so kind. I’m staying there. Ali is flying down from Scotland tonight and I’m picking her up from Luton airport. Martin is cycling over to Aylesbury from Oxford today (19 miles I think) and Fiona has just left by car. They will see John this afternoon and Fiona will drive him home with his bike in the back of the car.

Tomorrow is our annual Family Reunion. It was really meant to be at our place in Yorkshire this year, but M and F are hosting it instead. We were hoping John could come over for an hour or two, but that’s out of the question now. We will probably see him in relays. Kevin is coming from Epsom and Don from Bristol. Rachel (Niall’s daughter) can’t make it.

I need to think about my ‘life’ for the next few weeks. Birding and Creative Writing are starting up again, and I don’t think the Scripture group closed for the summer, but I’m not too sure. I’ve missed quite a few photography sessions as that kept going through the summer.

Think I will enrol for everything and just do what I can, as I do need to go home once a week to touch base. There’s mail to sort out and grass to cut, and I hate leaving the cats for too long. Also, I really need time on my own.

I have two assignments to do for Redemptorist Publications, which I am very pleased about. Also, the OU Creative Writing course starts in September. I’m looking forward to that.

John has lots of reading in hospital, but maybe he could do an online course to stop getting too bored. He is doing a counselling course at the moment, but I don’t think it’s online. Need to sort out what to bring in for him.

Oh well, I’d better send some emails to people to let them know what’s happening. Thank God for my faith. (Oxymoron?) John is starting to think seriously about ‘faith’. I thought he was before all this happened. He definitely is now.

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23/08/2008 by Aileen.

He was allowed to sit out of bed for half an hour yesterday, so we went down to the café for an hour! He’s pushing the wheelchair really slowly, but he’s been in bed for three weeks counting the week at home. Anyway, for once I don’t have to run to keep up with him!

We’re really counting our blessings. We have good health usually, and a lovely caring family. We have been neglecting the cycling recently, but John thinks he has had the abscess problem for about a year, as his energy levels have been really low and he has had an excessive amount of phantom pain. When he gets home we are really going to go for it.

Funny thing is - we cycled throughout the winter, and I kept saying, this will be wonderful in the summer when the butterflies and damselflies are about. Looks like we’ll miss that this year.

Today is a wonderful sunny bank holiday Saturday. Just had breakfast on M and F’s patio and they’ve gone to the gym. I’m about to go for a walk through the woodland that surrounds their home. It’s about time I got some photos up for August.

Next weekend is our traditional family reunion. It was going to be at our place, but M and F are having it now. We (brothers etc.) were going to see John at some stage over the weekend, but we’re planning on sneaking him out of the hospital. We’ve done it before! Feel like naughty little kids!

Off for my walk now. Bye.

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17/08/2008 by Aileen.

Well, where do I start? John decided to keep his Stoke Mandeville appt. on Monday and I drove him down. He sat in the car like a zombie. At the hospital outpatients they discovered his blood pressure was 76/40, he had a high temperature and very rapid breathing. He was admitted straight away. He had two internal abscesses. They drained one on Tuesday, and are hoping that the little one on the liver will go with the antibiotics. He is to have a scan when he is well enough.

He’s had five days of the drip plus intravenous antibiotics, and yesterday he was allowed to eat. Today (Saturday) he came off all drip related things. (He also had two pints of blood at some stage)

The doctors say he put up some fight and was really ill. Any longer and he would have been in the Intensive Care. When he was admitted on the Monday I noticed that when he was lying on his back his chest and tummy were white, and his back was rosy. I don’t think the blood was circulating properly.

I came home for an overnight stay on Tuesday evening, driving through a spectacular storm. Fantastic lightning bolts. Tricia, former colleague rang, and I made a phone call, when there was a crackle on the line and phone and computer went down. Still had mobile, and realised it must be getting low (Pay as you go) so tried to put more money in but it kept failing. I was really upset. I felt so isolated.

The next day I had tears of relief when BT lady arranged for engineer to come out on the Friday afternoon and for any phone calls to be forwarded to my mobile. It’s funny what little things can upset you when there is a big problem hanging around.

Anyway, it wasn’t the phone, it was the internet router that was causing the problem. So will get a new one asap. At the moment I am staying at Martin’s as he lives just three quarters of an hour from Stoke Mandeville. (He says half an hour!)

I’m staying here for a few days this time, as it is expensive and tiring driving back and forth from Yorkshire to Bucks. John was so much better today, but now his strength is returning he is getting frustrated at being in hospital. He has great plans for keeping ultra fit when he gets home!

Two more things. I got my OU result. 84% which is one mark off a distinction (except that foundation courses are not graded - just pass or fail)

The second thng is that I’ve had an email from Redemptorist Publications about doing some leaflets for children. Looking forward to that.

Just think! A week or two ago I was getting uneasy about how I was wasting time faffing around doing nothing in particular. I suppose I’m still hanging round, but as it’s at a hospital bedside it seems more acceptable to me. (Sorry, John, that sounds callous! I can’t wait until you’re home again and we can be busy doing nothing together again.)

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09/08/2008 by Aileen.

It’s 1.30am and we’re still up. John’s been ill all week. Not bad enough for doctor, but a temperature amd sleeping most of the time. He got up this evening and was very sick half an hour ago. May have to get the doctor after all, but there’s nothing very dramatic wrong - just that it’s gone on for so long. At first it was reaction to strong antibiotics from dentist. He stopped taking them mid-course, so that might be the reason.

Gardener started today. Very hard worker, but I’ve never met anyone so bad at listening. Maybe it was nerves. He carried on talking when I was talking, and it was as if I hadn’t said anything. Don’t think he knows much about plants either. Didn’t recognise several weeds, and thought the evening primrose grew from bulbs. Perhaps it does, but I thought it just self-seeded. Anyway, he worked hard, and I wouldn’t have been able to do such heavy work.(Barbara at church recommended someone, but they couldn’t do it and put me on to this other person.)

We were supposed to go to an open air jazz concert tonight. J wasn’t well enough to go. I had bought the tickets ages ago as a surprise for him, and had forgotten all about it. (Jazz isn’t really my thing) If I had realised it in time I could have given the tickets away. I’m sure Norma would have enjoyed going if she was free.

Anyway, let’s see what the night brings. Night diary.

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05/08/2008 by Aileen.

I honestly don’t know where the time goes. Well, to be really honest, I do. Im addicted to Second Life and on it a lot this week.

John isn’t at all well. He had a very bad reaction to the antibiotics he got from the dentist. On Monday he decided not to finish the course. It was only precautionary anyway, as his bone had been exposed. He has hardly eaten a thing for the last few days and is very weak.  He’s come out in spots and has a bad case of the squits.

He had to cancel his hospital appointment on Monday, which meant I didn’t meet Caroline from the OU and we didn’t see Martin and Fiona. He’s rescheduled for next week, so hopefully everything will go ahead then.

I haven’t spent all the time on SL. I went to the shops once. ;-)))

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02/08/2008 by Aileen.

So the kids stayed with us from Saturday to Thursday. It was quite a long time for 4 yr old Kieran, but he had Liam there.

Sunday we chilled - we try not to go anywhere at the weekend because of crowds.

Monday - back to the wonderful Honeysuckle Farm where they bounced on bales for over an hour. Really interesting watching all the kids/parents/grandparents. Some little girls were really dressed up atrociously like little tarts. They couldn’t even jump properly in the hay.

Tuesday - a lovely day at Hornsea. Wish I had brought my cossie as the water was so tempting. We raced away from the waves yelling ‘Shark’. (We played that game on holiday twice when I took the lads on evening walks through the fields, only we yelled ‘Bull!’

Wednesday -chilled again. Up to playground, drawing, watching tv. In the evening the kids put on a concert for us (their second) This consisted of karate. Liam just threw Kieran all over the place (on grass) and then we realised that Kieran wasn’t actually participating - he was sulking and just became this inanimate object that Liam could throw around at will. I had tears rolling down my face I was laughing so much. Kieran is a little indiarubber boy.

Thursday - I drove them to Carlisle, while Ali and her friend Donna drove down from Renfrew and picked them up.

Other news this week.

Bradley made his First Communion on Sunday. Lovely service. He is such a great little kid. Éamonn announced that I was internationally known for my FHC book. Well it does sell in Australia, and maybe in the States, but I’m not sure that I am actually famous. Not like J .K. Rowling for instance. I do come up on Google though.

John had the next stage of his tooth implant in on Wednesday. Dentist and assistants gowned up for the ‘operation’ and the surgery rang on Thursday to see if he was ok. He can’t drink alcohol for four weeks, so when we go to Martin and Fiona’s on Monday I can drink and he can drive. Not sure how that works. Has this happened before?

That’s all the news really. John has a check up at Stoke Mandeville on Monday. That’s why we’re seeing M and F in the evening. I’ve arranged to see an OU student while J is being ‘looked at’ as she lives quite close. I haven’t spoken much to her before on the chats, but through the OU she has met someone who often posts lovely poetry. He used to be a soldier. A lovely love story.

That’s the second romance that has blossomed in the OU this year (second that I know of) I met Saul and Diane at the Manchester reunion. They obviouysly hit it off, cos now they’re an item. Another lovely couple. Both very talented.

Oh, the other bit of news is that I put on 3lbs at Slimming World on Wednesday. I decided to enjoy the holiday! And the candy floss at Hornsea probably didn’t help. Well, John had two sticks of rock. He reasoned that as he had the denstist the next day it didn’t really matter if he broke a tooth. Men!

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