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.)