October Ups and Downs

 It has been over a month since my last blog post so thought I’d catch up before the month ends. 

Ups

• Returning to teach my creative writing group on Wednesday mornings face to face. So much better than Zoom and my students are such good company.
• Doing some more family history research and a bit more of my own writing.
• Taking part in choir day with A Handbag of Harmonies.  Also a live event.  I was a bit worried I  would get COVID as singing is supposed to be particularly infection spreading but over a week later  I still seem to be ok.
• Enjoying walks on warmish October days. We’ve found some new places to take the dog not too far away in North Wales.  Now he is nearly 9 months,  he needs plenty of exercise and room to run. 
• Planting up some pots for winter colour in the garden and some bulbs fo spring.  The dahlias are still flowering too.
• Celebrating Kate’s birthday. I made her a Red Velvet Cake using a Nigella recipe.  It was very good though there was an alarming amount of butter and sugar in it.   Luckily it is half term so she has been able to come home. She’s done two weeks of teaching practice and has been working with a class of 5-7 year olds. Hard work and not much of a break as she had an essay to write.

Downs

• This is a major one which really deserves a post to itself! A midnight visit to A&E last Saturday.  It had been a lovely day. I’d spent all day singing and then had spent an enjoyable evening with my sister Diane and her husband who were staying overnight.  But just after I brushed my teeth and got into bed something very strange happened.  I couldn’t close my mouth - my jaw was locked open.  It was a horrible feeling and it hurt.  My throat was dry and I couldn’t speak properly. We followed all the online advice to no avail and I was beginning to feel ill mainly because I was panicking. So we got a taxi (we’d all been drinking wine) to the local A&E department which was just as you might imagine it to be on a Saturday evening - full. Some people looked ill or injured, others not so much. At one point man wearing nothing on his top half appeared and asked the receptionist and then the other patients for a light. He objected loudly when no one could help him. Then a nurse came out to announce that there would be a 7 hour wait to be seen and encouraged those with minor problems to go home.  A few people disappeared.  Half an hour later I was called in and the doctor said I had dislocated my jaw. There follows a grim tale. A long wait, an X ray, and two painful attempts at jaw manipulation which failed.  I would have to be transferred to Aintree in Liverpool to see a  Maxillo Facial expert.  I sent Paul home and curled up in an uncomfortable chair to await the ambulance. At 5am it eventually arrived.  Aintree A&E was quieter with only a few patients though there were at least four men lying asleep across the benches.  The specialist doctor, a polite and sympathetic young man, was waiting for me.  I had another two fancy X rays and then he made me bite on some wooden sticks for ten minutes. Then he pushed my jaw about a bit and it went back in place. Just like that - it was all over. Painful while he was pushing it about but the pain reduced as soon as everything was back in place. I’d have to be careful not to open my mouth much for a while but could go home. Phoned Paul and was home drinking tea through a straw by 9am Sunday morning. I was sleepy and a bit sore but otherwise fine.  I don’t why this happened - perhaps it was the recent dental treatment I had where I had to open my mouth for a long time to have a crown fitted.  And my jaw had been a bit funny since then.  It still is a bit tender -  I hope it doesn’t happen again.  I’m being very careful not to yawn to widely.  The whole experience has made me appreciate the NHS even more.  How the staff I saw remained patient and kind in the circumstances we witnessed last Saturday amazes me.  
• No other downs really apart from the fact it has bucketed with rain all weekend and it’s already getting dark at 430pm now the time has changed.