I haven’t blogged for a while and I don’t even know why. In the past I have had a few breaks from blogging due to stress (usually at work), but that is certainly not the case just now. In fact I am very happy with my two days a week of supply teaching. When I decided not to go back to school in August, Jackie recruited me to improve the Literacy curriculum in her school. It’s fun and interesting and the other teachers are very pleasant. Life has been busy, but then it always is, so that’s not the reason. I think that I have simply fallen out of the habit of blogging, and it remains to be seen whether I can get back into it!
So many things happen that I think, “Oh I must blog about this!” So to catch up I shall write a blog or three about what’s been happening recently.
The main thing that has been going on in the world of Anderson is that unfortunately Grandma fell down her back stairs into the garden on 23rd September; she was on the way to the cellar to fetch a rake and slipped down the last few steps. Her next door neighbours heard her shouting – it was just as well that they were outside in their garden at the time. We were in Nice for the weekend at the time (see next blog!) but thank goodness Alasdair was at home, with Cat visiting him from London, so the neighbours were able to contact him and Ally and Cat went round straight away. Despite Grandma being 88 years old and in a great deal of pain she was allocated "low priority" by the doctor from NHS 24 and it took more than eight hours for an ambulance to arrive. It must have been awful for Grandma, and Ally and Cat were fanstastic, taking care of her and keeping us up to date as we waited anxiously in France. They saved her life.
So much for their romantic weekend together! Anyway as the hours passed Alasdair phoned the NHS 24 111 service again and asked if he should give Grandma her usual evening medication. This includes Warfaron, which thins the blood. They said yes, which we found out later was completely the wrong advice when they had no idea whether her injury would require an operation.
By the time she was taken to hospital, x-rayed and taken to a ward it was about 10.30 in the morning – more than seventeen hours after Ally called NHS 24. And indeed it turned out that she had a broken hip. However she was not able to have an operation for another three days because she had to wait for the blood thinning medication to pass out of her system. So annoying - and dangerous for her.
After the operation she was really poorly, and the doctors told us that she might not pull through. Davie and Chanel visited her several times from Dundee, and Jamie then flew home from New Zealand to see her. I must admit that, even though he came home for a very serious situation, it was wonderful to see him! Grandma has now started to recover, I’m very glad to say. Jamie, Alasdair and Davie have been absolutely devoted to her and have visited her constantly; I’m extremely proud of them. Jamie also liaised closely with her doctors while he was here (he flew back to New Zealand on Saturday.) We have all been doing our best to amuse her and cheer her up but she is feeling very low, because her recovery is very slow. It is a bit concerning that she is not able to walk with a zimmer yet more than three weeks after her operation; most of the other elderly ladies on her ward are making much quicker progress than her, probably due to her age. However she gets physiotherapy every day and is now learning to stand and to move from her bed to the chair. So Grandma is our principal priority and concern just now, but lots of other things have been happening too ....
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