Life Update
Apologies to all that I have been missing in action. Life has delivered yet another resounding slap round the chops.
If we’ve known each other for a while, you’ll know that I lost my daughter to cancer on 21st December 2023. On January 29th, we lost her husband, and their traumatised 17 year old daughter, and her 2 cats, came to live with us. This involved decanting the contents of a bedroom to other places, and fetching her stuff up to ours. We’re also emptying the house of anything usable to sell to help pay off the mortgage – our house is like a storage unit and I’ve become a Vinted expert!
On Friday 25th, Mike and I were due to meet a group of friends for lunch. It’s one of the u3a groups we go to, called Historical Inns.
Here he is with his favourite – at an Indian restaurant
We take turns organising it, selecting which pub to go to, and researching the pub itself and the surrounding area for anything interesting. Between the main course and any puddings, the organiser then reads out what they’ve found out. It’s great fun and we all love it – about 20 of us meet up each time.
That day we were meeting at The Highlands Inn, in Uckfield. Just before we were due to go, I had to make a quick business call, and was imagining Mike pacing up and down in the sitting room as he hates being anything but super early to anything.
It was literally a couple of minutes, and when I came back in the room, he was sprawled sideways on the sofa. I thought he was taking the Mickey about how long I’d been and said ‘well, that’s a funny position’ and he replied in a slurry voice that his leg didn’t work, I could see that his mouth was drooping on one side and when I asked him to raise his arms, he could only lift one of them.
Oh my goodness! He was obviously having a stroke and I dialed 999 and the ambulance arrived after the longest 20 minutes of my life.
They whizzed us off to Eastbourne hospital where he was given the very important clot buster drugs and anything else they deemed necessary.
He’s been there ever since and isn’t ready to come home yet, even though he’s desperate to do just that – most people are when in hospital aren’t they.
It’s likely he had another stroke overnight although it’s not showing on the scans. His speech remains slurred and his right arm and leg are far from right, quite common from a brain that’s been injured apparently. But he is making progress now and improving, even being able to walk, with a frame, up the ward, and up and down a flight of stairs. Painfully slowly, but he’s able to do it. I’ve been so worried about him and visit every day.
My nursing daughter assures me that he will almost certainly make a full recovery as everything was so quick, but it’s so difficult to believe when I see this big and strong man struggle to lift a cup of soup.
I’m so grateful that I found him so quickly, that he received what he needed so quickly, and that we weren’t already driving en route to the pub. Everything could have been SO much worse!
It’s a flipping good job I’m a strong and resilient person – I’m not sure how much more of this I can take!
