Wednesday 20 January 2010

Day 1 - Marie's birthday

Wednesday 9th September 2009

For the past few days I’d been feeling a little off colour but I couldn’t put my finger on what it was the problem.

I knew it wasn’t a hangover (we were on holiday which is always an excuse to drink a little more than normal but I hadn’t over done it….) and I knew it wasn’t a cold as I didn’t have any of the usual symptoms.

September 9th was my birthday but I didn’t feel like celebrating. I woke up about 9.30am feeling like I had the flu.

My wonderful husband John went downstairs and filled a hot water bottle for me as I was cold, achy and shivery. I cuddled up to the bottle and went back to sleep for another hour.

I woke up feeling a little better so opened the presents the ‘Birthday Bunny’ had very kindly left for me.

We have a birthday tradition of going to a wonderful Chinese restaurant for lunch so were looking forward to it after I had been to see my GP.

Because I was having to sleep on my right side due to my pressure sore, my right knee was causing me quite a bit of discomfort and pain during the night. I’d made an appointment to see my GP in the hope she would give me some more or stronger painkillers for during the night. The earliest appointment I could get was on my birthday.

Instead of giving me some new painkillers, Dr Blake decided to up the amount of painkillers I take on a night time, from two to five, slowly increasing them over a couple of nights. She asked how my pressure sore was getting on and I said it was healing nicely, and that all of the horrible dead skin had nearly gone.

To be honest I didn’t feel like going out for lunch. My whole body ached and I felt quite sickly. However I knew John would be disappointed so didn’t mention anything to him.

As normal we got a lovely welcome from the staff at the restaurant. We’re regulars so they know us well. I ordered my usual – the soup, which that day was chicken and noodle, and sweet and sour pork.

The feeling of wanting to be sick was still with me so all I could manage to eat was a small piece of chicken from the soup, and one small bit of pork and a chopstick full of rice. I felt awful leaving the food and kept apologising to the staff that it wasn’t anything to do with the food, it was because I wasn’t very well. They very kindly asked if I would like to take it away in a ‘doggy’ bag, but I knew it wouldn’t get eaten so refused.

When it came to the dessert I asked if my portion of ice-cream could be given to John as I couldn’t even face eating that.

As it was my birthday I tried to jolly myself a long a bit, but it was no good so went back to bed for a couple of hours. My mam rang just after 4pm to wish me a happy birthday and to ask what the Birthday Bunny had brought for me.

I was still in bed so let the phone, which was on the bedside table, ring a couple of times so she wouldn’t be suspicious as to why I’d answered it straight away. I bluffed my way through the list of presents I’d received as I couldn’t remember what I got. The morning seemed such a blur.

After my mam had rang off I felt a little better so got out of bed. That seemed to be what was happening all day. I’d feel ill for a couple of hours, then perk up a bit, then go back to feeling ill again.

We normally don’t bother having much to eat for dinner after a visit to the Chinese restaurant as we’re usually still full, so just had a piece of my birthday chocolate cake which we’d decorated the day before (in the usual way with lots of chocolate buttons and crushed flakes). Sadly all I could managed to eat was a small bit of it.

We settled down later in the evening to watch a DVD and have a bottle of wine to celebrate my birthday. I thought I’d look through a couple of books that I’d received from the Birthday Bunny, but simply couldn’t be bothered. I spent most of the evening staring at the television screen as I was really spaced out.

I only had a sip or two from my wine so John finished off the rest of the bottle. Wisely, instead of drinking the remainder from my glass, he poured it down the sink. I know it was a waste of wine but who know what kind of germs were swimming around in my glass…

As my whole body was aching horrendously, especially my left knee, which for some reason I couldn’t quite figure out why (it’s normally the right one which gives me grief) so John got me one of my heat pads that goes in microwave for a few minutes, to put on my knee.

I don’t know if it was because my whole body was out of sorts or what, but without noticing, I’d managed to give myself a three inch burn on my left knee from the heat pad.

Remember the sickly feeling I’d had all day, well it finally decided to make a proper appearance, so John had to dash off for the bucket from the kitchen.

I eventually staggered upstairs, with John following closely behind with the bucket in case it was required again, and collapsed into bed.

Not a very nice way to end both your birthday and holiday…

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