Second Helpings

Apologies

I interrupt the monologue of a travelogue to apologise for what may seem pretty bland, lacklustre and hurried entries. The problem is, it's difficult to recapture a trip when life has returned to humdrum with knobs on.

As mentioned previously, hubby's Mum was admitted to hospital the day we returned, but is okay for the moment. My Dad seems very frail and sleepy and we've had a couple of call outs after falls, even though the care home are there to sort him out. The companies dealing with the renovation of his house are dragging their heels and it's not a pleasant thought as to how much we'll have to do once the house is ready to be put on the market. It's all very sad and depressing. Summer also seems to have left the country, leaving grey skies and cool temperatures.

But what I haven't mentioned up to yet is that my hubby hasn't been at all well since we returned from the US. For four weeks now there's been no golf and little movement anywhere, inside or outside the house. There have been Rip Van Winkle sleeping sessions interpersed with eyes glued to the television, bottom stuck to the chair and a very short fuse. I have to confess the lack of space, responsibility for all domestic tasks and general atmosphere of malaise have got me down. I seem to spend most of my time running between two prostrate males. The annoying part is I've done all the running and they lose the weight.

The symptoms aren't clear. Extreme lethargy and joint pain are dominant, but then he does suffer from arthritis anyway. Doctors have been unable to diagnose anything specific regardless of blood tests and although conditions like malaria, gout and various rheumatic states with unpronouncable names have been tossed about, none really fit this mystery illness. He does take an awful lot of medication, both precribed and supplementary and I suspect is a rather health obsessed character verging on hypochondria. He'd never agree on that of course and apologies if it sounds uncaring, but I'm the only one who has lived with him for over two hundred years, or so it seems.

Having said that, he clearly is not well and over the last week seemed to be getting worse. For the first time ever loss of appetite put in an appearance which is worrying. Yesterday he went to see a specialist and is now on a different anti-inflammatory medication which seems to be helping. A lot more tests were taken, but results won't be available for another fortnight. The suggestion of the possibility of Lyme disease sent me running to a search engine as I'd never heard of it. I must admit many of the symptoms fit and as the tick responsible for causing this rare condition are resident in all US states, it does seem possible.

Don't worry, I'm not about to become a rich widow and I'm sure whatever he has is treatable. It just means for the last four weeks and the forseeable future, I'll have even more to deal with than usual and may rapidly disappear further round the bend, talking and writing gibberish and slowly losing the will to live as I spend each day and night constantly in his company. I'll keep you informed, but for the moment please accept my apologies for any bland, disjointed or nonsensical blog entries and comments.