Food and Drink #37 Happy New Year

[traumatised sideboard]

Look who's returned to her rightful place as queen of Sideboard Towers. She says happy belated bday to Susan!

 

[Falkor]

I'm allowed home tomorrow, no operation needed Just have to learn to give myself the blood thinning injection this evening. Can't be too much harder than doing the sheep, can it?

 

[Falkor]

Belated happy new year to the F&D crew - seeing it in at the High Dependency Unit of the major hospital for the whole of the Highlands after getting transferred down from local one 50 miles from home the day before was not quite what I had planned, but my pancreas had other ideas.

Off HDU now but.going to be in for quite a while as they fight a raging infection and try to work out why my blood turned to butter (most common cause of this is alcohol, but I don't drink, however my triglycerides were through the roof at 55). Mr F is being a star and holding the Fort at home, but too far away to visit, so am catching up with you wonderful nannies for the first time in a week xx

 

[traumatised sideboard]

Sorry for catspam but we're currently embroiled in a sofa war that I am so far winning. She gets the huff temporarily then just slots into whatever space I leave for her. I think I have been forgiven.

 

[Falkor]

Just been told not to eat anything after midnight - as long as no big emergencies come in they'll do my op tomorrow and I can go home on Monday

Mr F and his brother took a bale to the horses today - as it's summer 2021 hay I told them not to put it in the bale ring, but just unroll the whole thing on the ground so the boys can browse through it and get to the edible stuff and then the stuff that's gone over will get trampled in and fertilise the ground. They're very chuffed

 

[zetta buttons]

I don’t want to derail the main thread with more messages so I just wanted to say here to @jenny2603 and @TheDragonWithAFlagon that your recent posts were the ones that show what tattle is really like- a community where people can talk and share and help each other.

You both provide so much to the MT and I am sorry you are (and have been) going through such tough times.

When Jack is being most horrific is when this place really shows itself as a shining light. I don’t care that the influencers and instagrammers continue to post their daily “be kind” shit. Your humorous and informative posts that you give us are what it really means to be kind.

 

[MaineCoonMama]

Spoiler: Health merail

My lovelies, I'm very sick. I had a phone call with Centrelink this morning and was given 6 months free from having to look for work, normally they go by every three months and I have to supply a Medical Exemption. They have access to my medical files so I'm wondering if they know something I don't know yet? So weird. I have GP and specialist appointments next week so I should find out what's going on then. Meantime I'm in an awful lot of pain, today I felt like someone was grabbing me under my hipbones and digging in. It hurt like nothing I've ever felt before, a really deep ache right inside, made me cry.
I am lurking on the MT for now, just know I'm nodding along, laughing and hearting where appropriate.
PS Nurse Pooh is taking good care of me. That cat has a weird 6th sense when it comes to me being crook, he's only left me to get his tea and have a drink then came straight back to bed to make sure I have enough cat fur on me. Soz for the essay.

 

[Falkor]

Mr F has poached me a chicken breast and made me sprout and potato mash to go with it - nice gentle comfort food. It's so good to be home.

 

[Falkor]

Little Nine attempting to mug my brother in law for more food

Had my MRI but not the CT and they won't let me eat until I've had both. Bloody starving

 

[traumatised sideboard]

So happy for you @Falkor what wonderful news

Your son's enthusiasm for Slopbot brings me great joy @ContentCrunch

@heretoreaditall2019 things are a bit grim ngl but I've got a meds review next week so maybe something helpful will come of that. Nothing good on the food front either, I've been mainly eating out of tins plus the family size pack of stir fry veg I accidentally bought as it looked a reasonable size on the shelf when I did my panic shop. Browsing Deliveroo earlier I did find out there's a new place near me that does chicken and waffles?? They also do burgers with doughnuts as the buns which sound ...maverick. Hope you are well dear heart

Everyone gets hearts today

 

[ContentCrunch]

Hi darlings, how’s your Sunday going? This Mrs Bucket chat has prompted a memory. I know this is going to sound very strange, but the week before my mother died was one of the happiest times I can remember….not because she was awful but because she was wonderful, funny, brave, irreverent. That last week, all her children were with her, we just walked away from our lives, partners, jobs. We were just there, all together. She knew it was the end and was utterly without fear about it. We had some of the best conversations of our lives with her, about everything under the sun. It was like a cushion of love, if that doesn’t sound too boaky. Anyway, there was an ex daughter-in-law who was very keen to come and stay two days before Mummy died; she wasn’t a popular person in the family even though Mummy always tried to be kind to her (no idea why, she was/is horrible). My brother came into the room where my sisters and I were with Mummy and said ‘Um….Jenny (not her real name obvs) is thinking of booking a flight to come and see you’….and Mummy sighed heavily and said ‘do I seriously have to get up off my deathbed to hoover and polish for Bloody Hyacinth BOOKAY’….and Christ, we laughed so hard.

I can relate, same with my dad he passed away in 2021 after a short but brutal battle with cancer. I nursed him at home with my step mum for the final six weeks. My best memory in that final week was taking him for a spin in my 17 year old entry level sports car, after a telling off about how filthy it was (like I cared about washing me car when my dad was dying!) it was a warm spring day and he was very frail and in a wee Willy winkie nightgown… (only 56) because clothes hurt in but he wanted to come for a drive on the roads he taught me to drive on, with the roof down, So we blasted our 80s electro and he said go past my work I want to mooney them! thankfully he didn’t - but we laughed and laughed he took 40 minutes to get him out when we got home and step mum was a bit cross… after that he wrote me a shopping list of car cleaning essentials including brasso for the scuffs, on the back of an envelope because the cancer had spread to his brain it took him over an hour, with wobbly handwriting… he was so determined though. I have it framed 🥲 he didn’t really speak or get out of bed again after that day, but we were so happy though in that car in those moments in those last few days. I cherish that day.

 

[Falkor]

I am still only in #449 on the MT and although it was so eating to jump into real time when the I saw the Guardian article I'm making myself do it in order.

Mixed day here.

Spoiler: TMI warning

I got my catheter out after 9 days and oh God, the relief!!!

The lovely doctor who approved that said I could potentially go home towards the end of the week too, so all was looking promising, and then they sent me for a CT scan to check progress and my bloody pancreas is actually more inflamed now than it was 4 days ago!

This should not be happening, so apparently it's going to go a bit House MD round my bed tomorrow when my own consultant is back in as they try to figure out what's going on.

But a lovely brightside is that Mr F's brother has offered to drive up to ours for a few days and croft sit, so Mr F can come down and see me. Very lovely of him, as it's 10 hours each way.

 

[Falkor]

Oh God it's good to be home! Didn't realise how much I've missed Marmite - I tried asking for it in hospital for breakfast and they said they had it and sent marmalade instead. Slept for 11 hours last night with two very overprotective dogs cuddled up next to me. Stairs are still a bit of a challenge because my legs aren't used to them and I've lost nearly a stone with probably another stone of excess fluid still to drain off, but that will still leave me at a healthy weight for me, so not too worried - I think I've had fluid building up since the summer, because that's when my stomach started to change shape and my weight started to increase no matter what I ate or didn't eat.

Much as I want to go and see the horses, who are two fields away from the house, my plans for today are shower, meds, sofa and that's about it.

 

[Falkor]

Had an email that's cheered me up, there's a lovely lady in Aberdeenshire who turns fleeces into woven rugs, so I sent her Badger and the other Shetland crosses first fleeces to make something out of. I've just reached the top of her list and she has washed Badger's fleece and says it's beautifully soft with a long staple, so that is going to be made into a cowl to keep me warm in winter and the other five are being turned into a pair of bedside rugs for nice warm toes in the morning.

 

[Falkor]

Got within 45 minutes of going to theatre and then the surgeon came up and said because my heart rate is still slightly up and my stomach is still very distended she'd prefer to wait until tomorrow when the full gastric surgery team is available, just to be safe.

Understand her logic, but pretty disappointed. At least I get to have my roast beef for lunch (the food in here is surprisingly good!)

 

[Saltfish84]

My last one was a self-administered swab, much easier and I didn't cry.

I’m only going because my self-administered swab was positive for HPV and it never has before …ugh. Wish I could get drunk before hand but since I’m working and then picking up my son - probs not a good idea.

@houseofhoop we can dread together

 

[Smol Pixel]

This was my morning (after a few hours o the MT obvs)

I cried. But at least it’s done (for now). Have to wait up to 8 weeks to find out if they will actually give me any money.

In the meantime I suppose I should get dressed and/or eat something before the kids get back from school.

Lots of love to all you marvellous ninnies. Im in a real slump (and trying not to be too terrified of further spiralling) but you lovely folk are really helping.

 

[MaineCoonMama]

Some good news, my mitherers. Results back from the colonoscopy were all clear (last time I had pre-C polyps) so yay me! I have diverticular disease though which could be the cause of some of the pain I'm experiencing.

It's a nice day here so I'm going to look at the lake near me later on, there are always loads of dogs there. It's going to be 37 degrees tomorrow but there's a cool change coming in straight after (we often get just one hot day then a change) so I'm planning on sitting in front of the aircon all day.

 

[Vroo]

Apparently I have a crescent shaped cervix which may make smear more ‘uncomfortable’ than usual- nurse who mentioned this at last test was so reassuring etc that it was least uncomfortable by far

[ISPOILER blood test ][youngest v has had underactive thyroid since she was 8, her veins are still really tiny so practice nurse always uses a baby needle to take blood, maybe this could help other grays?]

So we have had a sad/happy weekend- mr v mum sadly passed away this weekend, she’d been ill for a while and poor mr v has been very stressed and sad. To cheer him up we brought forward plans to extend family & now have a new friend Clemmie

 

[threetintender]

God, I love this thread so much and all the people in it. I burnt the shit out of dinner so we had some toast and laughed about it as we scraped the remnants (with difficulty) into the food bin. I find myself thinking about people here randomly in my day and always with a feeling of affection and concern. I’ve had a shit 2022 when I got so stressed at work I started to cry at work one day and couldn’t stop for months. Like a bookcase fell on me every morning when I opened my eyes. Trying to climb out of that is very feckin’ hard. But I am now back at work in a different but very interesting role since the start of the month, working 4 days a week so I have a Wednesday off. It’s so good. 100 day dress ramblings; I’m able to do it because after 22 years of being on the front line I am now entirely office and phone based, so I can do the challenge. Day 4 today and nobody in the office has noticed because, who knew, people don’t really look at what a person is wearing. I realise that I can do this because I’m no longer in danger of having stuff thrown at me as has been happening (not often, thankfully) for the last 22 years. Many examples but a few standouts. Cold tea (fortunately) over my head. The contents of a cat litter tray poured into the open window of my car. In a massive solid lump so quite easy to deal with. The worst was a very full, open, runny nappy launched at me which hit perfectly. My hair. My good coat. Urgh. So I’ve left that behind and can indulge the thought that I no longer have to face that risk.