Silent Sunday

Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel laying amongst a field of daisies with just his head visible as he looks slightly to the left. The daisies are small white flowers with multiple petals and a gorgeous yellow centre and are a native plant of the UK 

Back home at last

Dad is finally home at last **does a happy dance** 

In total dad spent 10 very long and unpredictable weeks in hospital after he fell and broke his hip back in April

The outpouring of love from people all over the world asking after dad and wishing him well has been absolutely staggering, I read every message, email and comment to dad whilst he was in hospital and I'm sure it's this outpouring of love that helped my dad to fight and make it through some very dark times

Image Description - The day Andy Awford ex player and manager of Portsmouth FC came to visit dad in hospital and really made his day, it was also the day I discovered just how much trivia dad knows about football. Dad is sitting in a hospital ward on a blue chair beside his bed, Andy is sitting on the right hand side of the frame and both are looking at the camera smiling

Not knowing that many of my dad's friends and acquaintances anymore I joined the local facebook group in my old home town, I shared what had happened and why dad hadn't been seen out and about for a while on his regular morning walk to Tesco's for the daily papers

All my life people have joked that everybody knows

Where does the time go?

I can't believe we're halfway through May already, things have been so hectic since my dad fell and broke his hip last month, yet I seem to have achieved the square route of nothing at all

Dad's currently still in hospital, there are plans to move him to a smaller more local cottage hospital at some point, but soon after his admission to the Royal Surrey it was noticed that dad was having some difficulties swallowing liquids which would set off a massive coughing fit and he was at risk of getting food and/or liquid in his lungs

I reminded the consultant of dad's esophageal cancer diagnosis as we were told this may happen in the future, that if it did we were to contact the oncology unit to see about the possibility of a stent being fitted to enable dad to eat and drink more comfortably, at this point dad was put onto a zero oral liquid and small bite diet

Image Description - My dad sitting on a wooden park bench between Boris the Black Cocker Spaniel on the left and Eko the Golden Cocker Spaniel on the right, it's a rare photo of my dad smiling as he has masked face symptoms these days and isn't aware when he's not smiling 

Dad went downhill really fast that first week

Round up catch up

Although we've been AWOL for the past couple of months I had started writing several posts but never got around to finishing any of them, so I thought what better way to bring you up to speed than to put a few short posts together in one longer post for a quick round up-catch up as I sit here in A&E at the Royal Surrey County Hospital with my dad in the wee small hours 

Unfortunately my dad took a tumble earlier today and dislocated his hip, we had hoped that was all it was as the paramedics took him off to hospital, but x-rays revealed a fractured hip and dad needs surgery to fix

As I post this I'm currently waiting to see the Doctor for more information the information my dad gave me is very sketchy because of his Alzheimer's, he'd already been x-rayed and told he needed surgery before I even got to the hospital in my car, soon as I know more I'll update you

🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾🐾

Jan 24

Boris knows he's handsome and is always camera ready, which is really lucky after a long old day at the eye clinic with my dad yesterday

The worst part by far though was the 90 minutes it took us to get out of the hospital car park and onto the A3 due to the sheer weight of traffic also trying to exit the

Sorry we've been AWOL

Apologies we've been so very tardy about posting recently, the truth is I've been really struggling with my own mental health for the past couple of months

Something happened which made me realise that all was not well in my world and that I couldn't ignore it anymore when I hadn't been in to check on my parents for three days

They weren't totally abandoned as mum has carers that come in first thing each day to help her get washed and dressed, but I just couldn't face another day trying to cope with these two strangers who look like my parents and live in their house, but aren't the people they once were

Nothing prepared me for becoming my parents caregiver, it was forced upon me because I'm the only one near enough to do it. My life has been turned upside down and my own health struggles make things really difficult as I never get the time to just stop and rest up for a few days

 I'm absolutely exhausted with the constant worry