Badger Galore
Staying ‘Up Over’ for a while.
The Sixth Doctor.
So…ever since I have been here with Mum she has had an irritating cough every, now and then. Sometimes she ends up being sick and other times it's as if she is choking. It is very distressing to witness. She always says it sounds worse than it is and it is just a tickle in her throat that causes it but I don't like it.
After about a month of it not going away I phoned the doctor.
Now getting a quick doctor's appointment here is almost as rare as winning the lottery but Mum is registered as ‘housebound’ at her surgery. I rang at dead on 8.00 am on the morning in question and put in my request for a home visit, describing Mum’s symptoms. I was told it would be added to the home visit roster and a doctor would ring later to find out more.
The first doctor, we shall call him William Hartnell, rang about 11ish and I went through the symptoms again. He said he would call to see her later and he did.
Previously, while in hospital, after her fall, the doctors had upped Mum’s blood pressure medication and given her an extra tablet in the evening, Ramipril.
William Hartnell listened to Mum's chest and said he could hear a slight rattle so prescribed a short course of antibiotics and also took her off the Ramipril because, in some cases, it turns out it can cause a cough in patients. He changed it to another medication and went on his way.
The cough continued.
So after another month I rang the doctors again. This time I had trouble getting through at dead on 8.00 am and finally got through about 5 minutes later and discovered I was 45th in the queue! Unbelievable!
Luckily, you can hang up but your place stays in the queue and they ring you back later when your turn finally arrives. They rang back about 45 minutes later and once again I waxed lyrical about Mum's cough.
The second doctor, we shall call him Patrick Troughton, turned up without another pre-visit call. Once again he listened to her chest, thought he could hear a rattle and prescribed another short course of antibiotics and said that the replacement medication for Ramipril can also cause a cough (!) so he took her off that but this time didn't replace it.
The cough continued.
The third doctor, we shall call ‘her’ John Pertwee, was called a month later. No antibiotics this time but she sent her for an endoscopy at the hospital which was carried out just over a week after his visit. Nothing untoward was found in her throat but they discovered she had a hiatus hernia which we already knew about. I asked if that could be the cause of the cough but the nurse said that was unlikely.
The cough continued.
The fourth doctor came another month later, we shall call him Tom Baker. He sent her for a chest X-ray to rule out any lurking nasties of which there were, happily, none but the cough continued.
The fifth doctor, Peter Davidson, upped Mum's reflux medication from 20mg a day to 80 mg a day, for a fortnight but the cough continued.
The sixth doctor….doctor who?…Colin Baker of course, heeded the call a few weeks ago and prescribed Gaviscon after every meal and before bed and recommended a 20mg reflux tablet morning and night.
With bated breath I think there is some improvement at last. She still coughs on and off but it doesn't seem to be as much or as intense as it was.
Thanks be to the sixth doctor! We might not need Sylvester McCoy!
Ups and downs.
So…last Friday we got out for a walk by Hadrian’s Wall, from Housesteads Roman Fort to Steel Rigg, via Sycamore Gap and back to Houseteads through the farmland north of the wall. It was a bit breezy but remained dry for us. We had lunch at Twice Brewed Inn before heading back on duty.
Beauty and the Beast.
So…this last weekend we got away for a few days in Newcastle, on the north eastern side of the country. We stopped off in Hexham on the way over. I had not really looked around Hexham apart from going to a concert there a few years ago and was glad that we did have a look around. It is quite lovely with its Abbey, Old Gaol and parklands and well worth a visit. Similarly, I have never spent time in Newcastle exploring the city apart from quick visits to the quayside for concerts and Ikea and the Metro Centre at Gateshead.
Oh Dear! Newcastle was not so lovely. We could not get over the amount of litter everywhere. It just felt as if the people there did not care or had no pride in their surroundings unlike Hexham. It was loud and brash with overcrowded bars, staggering hens and stags and it did not help that I was leapt upon, just walking up the street, by a pitbull which just missed biting my hand off! It was on a lead and its owner yanked it back and smacked it but it did not help Newcastle’s case.
There were some nice surprises though. I didn’t know about the Cathedral nor that there was a castle, despite a probable clue in the city name. I didn’t know that it had been a walled city and that parts of the wall still remained that were not built by Hadrian. The nicest surprise was all the Kittiwakes nesting on ledges on the Tyne Bridge and the Baltic Art Gallery. They spend most of the year out at sea and come to central Newcastle, of all places, to nest. Go figure!
We had some lovely meals out, Nadon Thai the first night and Wagamama the second night. I had not been to Wagamama’s for ages and we felt it was a bit of a food chain cop out but we wanted something quick before the concert we were going to. The food was great though.
Will has developed an allergy to meat, we think because of a tick bite in the past though it has not yet been confirmed. He now avoids beef, pork and lamb but can eat chicken and fish. He ordered a pulled Shitake salad and when it came it just looked like beef. He gave me some to try and I was convinced it was beef so much so we called the waiter over to check that there had not been some mistake. They didn’t do a beef salad. My mind was blown!
The concert we went to was at the Glasshouse, formerly the Sage. We went to see Spell Songs with Karine Polwart, Kris Drever, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter and Jim Molyneux. The songs are from the poems by Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris and Jackie was there too painting as the musicians sang and played. It was absolutely brilliant and like Hexham and Newcastle, new to me but it was a lovely evening.
We headed back along Hadrian’s Wall and found a Roman temple in the middle of a housing estate, as you do. Here is a taste of our days away.
‘Well, here’s another nice walk you’ve gotten me into!’
So…on Sunday we got away to South Lakeland, down the Barrow Peninsula, to Ulverston, birthplace of Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame. We were there to see Kate Rusby at The Coronation Hall in the evening but had time for a lovely walk up to the monument on Hoad Hill and dinner at The Mill back in town before Kate’s lovely concert.
