Once Swanage Folk Festival was out of the way, I was looking forward to my holiday on the Isle of Wight with my blind friend Linda. We had a cottage booked on a farm, the same one we went to last year. It is a very dog friendly place and ideal for my greyhound Honey, and Linda's guide dog, Yarna, to relax and have fun running in the fields adjoining the cottages. But ... (you knew that was coming didn't you?) a week before we were due to go away, I got a phone call from Linda about 9pm on the Saturday night to ask me to take her to hospital for the out of hours doctor's surgery. I picked her up and dashed to the hospital. She had considerable stomach pains and kept having hot flushes and shaking uncontrollably when the flushes came. The nice Indian doctor examined her, asked loads of questions, made copious notes, then said she could go home. The only treatment he gave her was an injection to stop her feeling nauseous. He knew she had no-one at home to care for her if she became worse. He told her to come back to A&E the next day if she didn't feel any better along with the page of notes he'd made. We made our way out through A&E as this is the only night-time entrance/exit as a taxi driver arrived calling the name Singh. I looked at the notes and the doctor's name was Singh and I told the taxi driver this. At that moment our doctor came bustling out, divng into the taxi in a hurry. He must have booked him earlier and did not want to be delayed by having to admit Linda to hospital then and there!
Lind was no worse and not really any better the next day although she was not having the same hot flushes and shakes. Suspecting it might be something to do with her diabetes as her sugar levels were up, she called the diabetic nurse Monday morning, who recommended she saw her GP. Linda made an appointment to see her GP on the Wednesday afternoon. This was the Wednesday before the Saturday we were due to go away!
To cut a long story short, her GP phoned the hospital and booked her in for immediate admittance! I took her in and she was admitted that evening. They said she needed a scan to help diagnose her problems and had booked her to have one. She sat there in a nice room of her own waiting for a scan for a whole week! They then sent her home saying they'd book her in for a scan as an outpatient! By this time we were too late to bother going away at all.
When Linda was admitted I contacted our holiday hosts to let them know the situation, and the young lady who runs the cottages has agreed to hold the money to pay for another week another time! How wonderful is that?
So if anyone wants a good, high quality, self-catering holiday on the IOW try here
http://www.littlepidfordfarmcottages.co.uk/
These pics are from our last holiday there. The website has more pics of the empty cottages.
So we are now looking to staying there early April now *sigh*.
Linda is still awaiting her scan. Although the pains have subsided somewhat, they have not gone. I hope they sort her out soon.
While Linda was in the hospital, I had Yarna to stay. She was a delightful guest, although Honey was not too keen at having to share my affection.
Yarna was very well behaved during her visit, once she'd checked out everywhere for anything edible, including all the bins! She and Honey played together out on walks, having lovely runs.
As a 'thank you' for my help, Linda treated me to a show at Poole's Lighthouse arts centre with PAM AYRES my poetic heroine. That was last night and absolutely brilliant!
What a lovely lady Pam is. She did two 1-hour sets, THEN sat for nearly 2 hours signing books and chatting with her fans. I don't know about her but I was exhausted! :)
It was Honey's 10th birthday yesterday and she celebrated by catching the back of her bad front leg, with her toenail on the back paw, while running around. This is a common problem with greyhounds when they run flat out. It bled quite a bit but looks a lot better today, although she is limping a little. I shall watch it for any sign of swelling or infection and take her to the vet if need be.
She looks lovely in her birthday present of a beautiful tassel trim on her collar. What do you think?
