Comfort food required!

Today should have been very straightforward. The plan was to have a quiet morning at home. Then I was going to meet the Poetry Walk for lunch and walk a very short distance with them by the Haltwhistle Burn. I would read out my poem and then wait to join them for tea after the walk.  Mum was going with Liz to hear Chris Mullins speak in the Book Festival.

Instead, Mum had a bad night with a painful shoulder which was very swollen. She could not even dress herself. We spent a happy few hours in A & E, where she eventually had bloods taken and an xray. 

The nurses were very kind and helpful. Sadly the radiographer was not. Mum was in a wheelchair at this point, looking more like her 93 years than usual.  Her sore shoulder was forced into the position for a chest xray and, despite saying she was there for a shoulder xray, the radiographer went ahead with the chest xray.  She had not checked Mum's name or DOB and, more importantly, did not listen to the patient.
Did she manage to say "Sorry, I made a mistake"? Of course not. This grieves me. I spent hours teaching medical students how to behave when they make mistakes. Always say sorry, even if you think you are right!  The incident left a sour taste in the mouth.

By the time we drove to Haltwhistle, the poets were dispersing, but we enjoyed the tea. At home later, we ate eggie bread for supper and then I prepared strawberries for Mum (her favourite).  The tea bread and millionaire's shortbread was made by Jean and Violet.

I could write quite an account of all the people we observed in A & E today as they arrived with their limps and cuts and bumps.  It was quite entertaining at times, but there was no internet, so you have to make do with what you have in front of you for amusement.

On the good news front, the missing iPad charger has been found in very mysterious circumstances, making the likelihood of a poltergeist in the house even higher than we thought!!! (Who was it who hid the rubbish bin that belongs in the lounge last week?  How did this missing connection make it into a drawer with underwear?)


I have had only one glass of red wine, honestly!!