A few days prior to a procedure to fix Mr C’s unexpected health condition that caused us to cancel our Madeira trip in October we had a last minute day trip to London.

We enjoyed a special meal deal in The Ivy looking towards Tower Bridge, our destination for the day. Tower Bridge with its glass walkways and views of London from above is well worth a visit. After our tour of the bridge we had hoped to visit the nearby Tower of London but in winter months it closes earlier, meaning we had run out of time. Instead we visited Foyles book shop where neither of us were tempted to buy anything.

A couple of days later I took Mr C on the 50 minute drive to the hospital (in appalling weather) where his procedure to remove some anomalous non-malignant cells was due to take place. General anaesthetic was administered but when the consultant prepared to do the procedure he found that the anomalous cells had vanished…

He was allowed home rather than having to stay in hospital overnight. Another 50 minute there and back again journey for me. We stopped on the way home to pick up something for our evening meal. A cup of tea was in order and we were tempted by naughty cakes.

As a volunteer I was allowed to see the mansion decked in all it’s glory the day before it opens for public viewing. Visitors are in for a treat.

Due circumstances beyond my control I did not have the opportunity to see the outdoor Christmas Trail as I had intended to do.

I took these pictures whilst walking to register my car for free parking at the local hospital. It was a happy day,  the sun was out, my mum was visiting the hospital for a routine check up and later in the day I was due to for a pampering session at the hairdressers.

A few minutes later my happy bubble was burst…

Mum had fallen over in the clinic and it was decided that her routine appointment had to be postponed. She was taken to A&E by one of the clinic nurses. We waited in A&E for a relatively short while before the routine observations and assessment of what was needed next. The conlusion turned out to be an X- ray of her wrist but they were not worried about the slight bump to her forehead.

The clinician who did mums obs walked her up to the X-ray deparment (the wheelchair provided by the clinic had vanished). The clinician told us to sit in the sideroom after her X-ray, rather than go back to the mayhem of the A&E waiting room.

It was calm, it was lunchtime and we were offered food and drink and for mum more routine observations. We were a little bit worried that mum would be overlooked, so we spoke to one of the nurses. Soon after that two doctors arrived and took mum to a quiet place to assess her injuries. She was deemed as fit apart from a broken wrist which  was put in temporary soft plaster cast by the clinician who did her obs.

She is now back home in her safe place…

Mum had been moved to the escalation ward over night and had started to become delirious as we had suspected she would.

Due to being home a day earlier than expected, we needed to pick up some food supplies. We visited Battlefield 1403 in the hopes that we could also have lunch there. There was a waiting list for tables so we opted to buy the fresh produce and have lunch in Shrewsbury instead.

We chose Palmer’s of Shrewsbury which is a lovely place to eat, drink and to sit and chat a while. After our relaxing refreshments, we picked up the rest of our week’s supplies from Sainsbury’s.

We visited the hospital to see mum where we were able to persuade her to have a drink of water and a cuppa soup.

Now it was time for some well-earned chill out time at home, looking forward to roast chicken.

When we called on mum to take her to breakfast it was obvious that she had become more unwell overnight. She could hardly stand up so we helped her to the breakfast room where she enjoyed her breakfast. We were also pleased to find that the other member of our party had recovered overnight.

After breakfast we made the sad decision to take mum home because she had the early symptoms of another UTI infection.

We were disappointed not to be able to take part in the Easter Morning service in Lincoln Cathedral which was meant to be one of the treats for mum’s birthday.

Back home, we dialled 111 who assessed that mum should attend a critical care appointment in the local hospital within two hours and that they had called ahead to tell the hospital to expect her arrival. However, we found that our local hospital insists that everyone should go through the hospital’s own triage nurses. The triage system labelled her as coming in with vertigo and downgraded her to non-urgent despite us telling them that we suspected she had a UTI and the consequences that we know lead from that.

Mum had a few preliminary tests to rule out a few things and then we sat and waited watching many people come and go. Nine hours later, only mum and another lady, who had been admitted for an orthopaedic problem, remained from the original intakes.

Nine hours was too much for a 91-year-old lady so she decided she wanted to go home but first needed a nurse to remove a canula from her arm. The nurse went to check what was going on and advised that mum was next in the queue and gave an approximate time unless it was bumped by ambulance admissions.

The doctor who saw her was amazing. He talked to mum, assessed and listened to her concerns and accepted that she hadn’t come in with vertigo. From the tests he concluded that she had a UTI infection and, due to frailty, admitted her into hospital for what was left of the night.

This was a relief for me because I knew what would come next…

Today, there was a need for me to visit (just visiting) my local hospital, several times. In between visits we had lunch in the Furnace Kitchen at Coalbrookdale where I chose a croissant filled with butternut squash, caramelized onion and Feta cheese. It was delicious.

Currently many routes to Coalbrookdale are subjected to roadworks and closure. This meant that we had to take the long route home via ‘The Oxbow’ which is stunning after the recent heavy rainfall.

With my hospital walks and a little bit of food shopping (miles) I clocked up at 4.75 miles.