Hernia (by sarah)

I thought I kept pulling the same muscle, a little lump would appear in my stomache just under the rib cage but then dissappear again so I thought it was getting better and was just a waek muscle.

It hurts in a dull aching sort of way so wasn't really urgent or anything but Alaric started to get concerned that it was a hernia - I laughed - nah their in the groin it's just a pulled muscle.

Mum and dad came to stay and Dad having had a Hernia was comissioned to prode my stomache - his conclussion - feels like one to me go to the Dr and stop picking up Jean.

Thinking them all over reacting but fearing they weren't I made an appointment along with one for Jeans toa nials.

The result - its probably a rare type of hernia that occures between the two rows of muscle and its lickly to be a bit of my intesting thats poking threw 🙁 hence other issues I've been having.

So now its make an appointment for a scan just incase its something else or things are more complexe or something and then surgery.

Apparently its all going to happen in the next two months (I've heard that before but this is a different part of the country so things may well be different here).

The Dr tells me that ideally I'm not to lift or move anything heavey including children then looks at Jean who is going, 'Mummy mummy, mil, mil.' whislt stretching out her little arms to be picked up and points out that in actuallity thats not going to happen is it?

I nod and he tells me that in that case if it suddenly gets really painful go to hospital and if I * cough * suddenly have bowl issues of a server nature then to do the same.

As you can imagin I am not happy about this, I left him making notes on his dictorphone about the 26 yr old woman with a lump in the something or other.

I'm horrified with the new restrictions on me - no moving furniture, the luandary is iffy too as is alot of shopping and as for the sewing machine and the preserving pan.... and as for putting the rubbish out and gardening...

It somehow seems increadibly unfair and ontop of that Jean needs picking up you can't avoid that 🙁

Oh well the good news is that her toe nials which have been a bit well wiered since she was born are not infected but one of them is indanger of becoming so. The dr gave me a prescription and showed me how to clean her toes to try and deal with them myself. If they do start getting infected it will be chop chop for poor little Jeans nails but he seemed optomistic that just leaving them would do the trick - I was doing the right thing in not cutting them even though they are all flakey and odd shapes and cutting into the flesh on her toes.

The more walking she does the better they should become as well which is good news 🙂

Rainbow (by sarah)

Yesturday whilst we were coming in from the garden due to a light shower I saw a rainbow - shouted at Al to grab the camera quick and proceeded to run around the garden like a made thing giving my self and stitch and all sorts - here are the results.

Hydrogens new hobbi (by sarah)

Sorry I couldn't resist this I just had to take a photo!

Invader! (by alaric)

When I arrived back at home from dropping Jean and Sarah off in Cheltenham, I was greeted by Helium as I got out of the van. She was rubbing against my ankles and all the usual "Please let me in!" cat behaviour.

But as I approached our front door, I saw another cat run away and dart into the stable. It was the tabby and white one we sometimes see.

Intrigued, I went into the stable, with Helium still following me. All was quiet in there, but the other cat could be hiding anywhere amongst all the furniture, boxes, buckets and gardening tools, so I stood quiet and still for a few minutes. Helium sniffed at the floor a bit, but otherwise just kept rubbing against me, until we both heard a small noise from behind a pile of boxes; her head snapped round and her ears pricked up. She quietly advanced on the place, then she froze, and her back slowly rose into an arch. There was a few seconds of stalemate, then the cat bolted out of hiding. Helium leapt to attack and the other cat tried to jump over her so she only caught its legs, resulting in them both sprawling on the floor, but then the invader was up and away, leaping for the open window. Helium caught up and grabbed its hind legs as it scrabbled through the gap, clawing and biting, but then it squeezed through and was off, Helium in hot pursuit.

I caught up with her in the garden, standing in the middle of the lawn, head raised and ears pricked, scanning the bushes suspiciously, having successfully repelled the invader.

Fault tolerant Web hosting (by alaric)

As Sarah reminded me, I should blog my article:

Fault-tolerant Web hosting on a shoestring