Never a dull moment........

Good morning all and welcome to a Florence blog

Firstly I woke up this morning at around 7am (on my own...will explain in a minute...) to the most beautiful day as I imagine most of you reading this also did. We have had such a rough few days that it made me cry to see such a peaceful, glorious morning with the birds singing and the sun shining - it's been a tough winter hasn't it...let's hope for sunnier times ahead...

Anyway after a few gorgeous peaceful and happy days in our beloved France where we did all the stuff we really enjoy like taking the dog on long walks and playing Rummikub with the kids David started to feel unwell. He had been very happy and well and eating normally, however his stomach became extremely swollen and hard and he started having some severe pains in the top of his stomach. David being David wanted to hang on and see the doctor on our return on Monday (12th) but on Wednesday night he started being sick and when I saw the blood in it I knew we had to get home asap. Here is where French protocol comes into play. We have to have the dog checked by a vet and injected for rabies or ticks (or something) between 24 and 48 hours before we can return home. No amount of me phoning the vet at 3 am on Thursday morning - (which I did - you know me once I get the bit between my teeth!!!) and pleading was going to change the situation and the vet refused to bend the rules for us. So the best I could do was get her down to the vets at 8 am for the injection which then saw us changing our sailing to the first one on Friday morning which was from Caen.

I therefore then set about booking a hotel in Caen which takes dogs and kids and sick husbands - (very rare but found one in the end) and packing up and cleaning the cottage (whilst David slept...and slept...and was sick...and slept....) with the kids help and driving 4 hours up to Caen. David slept the whole way and the whole of the night but woke up on Friday in a lot of pain. Speaking to David's nurse we were very concerned that something had ruptured or burst in his bowel and he was also getting severly dehydrated. However by grit and determination we got him on the boat and sailed home! After a smooth crossing where we spent an extra 50p on a good cabin (Nick and Sarah - that one's for you!!) he managed to sleep most of the way.

On arriving in Portsmouth we made the dash for home only to be foiled by accidents and roadworks on the M25, M1 and A421 so by the time we made it straight to the acute admissions unit where they were already expecting him David was a wreck and so was I to be honest.

1 hour later he was on painkillers, anti sickness medication and had had an x ray and been seen by the surgical team who established that he had not ruptured anything ( thank goodness!) but had some blockage in his bowel which they couldn't see the cause of so they need to give him a scan to find out what is happening. Having catherterised him and given him a nose tube to drain off some of the fluid in his stomach I left him last night still on acute admissions being observed but a lot more comfortable. The title of this blog is the comment I made to him as I left...I did jokingly say I was thinking of having a tattoo done in honour of our 24th wedding anniversary which in on Monday!!!

I think the scan will be this morning and I am obviously heading down there later to see how things are going and will give you an update as soon as I know anything.

In closing I just want to say a huge thanks to Chloe who dropped her plans last night to pick up Dave's painkillers from the doctors and meet us at the hospital to take the kids and dog home and most especially to my amazing, wonderful children, James and Carys who were complete stars the whole time this was happening. I could not have managed without their help and support from beginning to end. I am so proud of both of them and especially James who gave me so many hugs and told me it would be alright but also helped out practically in so many ways without complaint...thankyou son.

Have a wonderful day all...enjoy the sunshine

Florence x