Easter weekend started off so well with the promise of sunshine, lovely food, Zumba in the garden and barrel loads of chocolate, and a new book review.
Saturday I received my first Canadian review for my YA fantasy The Curse of Time Book 1 Bloodstone. I was thrilled and posted about it on my Facebook feed.
But, this is what happened around lunchtime Easter Sunday.
My mum hasn’t been too well and in the morning her face swelled up from her right cheek all the way up to her eye. I saw how bad it was whilst skyping with her at 1pm. (My mum and dad live in Edinburgh.) I mentioned I’d google her symptoms and get back to her with some advice.
Well, I did just that but when I tried to call her back her phone was engaged. I rang and rang. I called her on the landline and on her mobile – still no reply. My mum never keeps her mobile on! It turns out she had been calling the 111 number for 45 minutes. That doesn’t bode well if you are gasping for breath and needing urgent care. Eventually, she got through and was advised by the doctor to go to the Royal Infirmary Hospital.
At last I managed to talk to her just as she was about to leave the house in a taxi. My dad was throwing a nervous fit about her going to hospital at this time, so near the peak of COV19. Rightly so. But, as she has glaucoma, not going could mean she might go blind.
He was also upset that he didn’t go with her. My lovely dad even called himself a coward. Poor dad, he’s thirteen years older than my mum. At ninety one, he’s no coward. Far from it, I reassured him that he did the right thing staying at home. Bless him.
So, what next? I called my brother who like me was worried, and a little upset that mum had gone out gardening and been bitten by something… Instead of staying away from unnecessary chores. Normally, mum and dad have a paid gardener to do their garden upkeep, but with the Coronavirus…
On the way to the Royal Infirmary the taxi driver kept mum entertained. He was a very chatty guy, (as is my mum who loves nothing better than a good old natter,) but his speciality is: doom and gloom. Poor mum had to listen to his thoughts on deaths, suicides, and all manner of Coronavirus horrors. Not really what you need whilst on the way to hospital.
When the taxi driver arrived neither he, nor mum could find where she was meant to be going. Her destination for treatment wasn’t A & E, thank goodness. She had to go to another part of the hospital, another building, a fair step, so it’s just as well my dad didn’t go with her. He would definitely have slowed her down.
No one else was there Thank God – No CoV19 patients – which I was worried about. The first thing they asked her to do was to clean her hands with the hospital gel. Good to know. She saw the doctor straight away who checked the swelling on her cheek and prescribed her antibiotics. And she was out of there as fast as her 78 year old legs could take her.
I suspect in a weird kind of way it was a little adventure for her. Being cooped in day after day does strange things to your mental health. And mum loves to chat and go out. Now she’s home, as a precaution she’s washed all her clothes, taken off her shoes and coat and washed her hands.
Hospital is really not the place to be going at the moment. But I understand that she had to go. Sometimes there is no choice.
Phew, now I can relax a bit. Please God. Keep them safe and well.
All seemed calm until…
The evening… when my youngest remarked that she didn’t feel well. This kind of announcement pre-coronavirus would normally be met with a general look of concern and a “What’s wrong?” But nowadays the response is heightened to: sheer panic, searching looks and examining symptoms. It seems that she has a stomach ache – I reckon anxiety has brought this on – about life in general, her study /work worries, and sadness at not seeing her Grandma’s and Grandpa. Grandma’s going to hospital probably triggered this. But, nevertheless I will be keeping an eye on her. Worrying times.
How was your Easter Sunday? I hope it was okay?
There are no certainties in this strange world we are living in. All we can hope for is that we stay safe and well, care for each other, and let kindness prevail.
Stay safe, don’t go out unless you have to. And only go to the hospital if your doctor advises you that you must.
I discovered these posts on Levine Lowdown – about the political, economic, and mental health aspects of Coronavirus by Guest author Sam Zweck and The Positives of Coronavirus. Please do read:
