Thursday 15th November

Well.....tonight you have the "old man" writing the blog...that is, with help from daughter on how to log on (!), and "useful" suggestions from sons 2 and 3 (who are making full horizontal use of the sofas watching tv while I type).

Jilly has had a bit of a rough day, although she was fine when I left for town first thing this morning. I came home at lunchtime to find her asleep in bed following a far from normal morning. It seems that she felt unwell (to put it mildly) while walking the dog first thing, and came home abruptly feeling very sick and in general pain.......she "spent some time" in the bathroom and then retired gracefully to bed (although I'm sure she felt anything but graceful).

The hospital was called for advice, but we haven't called back again or needed to go to get any additional drugs. I do wonder if she should have taken the anti-sickness pills, as this is the first time Jill has been sick for a long time, but also the first time she hasn't been given the anti-sickness pills to take if required. Sods law was that we did have stacks of them in the cupboard, but took all our "old" drugs back to the hospital when they told us that they thought all the treatment had been probably completed.

As I type she is sleeping fitfully but not in too much pain....we were both trying to work out if we remember things being like this during chemo earlier this year.....we're not sure....certainly we didn't have much sickness at all....but then there were pills to be taken regardless. i think that tomorrow we'll get some more pills and take it from there. My hope is that in 24 hours we'll be back to normal ...... well, as normal as we can be under the circumstances.

For those of you who need to know the culinary and canine details for the day ...... Jessie went with Jack (who got up to "assist" when Jilly first felt unwell) around the meadow this morning, and I took her on the beach this afternoon after cancelling a couple of unimportant meetings......she came back exhausted from chasing just about every seagull in St. Catherine's, but I still found her looking for another outing after supper this evening. We had a quick spin around the field in the dark.....how lucky we are to have our own dog walking areas up here....over three quarters of a mile of our own paths....and that's without the woods.

Seeing as it's Professional Masterchef on the tele this week, we had a "Jack special" for supper.....toad in the hole downloaded from Delia Online!! Excellent food enjoyed by all......all except Jilly, who made do with a glass of water and a dry round of toast !! we're all grateful she managed to cope with that and didn't feel sick again after eating and drinking.

It doesn't seem quite so easy to type amusing anecdotes while Jilly is not feeling great, so I'll leave it there, and we can all look forward to having her ladyship back in the Editor's Chair tomorrow evening.....normally she starts typing as I head for bed at about 23:00 (no wonder she's tired!!).....anyway, that's it for now....a big "Thank You" to all of you who have been inclined to follow the blog so far this year...between the blog and the dog, Jilly has had plenty to keep her mind occupied.

Now to see if I can find a suitable quote.....(where does she find them every night? )....here we go,

 There are no adequate substitutes for father, mother, and children bound together in a loving commitment to nurture and protect. No government, no matter how well-intentioned, can take the place of the family in the scheme of things. 
Gerald R. Ford