The Storm and the Dentist

A few days ago I awoke to discover that part of the boundary wall in my garden had blown down with the gale force winds in the early hours of that morning.

I could see that the brickwork had fallen onto my neighbour’s garden – about which he is fanatical.

I called the builder and asked him to come in and survey to give a quotation for the repairs.

This was not the start to the day that I had envisaged. I had a dental appointment booked for late in the day which I knew would be most unpleasant. The Dentist had advised me not to drive myself so I had to arrange a community car service car to take me and wait and return.

With the damage to the wall I could not let the dog in the garden unless on a lead.

I had to contact the neighbour to inform him about the wall as I knew he left early in the morning and probably had not seen the brickwork on his lawn.

At the end of the afternoon I was driven to the dentist.  It was indeed unpleasant. I was advised that the injection was a very heavy anaesthetic. Following the extraction I had to wait awhile before being allowed to leave. The nurse took me down to the car and by this time I was definitely shaky. I was very shaky when I got home and just greeted my dog and went upstairs and rested on the bed for the rest of the evening.  Eventually I had to wrap myself up and take the dog into the garden for his bedtime bathroom break.

Unfortunately by next morning I was still shaky but still had to wrap up to take the dog in the garden because the builder could not fit the temporary fence until the next morning.

Then the neighbour sent a text message requesting my email address so that we could correspond about the wall.

In the event I spent three days in bed before I could even consider getting up and trying to go about a normal day.

By this time I had started to receive lengthy emails from the neighbour about the wall. I tried not to reply point by point as I could see this would not improve the matter.

Just as I was beginning to recover from the dental work – during the week the doctor had advised me that it was an age thing and just taking me a long time to recover from the procedure – I received the most unhelpful email informing me that the neighbour had decided that the builder could not remove the waste or bring in new materials across his garden. This was becoming a stressful exchange and the builder was unimpressed.

Two days later I suddenly developed considerable pain across the abdomen, felt shaky and weak. Finally I decided I had to call the out-of-hours service. After several phone calls and repeating my medical history to each person, they booked a visit from a doctor. When he arrived at the house and examined me he thought it was a gastric problem but because of my cardiac history he decided to call the paramedics.  They arrived promptly and were very nice but decided that to be safe, they should take me to A&E.

When you live alone but have a pet there is always the concern for your pet especially if it is a dog that will need to be let out for bathroom breaks.  Just as I was about the be taken to the ambulance a neighbour came over to see what was happening and so kindly offered to let the dog out and feed him breakfast if I was not back by morning. It was so kind of her and I was so relieved.

Once in hospital all the tests were done and several hours later I was told that all the cardiac markers were alright. However, by around 1.0a.m a surgeon came to see me to say that I should have a scan but it couldn’t be done that night but he wanted it within the next day or so.  He told me to expect a phone call the following day.

I duly waited for a phone call the next day and by the end of the day started to call the Ultrasound department but only to reach voicemail. The following day I spent most of the morning trying again and finally around mid-day actually spoke to a person to find that the appointment they have arranged is around three weeks away. They seemed most surprised when I said that the surgeon expected it to be carried out this week.  Obviously surgeons expect but diagnostic departments have different schedules.

Yesterday morning I let the dog in the garden at breakfast and was surprised he did not return in the usual time so I went into the garden to look for him.  To my horror I discovered that he had managed to find a way through the temporary fence and was in the neighbour’s garden. There are a lot of shrubs between the original wall and the temporary fence so it was really difficult to get him back. This finally achieved, I am now back to taking him in the garden each time.

So far 2018 has not shown its good side.