Tag Archives: vomiting

Saturday 24th March 2018 – YOU DON’T WANT …

… to know about last night and this morning. I mean – you’re probably still eating your tea or something. But for those of you who are aware of the vernacular, we had another “Verdun” session through the night.

No sense in sending out for help though because it didn’t do me much good last time – just a case of riding it out and once I’d calmed myself down again I managed to go off to sleep – and slept until midday. Good job that I had remembered to switch off the alarm.

But I had been on my travels though. Dealing with all of the punk rock bands from the mid-late 70s that had female singers or musicians.

Anyway, I crawled (and I did, too!) into here and onto the sofa dragging the quilt and the pillow behind me, and here I stayed all day. Apart from the odd (and they were very odd) trip down the corridor. No food or anything like that, but then again, what doesn’t go in cant come out, can it?

Wednesday 27th December 2017 – I WAS RIGHT …

… last night about having a relapse last night, that’s for sure.

But first, having had a really early night I was well away with the fairies.

I was on an Arctic expedition last night – but not one that was doing anyone any credit. There were two camps – the advanced camp and the upport camp and they were both beset in the ice. The advancced camp was having a great deal of difficulty, being ice-bound as it was and was badly in need of support and supplies. However these were unlikely to come from the support camp which was organised in a totally chaotic manner and nothing was moving forward. I spend most of my time shuttling between the two, trying to see if I could hustle things along. But without any effect. And when sponsors started to reclaim their equipment I knew that the writing was on the wall for everyone.
After a little break involving a trip down the corridor and something to drink, I was back again. Living i extremely straightebed circumstances in a derelict shed full of waste and rubbish, rather like my barn in France. There was an old van in there and there was another couple – someone I knew from University in fact – living in it with his girlfriend. She needed to go to the bathroom, and so did I, so I offered to take her but the guy who was rather possessive refused to let her. So I asked if I could come through his van to leave the building rather than fighting my way all around. After I’d set foot out of the building she came – he’d agreed to let her go. She was carrying a ironing board and something else that needed to be delivered, both of which were to somewhere up in the Middlewich Street area of Crewe, one of which was an Indian takeaway. But I couldn’t remember where these places were which was rather bizarre.

I was awake fairly early but in no real hurry to leave the bed. I didn’t manage any breakfast though but nevertheless drifted along with the morning doing a little of this and a little of that.

The big mistake was making myself a bowl of soup in the early afternoon. I didn’t manage to drink much of it – and about an hour later back it came. And that was that.

It wasn’t much later that I went to fetch the quilt and the pillow – and there I spent the rest of the day – and the night too – flat out on the sofa hardly moving.

But the cough is back in spades again, and so is the nausea and vomiting. I’m just going to drift into graceful oblivion and if I’m feeling up to it, I’ll be back at the doctor’s tomorrow.

I just can’t go on like this.

Wednesday 20th December 2017 – IT HASN’T …

… become any easier or better today. In fact, I’ve probably hit rock-bottom today.

The nadir of it all was when I didn’t eveb have the strength to take the top off a bottle of pop. That’s enough to make anyone feel ill.

I had a nuit blanche last night, which is hardly a surprise seeing the amount of sleep that I had yesterday. I cancelled the alarms but even so, I was still awake at alarm-going-off time.

Mind you, it wasn’t until about 07:45 that I left my bed. I took my quilt and pillow with me and moved to install myself on the sofa as soon as I had taken my medication.

I had a slight interruption though with a major attack of nausea. That was the worst one to date, and it floored me completely. I should have gone out later to pick up the medication that had been ordered yesterday, but there was no chance of that the way I was feeling.

Instead, I’ve spent all day on the sofa asleep. Although I did manage to force down a bowl of porridge during te course of the morning.

One thing that I have done which hasn’t helped matters at all is that I’ve coughed so much that I’ve pulled a muscle in my chest. And I’m in agony whenever I cough.

US Granville were playing their final match of the season tonight and I had every intention of being there. But no chance of that. I’m going to bed – to sleep for ever I hope.

I wish that I was dead.

Tuesday 18th October 2016 – THIS IS LOOKING OMINOUS AND I DON’T LIKE IT AT ALL

Here in my little room at the head of the stairs, I was just dropping off to sleep round about midnight when a couple of people came in. They said goodnight to each other in a tone of voice that could have been heard all over the city, but just as I was about to go out and tell them to shut up, they went their separate ways.

But that wasn’t all.

About 15 minutes after the girl in 1204 had gone to bed, she was up and in the bathroom. In fact, she was in there twice. And now the whole toilet area in the first-floor bathroom is plastered in vomit and the smell is disgusting. Anyway, I’m not tolerating this for a moment and first thing this morning I was on the telephone to the owner to complain.

It’s not his fault of course and I went to great lengths to explain that to him. he can’t be held responsible for that, but he ought to know about it and to come round and apply his foot to the nether regions of the people responsible.

So much for my early night and my good sleep. I was tossing and turning for hours after that.

However, I must have gone off to sleep at some point because I went off on my travels. I was with a large group of people, refugees, heading somewhere or other. We camped for the night in a park, setting up our camps in little family groups. I of course was on my own but there was a small, young family quite close to me and I had to pass them to go down to the lake for water. There was something going on with three young cats too, but I’m not very sure as to where they all fitted in to this story.

And how nice it is to be back in my little room (disgusting neighbours notwithstanding). The alarm went off at 07:00, followed almost immediately by the morning cacophony from the church across the road. It’s good to be back. And so I managed an early breakfast.

Now, I don’t know if you have been paying much attention to what I’ve been writing here and there about the Muskrat Falls in Labrador – the new hydro-electric plant that they are building that I visited in 2014, and how it has been claimed that a German U-boat has been discovered at the foot of the falls.

It seems that there is some kind of progress being made in this direction, and someone has tentatively identified it as U-851, a U-boat that disappeared off Newfoundland on or after 27th March 1944. She was a long-range cruising U-boat and was on her way to join the Monsoon wolf-pack operating in the Indian Ocean when she vanished.

After breakfast I did some work on my website for a few hours and although I updated some of it, my heart wasn’t in it. I was too tired after last night, I reckon.

And so instead I went out to Caliburn to sort out a big IKEA shopping bag. With that, I went off to the Carrefour near the footy ground to do some shopping. I’d run out of hummus and the salad mix that I like. A nice, steady walk that will do me good.

Back at Caliburn, I picked up a couple of books (I’m running out of reading material here) and a couple of other bits and pieces that I need, and then I walked back here.

Having sorted myself out, next stop was to fill the IKEA bag (you knew that there had to be a reason, didn’t you?) with all of the dirty washing, including some stuff that I didn’t have time to wash in Canada, and nipped off to the launderette and did the lot. Now I have all clean clothes so I can have a good shower and a change of clothes tomorrow. And quite right too.

Meanwhile, I’ve had a minor disaster here. Being stranded from my camera on a few occasions in Canada, I’d taken some photos on my Canadian phone. This afternoon, having rescued he phone from my suitcase in Caliburn earlier, I extracted the memory card from the phone but … the photos aren’t on it. They seem to be on the phone’s internal memory.

And, you might remember from about two months ago, the data cable isn’t working so transferring them over isn’t an option that’s available to me.

I could transfer them onto another phone of course, but it’s my Canadian phone, tied to the Bell telephone network, so there’s no network access over here.

All in all, it’s a bit of a disaster right now. Amber is going to have to wait a good while for her tractor-pulling videos with Perdy in the Pink at Millinocket, Maine the other week..

But I couldn’t keep it up for long this afternoon. All of the difficulties of the night, plus my exertions of Sunday and my walk today have worn me out and I crashed out for three hours while a rainstorm raged outside.

Crashed out properly too, so much so that I was off on my travels. In Canada too, in Strider as it happens. I’d come down a steep bank to a junction with a main road which passed over a bow-girder bridge over a railway line. There were several trains about, so I make a complicated manoeuvre … "PERSONoeuvre" – ed … to park up right by the bridge to photograph them. There was something else interesting down there next to the railway line – something like a holiday camp or a park – so I went to look at it. I struggled to find a place to park and ended up parked with the rear end of Strider hanging over the steps down to the place. I walked down with the crowds of people to a gift shop which doubled as the kiosk for entry into the place, but when I saw that the entry fee was $7:50 I changed my mind and walked back.

So now I’m awake and I’ve just had a really good chat with my friend Liz. I’m not in the least bit tired now so I can see me having another bad night’s sleep.

Friday 29th July 2016 – LAST NIGHT …

… was very much like the other nights just recently. Going to sleep fairly early and then waking up at regular intervals during the night. This is wearing me out and how I long for a really good sleep.

I did however fit in a little nocturnal ramble somewhere. I don’t remember too much about it except that it involved FC Pionsat St Hilaire, a shot at goal that hit the post and rebounded back into play and then the backspin on it that took it just over the bar and onto the roof of the net.

And I learnt something new about my room-mate – not only does he snore occasionally, he talks in his sleep too. But then I shan’t be troubled by any of that tonight because he left hospital this afternoon. I’m on my own tonight so I hope that I’ll be able to take advantage of it.

07:30 was when I awoke this morning, thoroughly exhausted, and it took me a good hour or so to come round. I had my breakfast much later than everyone else – apparently they wanted me to have a blood test this morning.

Hermione the doctor came to see me a little later on. The infection is going down now so they are going to keep me on the antibiotics until Monday. On Monday I can have yet another session of Mapthera and provided that there are no unpleasant side-effects, I can go back to my little room in town.

Talking of little rooms, the girl from Social Services came to see me a little later this morning. And she had quite a job because, as tired as I was, I was absolutely stark out. Well and truly crashed. She’s come up with another option of a place to stay. It’s further out from the centre where I want to be, but it seems to have private facilities (and kitchenette) and it’s slightly cheaper than where I am now. I shall follow that up in due course when I’m out of here.

I managed a good lunch, except for the diced swedes that were in a cheesy milk sauce and the soup which tasted of nothing but salt. I seem to be eating a little better now, which is good news.

This afternoon I had a chat with Liz and with Rosemary on the internet. Rosemary has invited me to England for a few days which is really nice of her. But I’ll need to be in good shape if I go. I don’t want to take a pile of microbes and viruses with me.

Later on after tea I crashed out again, only to be awoken by a nurse who wanted to take my temperature. This is what usually happens when I make myself comfortable – someone always comes along to spoil it. And I had a couple of attacks of nausea this evening. I don’t know why that was.

And so I’m on my own tonight. No room mate to distract me, keep me awake or to awaken me after I’ve dropped off. What this means in real terms is that there will be half a dozen nurses coming along to awaken me instead.

That’s what usually happens, isn’t it?

Thursday 15th July 2016 – WHO WAS IT …

… who was crowing yesterday about how well he was feeling and how the crisis might be behind him?

Yes, we’ve had a relapse today, haven’t we?

After lunch I was sitting down here in my room doing nothing very much by the way of anything, and suddenly I came over all tired. And not a simple “tired” where you yawn and go to sleep, but a huge physical “tired” that totally wiped me out. It was as if the batteries had gone completely flat.

It wasn’t just a simple case of lying down on the bed either – I was under the covers totally flat-out and I didn’t have the strength to move even a finger. And that was that.

First thing that happened when I awoke at about 17:00 was that I was violently sick. Having anticipated this (because I’ve been here before and more than once too) I’d brought the waste bin (which was lined with a bin liner) to the side of the bed. Thus we were able to avoid a catastrophe.

I also had to struggle (and it was a struggle too) to the bathroom a couple of times during the evening.

All in all, not a very successful second half of the day at all. I’m feeling quite miserable and depressed about this, just when I thought that I was doing so well.

I had a reasonable (well, for these days) sleep last night but not the mega-sleep that I was expecting after my exertions of the last couple of days. An early breakfast, followed by a shower, and then to tidy up downstairs because it’s moving day.

My new room, the one where I’ll be staying for the rest of my time here, is small and tired. But the bed is extremely comfortable, for which I am very grateful and there’s a sink. It looks out over the rear of the premises, which might be good in some respects but it’s also the point nearest the church and the flaming bells.

Still, you can’t have everything, I suppose.

Dodging the impressive rainstorms, I nipped into town for my baguette for lunch – and then it all started to go wrong for me.

Well, I suppose that I should have expected something like this. It’s a long, hard road that will take me to the end of my treatment and it isn’t going to be easy.

Well, never mind.

Thursday 5th May 2016 – ONE THING THAT I HAVE LEARNT …

… from these most extraordinary nocturnal rambles that I’ve been having is that when you lash out in the middle of the night, you really do lash out.

There I was, in Stalbridge Road in Crewe having a crafty little doze at the side of the road in Caliburn when someone’s hand sneaked in through the open window to grab a small box that was on the passenger seat beside me. I grabbed hold of the hand, broke a finger, exited via the door of Caliburn and gave this person a resounding kick up the backside, which sent my perfusion support, side table and empty bottle of Sprite flying across my little hospital room – and hurting me on the foot in the process.

And so we learn. And this might also explain a few of the cut and bruises that I find upon myself every now and again.

This wasn’t all that happened in the night either. Nerina and I were walking along Rope Lane in Shavington near to the Vine Inn, disagreeing with each other as usual, when this monstrous kind of animal turned up and started harassing me. I chased it away much to Nerina’s disappointment, but this animal quickly showed us why it was so monstrous and as you are probably eating your breakfast right now, I won’t go into details.

As for my day today, this morning was as usual. Dozing in bed and going to the bathroom was how I spent much of my day. And in answer to a question posed by a keen reader, I have been weighed this morning, and I’ve lost 8 kilos. I don’t recommend this illness, whatever it is that I have, as a weight loss remedy however

By though lunchtime, we were off again, and I do mean off. The meals came round and the very smell of the cooking is enough to set me off again and so I beat a hasty retreat into the small common room here.

A nurse brought me another Sprite (last night’s was delicious and I enjoyed it so much) and here I stayed until about 15:30. And strangely enough, I felt so much better and that three hours was probably amongst the most pleasant that I have had since I arrived here last week.

Eventually though, I needed the bathroom and so off I went back to my room. However, the atmosphere was quite oppressive all the same and so by 17:00 I was back again in the common room. I stuck it out for about two hours before I had to go back to the bathroom and by then I had come apart again and I was so depressed.

But at least one thing is clear, and that is that there’s some kind of odour or atmosphere in my room and that’s what’s making me feel like this. When I’m elsewhere (like in the common room) I feel so much brighter and so much more alive, and so I’m going to decamp to there tomorrow as soon as I awake, and see how I feel. If it doesn’t work, then I’m no worse off but I reckon that the change of scenery – any change of scenery – will do me good.

My room-mate left hospital today so I’m on my own tonight. I’m looking forward to a decent night’s sleep (at long last) which will make me feel even better, but I bet that something will come along to muck it all about.

Tuesday 3rd May 2016 – AND JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT …

… that things couldn’t be any worse, we had today.

I woke up at about 07:00 and my fist stop was the bathroom where, to go with the vomiting sessions that I’ve had, the other end is now doing the same. And so all that I’ve done is to alternate between sleeping and dashing to the bathroom for one reason or another.

And eating? On the basis of what can’t come out if it doesn’t go in, I’ve eaten (and drunk) nothing today – just a few sips of water. But that’s not worked at all well. I’ve had loads of people come to see me, had loads of pills and tablets, but none of this has worked. I had to give a “stool sample” so they handed me a little container. Now I know that I’m good, but I’m not that good – reminiscing about the sign that I once saw in a public lavatory somewhere –
“we aim to please. You aim too, please”
but skill counted for nothing and in the end they gave me the missing part of the appliance.

With all of this going on, I’m still here. They won’t be heaving me out for a bit, I reckon. Not until I’m feeling more like it anyway. I shall have to make the best of it I suppose.

I was on my travels again too. I knew a little trick about how to make a Ford Cortina Mark IV shorter without cutting the chassis, and I’d done a blue one. So now I was doing a beige one and filming it for the TV but somewhere along the line I’d made a mistake and whilst the front had gone okay I had messed up at the back end and this wasn’t too impressive for television.
I also had the dubious pleasure of watching my chimney fall down. I was looking at it thinking that this won’t be long for this world and it will make a mess when it falls when suddenly the chimney pots slid off. I was half-expecting to hear a crunch as they fell onto a passing car but instead I heard the reassuring crash as they fell into the roadway. And then the two pillars fell, sliding down the roof into the passageway at the side. I looked over the wall into the street and there were two policemen on pushbikes eyeing it up – we were on Chester Bridge in Crewe as it happened. I knew that I had to go down and clear it up and admit that it was all mine and the sooner that I did it the better.
I was also in my house too but it was laid out more like Lieneke’s. I heard a big diesel engine come up to my house so I went into the front room to see. It was a big digger passing by between my house and my barn so I wondered what was going on. I nipped out to see but to my surprise it wasn’t the outside of my house but somewhere that I didn’t recognise at all.

Monday 2nd May 2016 – I’M BACK …

… on the antibiotics again.

And by pure coincidence, I’m back on my nocturnal rambles too.

Last night I started off in my house (but really it was the kitchen and back room of our old house in Vine Tree Avenue). I was in the kitchen with our old collie, Jessie, and my mother and brother were in the other room. I Wished that they would both clear off because I wanted to go to bed for it was late. But clear off they just would not and time drew on and on and eventually the stove burnt out, with just a red glow from the embers.
From here I found myself back in Nantwich, Market Street to be precise, and James Bond was there following a lady up the street for some good reason. I’m not sure why, but it ended up with her turning on hand the pair of them having a good old scrap in which, for once, Bond was not having the upper hand.
Still in Nantwich, there were three girls called Liz who used to hang around together (as if life isn’t confusing enough) and I knew them all very well because in my early 20s I was engaged to one of them and the second had a brother who had a big Velocette motorcycle who once rang me up to apologise when he bought a Honda 4 instead. But returning to our ramble, the one who was interesting me last night and I’ve no idea why was the quiet little blond of the three.
Harry Potter featured in it too at one stage. He was with Tom Riddle and Riddle had put something in Potter’s luggage chest – a weird thing called love, and this was confusing Potter who didn’t understand the feeling, and confused Riddle too who of course having never experienced it himself, didn’t understand the power of the emotion

And talking of nocturnal rambles, I must have broken all records with the number of rambles that I made down the corridor last night. I lost count at about 10.

As for the rest of the day, it can’t be far off the worst of my life. I didn’t eat breakfast, only barely managed lunch and then left my tea tea. I passed most of the day asleep or dozing totally oblivious to whatever was going on.

Round about 19:30 I came to realise who grateful I was that I hadn’t eaten much because whatever had gone in then came out in the most dramatic fashion – with me ending up calling the boys on the great white telephone.

So basically, that was that. A horrible day and it goes without saying that I haven’t gone home yet. They are keeping me in for observation and there’s a lot to be observing right now.

And I do feel ill.