Actually, I've been back for 2 1/2 weeks now, but what with one thing and another just haven't had the energy to do any blogging!
We had a somewhat eventful journey on the way down and, thankfully, a slightly less eventful one back ~ with a somewhat scary hiccup the day after we got to my Mum and Dad's!
I mentioned in my previous post that the weather forecast wasn't good for the 26th November, the day we were due to travel. In the end, after having sat at Kirkwall Airport for three hours listening to announcement-after-announcement cancelling flights, finally it was our turn to be cancelled and the airport was shut by about 1pm, I believe. Loganair were able to get us booked onto another flight the next morning, this time to Edinburgh instead of our original flight to Aberdeen, the thought being that if flights to Luton were cancelled we could get the train into London more easily. So Beverly and I got the airport bus back into town, and battled against the wind for the short walk to her flat ~ there was no point in me going home just for the one night. Originally, we would only have had about a three wait at Aberdeen for our connecting onward flight so by the time all this had happened we were too late to cancel that flight *sigh*
As it turned out, courtesy of Storm Arwen, the trains weren't running on the East Coast either so we had to book an onward flight to Luton, leaving us with an eight hour wait at Edinburgh Airport ~ which was why our original plan had been to travel via Aberdeen. Starbucks became our new home for the day! Thankfully both our flights went smoothly and we didn't have to wait for a taxi at Luton, but it was about 10.40pm when we finally got to my parents' home. Mum, who had been discharged from hospital that day, was fast asleep in bed, and after some tea and toast (neither of us eat well when we travel) we went to bed too.
The next morning (Sunday), we realised that Mum wasn't at all well and called for an ambulance. She was very pale and breathless, and it was obvious that she was in more distress than "just" her COPD. The paramedics were brilliant and gave her a thorough examination. They could hear fluid in her lungs and thought that she might have a clot or infection. She did start to look a little better once they had her on oxygen, and off she went to hospital again. To cut a long story short, Mum spent a week in the Acute Assessment Unit where it was determined that thankfully she didn't have any clots, but did have a lung infection. She finally came home again, complete with oxygen, in the early evening of the following Saturday.
Beverly and I had travelled down to help around the house whilst Mum was recuperating from her surgery, and although being back in hospital wasn't the best scenario, at least she was still recovering from the op. We spent the week spring-cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and stocking the freezer with some homemade ready-meals so Mum and Dad wouldn't have to do so much cooking when we came back home again.
Despite the slight set-back with the lung infection, Mum's actual surgery went well. She has to have a biopsy in January and further treatment following that. It seems that 2022 could be another year of medical worries but we'll just have to cross those bridges if/when we get to them.
Beverly went on to spend a couple of days with her friend, as planned, then went to Hitchin on the 8th. I decided to stay an extra day with Mum and Dad and joined her on the 9th. I was a little worried as I had started to get a dry throat and slight cough, so did a lateral flow before I left to make sure that I was okay. It was negative, which was a relief ~ mind you, the furthest I'd been from the house in the 10 days or so I'd been there was to walk to the dustbin 😉 Having said that, Dad had been out most days to get his newspaper or bits and pieces from the supermarket, so I think that I must have picked up what turned out to be a rotten cold from him!
Thankfully, although Dad did get a cold too, he wasn't too bad and didn't have the cough. Plainly I just don't have the resistance to the germs from "down south" these days 😄 I'm amazed that I didn't pass it on to Beverly as we shared a room on the Thursday night and travelled home together, although we were wearing masks to travel of course. We'd been hoping to meet up with Sam for dinner on the Thursday evening but unfortunately he wasn't too well, so we only saw him briefly. I also didn't have time to meet up with the friends I haven't seen for a couple of years now, but on reflection it was probably for the best as I wouldn't have wanted to pass on my cold to them as well.
We were slightly early leaving Luton, so had to do another circuit when we got to Aberdeen as there wasn't space for us to land. We got ourselves a drink and a sandwich, then settled down for the three hour wait for our flight to Kirkwall ~ only for it to be delayed by a further hour as there was a problem with the plane! In the end a flight from Edinburgh was diverted to pick us up, but we did make up some time and finally got home early evening. It certainly felt like another long and tiring day!
By the time I got to bed I was feeling pretty lousy, and was very cold and shivery. The cough and cold really kicked in, and of course I was doing lateral flow tests for the next few days just in case it was Covid. Thankfully the tests kept coming up negative but I passed the bugs on to poor Adrian, and we spent a good couple of weeks feeling pretty bloody awful. We are both very much better now, although we do still have slight coughs ~ it really has been a horrible cold 😩
Still, onwards and upwards as they say!
