You Couldn't Make It Up
It feels good to be back, at least, to hope that I am really back.
What follows is not a plea for sympathy nor a barrage of excuses but a summary of my week, starting on Tuesday July 9th to the present day, Thursday 18th.
The worst of this week began with a text message to my phone last Tuesday. I won't divulge too much here because it is ongoing, but in short my 81 year old mother was hit from behind by a cyclist who we think was riding a 'motorised bike.' She was on a pedestrian crossing when he hit her at speed and hard, from behind. He knocked her onto her head, rendering her unconscious and as far as he knew, dead. Then he cycled off.
You can imagine the shock, perhaps. Followed by the heartbreak and horror of seeing your elderly mother in so much pain and distress, with such wounds; fractured eye-socket, fractured cheek, fractured hand, cuts to the head that needed stitching, a bleed on the brain plus all the bruising, cuts, aches and pains besides. To have to deal with the knowledge that the individual responsible was too much a coward to face up to what he had done made it all far worse, of course. Mum had something of a relapse the other day due to the severity of the concussion and to her age, no doubt. She has been thoroughly checked out since and, if there is any justice in the world, she is over the worst of it now and well on the road to recovery.
That was the Tuesday. On the Wednesday, I began to become aware of a sore throat. No big deal. Thursday morning it was a lot drier, by Friday morning I had lost my voice and could hardly swallow. I consulted a pharmacist, (as you can't get a GP appointment for love nor money these days) and he assured me that there were 'no immediate causes for concern' and sent me on my way. I went home feeling dreadful, and eventually fell asleep.
Come Friday night, I had rung out of hours emergency and was taken to A & E as I could no longer swallow my own saliva and my airways were slowly closing. Thank God I did. Turns out I had (am still fighting) a 'serious infection of the voice box.' I was hooked up with IV's and put onto an adrenalin nebuliser almost as soon as the doors swung shut. Five days later I am home, but it could have been very different.
That's the one thing I have taken from this last, hellish week. The outcomes of each of these stories could have been very different. I am so deeply grateful to everyone involved in the care of both myself and my mother. If it wasn't for every last one of them, plus my own wonderful family, we could be looking at a whole other ending here.
So, my apologies if I have been incommunicado for a while. I would never willingly ignore anyone for no good reason. But right now we are focusing on getting well again as a family. Still a few loose knots to tie...
Thank you for your understanding and here's hoping things get better from here on in.
S P Oldham.
