Oh the Embarrassment

It is a bright Saturday morning. No Zumba for my wife, so we are both dropping kids off at Saturday morning activities. Daughter successfully taken to ballet and now dropping son of at football.

We register our attendance and walk onto the field. Imagine the scene, parents dropping son off at football. Nothing special about that at all.

As usual I kick around with him until the session starts, except today we have addition of mum.
Mum though, suddenly became invisible. He could not see her. His every move on the field proved he could not see mum.

After football we were met by the words. "Never do that again mum!"
"Do what?"
"Embarrass me like that!"
"Sorry?! What do you mean?"
"You came on the football field and tried to play. You even gestured to take one of my friends!"

My poor boy, his whole face had the look of 'Oh, the shame of it!'

I think he would have stayed calm if we hadn't started laughing  :)

Me and my Jeans

Bought a couple of new jeans from Debenhams this week. On sale and really nice.  Fit well and look nice. Though will admit the wife helped me choose them  :-)

Have a look.

Ears of a stranger

So you know the back story. Me, a hospital bed, an ileostomy, wife pregnant with child.

Laying there in the hospital bed, on a drip and pain killers a button push away, your mind wanders. You feel elston for being alive, fear for the future, worry for your family and most of all regret for things you have not done. That more than any other is the kicker, 'Regret'.

I asked to see the chaplain, not because I was at death's door, or that I was very religious, but I wanted someone to talk to who was not family. Someone I could confide in without having to have a relationship with, if that makes sense; it does to me.

She listened and she listened, I had many a tearful conversation with her but most of all I have memories of that point which I can only describe as "Peace".
Not fond, because it was not a happy time. Not pleasant, because as much as it helped me to talk, it was not a pleasant time.

I do remember out though as a time that brought me peace by being able to talk, cry and hug at that point in time author having it follow me as it would have done if I had spoken with family.

So just for those 3 days which helped give me hope, get pain, anger and frustration off my chest and helped me cope with not being there for my son's 3rd birthday - I dedicate this to the chaplain of Whipps Cross hospital,thank you.

The beginning of Change

Continuing on from my previous post......

So there I was minding my own business, a Friday, end of January, a day off work, child at nursery, myself and my pregnant wife down the shops.
Oooohhh, feel like I'm getting a stomach ache.....what did I eat last night....will have to get home soon....

Stomach ache continued a bit over the weekend but not bad enough for me to think anything major, just my body getting over it.  By Monday stomach was paining a bit and not much was coming from the rear and what was was watery.

Got myself down to my Doc and saw a different doc than my own as it was an emergency appt.
Told to drink lots of water as probably constipation. Visited Doc on next two consecutive days, by 3rd visit, senior doc takes a look and ships me off to A&E with a letter.

A few tests later they decide to keep me in overnight for observation and next morning an egotistical consultant with a gaggle of junior docs comes to visit and in his loudest and most "I know exactly what is going on here" voice tells me after a quick check of my stomach, that I have appendicitis and that it is standard procedure nothing to worry about, be back out within a couple of days and flies off to see the next product on the production line a few beds down from me.

They duly took me down to surgery a little later than planned, a week since I was first at the shops with my twinge.  I was lying on the trolley outside of the surgical room in a state of mild apprehension...never been in surgery before...never been put to sleep...wife, child and child on the way....all sorts of thoughts going round my mind.  Nurse gives me something to help calm my nerves.  It sure did!
Woke up in the hospital ward with that ileostomy bag and some wires coming out of me and hanging off me.

I am told that they opened me up went for the appendix, took it out, saw that it was healthy and then had to open me right up, take out the intestines to find out where the infection site was.  Diverticulitis was the name and giving me an ileostomy was the option.

I do view that as the beginning of the days over which my outlook on life changed significantly.  By the end of that year I had gone through a lot of change both physically and emotionally.

If these last posts have kept you interested from either a personal or other perspective, then feel free to come back for further follow up posts.

Life Changing

Do you know what a Ileostomy is? No? Neither did I until 5 years ago, when I woke up with one after surgery.
I woke up to find in my drug induced stupor that I did not have to get up from the hospital bed as I did not need to go to the toliet to relieve myself, it was all being done for me.
Well the catheter I think most people will be aware of and is no biggie but I also had a hole in my side and a bag covering it, into which was flowing stuff that would have usually been formed and ejected from my body in a regular toilet visit.
It is amazing how casual you can be about these things when you drugged up to manage the pain.

Very close call was how the consultant put it to my Dad and wife, who was 8 months pregnant with our second. Followed it up with statement that a piece of the intestine had been sent off to test for Cancer.  Was all down to something called Diverticular Disease

Amazing how such things change your outlook in life, especially a close call with death and knowing you would have left your family bereft and children with only pictures to remind them of their father.

A bigger experience than I can fit into my first post on it.  Actually the first time I have mentioned it publically via a blog.  It was quite the experience going through it....

Joy of Customer Support - Really

Some companies make good use of twitter and others don't, well let's be fair some are plain Rubbish.

Tesco are an beaming example of good.
We bought our son's glasses from Tesco's Opticians a few months back.  Unfortunately second day at school after PE he accidentally sat on them.  They were in his bag and he heard the crack - Uh Oh, busted glasses.
Fortunately he has a spare pair, or call it as everyone does the 'old pair'.

Sent Tesco a tweet rather than call, as I was busy with work, asking whether they kept prescriptions on file and they would be able to make up another pair without eye test. They responded within about 5 - 10 mins, checked a couple of details, got onto the store I bought glasses and gave me a call back to give me the info I was looking for.
Did you know that for under 16 yrs if their glasses break within 2 months of purchase Tesco will replace free? No? Neither did I. Son's is over 2 months but even so it is good to know.

I'm sure they have some sort of fair use policy around this, though maybe plastic and titanium for the glasses would be more suitable if you actually have to discover this practically.

If it were urgent I would of called of course but when on the go and needing assistance Twitter is a very useful tool.

Not wanting to be pawing all over one company but they are fresh in my mind, if you have had a postal issue or are with Orange you may well have availed yourself of their Twitter customer support and they are brilliant also.

Would not be right to talk about the good without mentioning the bad. I wont though as hopefully they will up their game. For me how a company react after a sale is so much more important than the pre-sales - get the money off the customer team.

Learning to love to read

This past christmas I realised from the presents that my 7yr old son got that he is growing up. Most of the presents were books or book tokens, family must know his parents well   :-)  rather than toys as it used to be.  It is not all read, read, read - he did get the football kit he wanted and the PSP game, before you judge me too harshly.

Every since he turned 4 we have been going to the library every 3 weeks to borrow books, initially that I read to him then as he started to read books, that he could  read.  Every night we have reading time before bed and I think I enjoy it as much as he does.  Now he reads on his own and I have started the same routine with his sister, who is just learning to read.  Every time we borrow a book I used to read to my son, it brings back a lot of memories and my daughter is now in the habit of asking, "Did Aden read this book?"

He loves to read and I am sure she will gain the same love of books.  It has been a lot of work to ensure we got to this point, though enjoyable. 

If you do not make time to read regularly with your child, I would encourage you to do so, it is very rewarding and impacts so postively on their ability to communicate effectively and exceed in school.

In case you are wondering, yes I did love to read. I remember been a teen not wanting to get up on a weekend morning until I had finished the book I started reading the night before.   Any of you remember Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew?  :)
Later in life - Stephen King, Stephen Donaldson