Thursday 8 March 2012

She's So Heavy

I've finally stopped coughing and spluttering when I wake up in the morning. Not only that but I'm now sleeping right through the night again so I'm waking up refreshed rather than half dead. My peak flows are rising at last and I've managed to break the 250 barrier with a reading of 260 this morning. My target is 300 so still a way to go.

Yesterday I felt well enough to go shopping with Peter and Andrew. We tackled Tesco in the morning then it was off to Costco in the afternoon. I managed to walk the whole time though I was dreadfully tired and needed to lean on Peter for support by the time we made it out of Costco. I slept for about an hour when we got home but was soon feeling fine again. Obviously I'm not fully recovered yet but today was a huge step in the  right direction.

When we got home Andrew decided to try his hand at making profiteroles. He's been on about trying them since Sunday when he saw them being made on TV. I've never made them so was unable to offer any advice or guidance so retired upstairs and let him get on with it. Two hours later the smell of burning drifted into the study and I decided to investigate. The kitchen was a bomb site and there was, what looked like, concrete in a saucepan. The first batch had not been a great success and were more like pancakes. After adjusting the mixture the second batch just burnt. He was so upset and angry. I helped tidy up and made sympathetic comments but it didn't really help. I think it might be a while before he tries them again. It took two goes through the dishwasher to clean the saucepan.

Last night I happened across a programme called 'The Big Body Squad'. I may have mentioned it before but what I saw was so shocking it is worth at least one more mention and quite frankly a bit of a rant.

This programme is devoted to the special ambulance crews who are trained to use super sized equipment to move super sized patients. These people are often so heavy they can't even move their bulk to clean themselves and so rely on an army of people, provided by the taxpayer of course, to do things for them. I shouldn't watch programmes like this as I can feel my blood pressure rising with every passing minute. What really, really gets me is the sense of entitlement that these people exude, they talk about having special hoists, lifts and chairs installed but show no signs of guilt or even gratitude for what they are getting. Only one person  said that they were grateful for the help they received. Even more shocking was not one of them showed any sign of wanting to change their situation. Well actually I tell a lie, one person did but only because he had come close to losing his foot due to diabetes brought on by his extreme weight.

The heaviest person on last night's show was a forty eight stone woman who had been moved from one house because she had literally outgrown it and was now in a home design to take her extreme weight. She had a toothache and needed treatment. The poor love complained to the camera that the tooth interfered with her eating as she could only chew on one side, what a shame. Unable to get to the dentist the dentist had to go to her. I had hoped that he'd take one look at her and wire her jaws together but he didn't and soon the tooth was restored to full working order.

What I really don't understand is where they are getting all the food. They are far too big to go shopping so someone must be buying it for them. If they are so big that they are costing the NHS millions don't you think someone would come up with a plan to help them as they are clearly beyond helping themselves. There should be some sort of bartering going on along the lines of you can have a carer but you have to agree to diet. Instead it seems they are allowed to, and indeed added and abetted, to continue to eat themselves to death while costing the rest of us a fortune. Disgraceful!

Peter's efforts to mend his car have been frustrated by the wrong sized part being sent to him. He now has to send the part he has back and wait for the correct size to arrive. The car has already been off the road for the best part of a week and I can tell he is getting frustrated. He's not the only one, I get nervous when we only have one car available to us. I never used to feel that way but for some reason in the last year or so I've liked the security of having a back up vehicle. Lets hope the new part doesn't take long to get here.

The news is all about the six soldiers killed in Afghanistan and quite rightly so. To loose so many in one go is a terrible thing and when you think that five out of the six were under twenty two years of age it makes it even more tragic. Some will argue that these men died doing what they wanted to do and knew the risks when they joined. That is fair enough but did they really expect to die in a conflict that the UK really should not have any part in? We went to Afghanistan because of our 'special relationship' with America. I'm sure if the ordinary people of the UK had been given a choice we would have stayed out of it. Now this conflict, the media doesn't like the word 'war' is costing us in lives and money, neither of which we can afford. I can't even remember why we are there. Time to leave I think.

In other news the Queen has started her tour of Britain to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and how is she traveling? By train it seems, what a sensible woman. It will be interesting to see if this was a one off or whether she intends to let the train take the strain for the entire tour.

Tomorrow if the weather is nice I might venture out into the garden to see what needs doing. Then all I've got to do is work out how much it's going to cost to bribe one of the boys into doing it for me.











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