from emergency to chaos

 Bob is home; his eyesight, thought not yet restored, is - in principle - saved.
                 All he has to do is keep still for a month.
No reading, no computer, no driving, no gardening, no dog-walking; everything he likes comes with a 'no' in front of it.

Watch this space:)


If anyone fancies dropping in, he's in his room with a terrace and a teas-made. Company welcome.

FYI - symptoms of a detached retina are flashing lights followed by a grey or black cloud that obscures vision, no matter where you look. It is very important to get immediate treatment because the sight can be saved by gluing the retina back on, but only if it is still 'alive'. Fast as possible. Which is why we got such sterling treatment all down the line - doctor to specialist to hospital.

Also FYI, Bob has a European health card which gave him  free emergency treatment. He has to pay the cost of staying in the hospital -as do I, having had a camp bed with him - and meals. We think this is recuperable along with the consultation fees and the pharmaceutical stuff. All will no doubt become clear, as will his eyesight. The eyeball is filled with gas which is holding the retina in place and which will slowly disappear, returning his vision as it does so.

In the meantime, Ole-Benik is apparently home - I know only what Kat has told me - and Alisha  has begun the first stages of giving birth to Etienne.  Here is the clean bathroom, now known as a birthing-pool room. More on everything as and when.....

... not altogether good

So I'd been feeling quietly confident having cleaned the bathroom - its ready for Alicia and Ryans' baby Etienne to be born - just breath deeply and wait, I thought.

Then this morning Bob asked me if there was anything in his eye and described a text-book case of a detached retina.

Dr Baille, blessings on her, saw us immediately. I rang Kat from the good doctors office and she agreed without hesitation to give up her days work and take us to Carcassonne. Many blessings on her too. Maragret drove her over to collect us and I heap more blessing there also.

At Carcassonne - the clinic Montreal - we were passed from nurses to eye geezer, who used their fabbo modern kit to look deep into his eyes. Yup; detached retina. Operate immediately, says our man - Bob was due to fly to London early tomorrow morning but our man said that would be too late and anyway he must not fly.

Dear Kat drove us onto to Toulouse to the clinic de l'Union, where we saw nurses, specialist, other  nurse, aneathatist, and 'wecome to the hospital' nurse. (In the course of this we saw Phillipe and Maryse, of Esperaza - bit like an hallucination! - they were seeing the aneathatist in advance of a little op on Phillipes foot.)

So.... they operate on Bobs eye tomorrow. They will inflate the eyeball, shift the retina, relocate it and glue it down with lazers.
THEN (this is the exciting bit) he can't move for a month. No travel, no work, no dog-walking; no computer, no books, no nothing. He rests on the sofa and watches TV or the retina dosent heal. So thats that then.

We left him happily anticipating the football on the TV in his room. I'm gutted at missing the dinner at Gert and Elizabets. Hoping that this will happen another time and that they have a lovely evening without us, honest; though I'd rather be there with them.

I go tomorrow with stuff he needs and stay overnight at the hospital, somehow (erm, hello, Kat?) get him back on Thursday.

A long and frightening day but the prognosis is good. Things could be worse. Thanks to all for everything.

Johns mountain eyrie

John  M gave Bob and Kat and me dinner with his neighbours last night  -
his place is in the mountains by St Ferriol with the most stupendous views so we braved the cold for as long as possible to have the joy of it.

Then went  indoors to tell ghost stories :)

changes in the market

The Rue Gambetta has been closed to traffic and opened to market traders - excellent notion, I reckon. People still managed to park illegally - here are our local police Barry and Frank dealing with the issues.

A hot - too hot - and frisky market was followed by a major thunderstorm and massive hailstones which sounded like the outbreak of war. Huge, deafening, very scarey.

 Alex was too scared to come out from under the water butt - hes OK now. Strange stuff, hail - iced up around a nucleolus, messages from on high probably. 

 Dinner later with Pete, Nel and Bob. A calm and decorous affair.

Leigh and Lorraines annual fest -

 Stu and Kieron. looking like bad boys... Bob, looking blameless -

 all of us grouped about Leigh and Lorraine's pool in the hot sun, drinking and eating and remembering the pleasures of life :) Here is the redstart that nests in the garage and doesn't seem to mind the invasion.
Lovely party.   Mille mercis guys:)

Hurrah hurrah

An anxious night; dinner with Aileen and Ole-Bendik was cancelled on account of O-B was carted off to hospital with a suspected heart attack. Today it seems he has double pneumonia - which is a better bet :) We all wish him a speedy recovery and a feast of stories when we do a re-take. May it be soon.

Above is a picture of Annies napkin which fell into the chilli beans to create this image of a little donkey. It occured at the baptism of Storm - the offspring of Aileens donkeys. Clearly a miracle. Offered here for O-B's speedy healing.

BACK!!

Im back in France - allelujia!! - and Annie and Pete asked me and Bob to dinner with Theo and Gus.
Here is Annie, labouring over the bread board. She cooked a mean veggie curry and we ate it heartily. 

They're off again on Thursday :(