Friday, February 22, 2008
22nd February Tunbridge Wells and Uncle Billy.
The main purpose of the day was a visit to a hospital - and just for a change there were no doctors waiting to see me today. I was not the patient.
We travelled to Tunbridge Wells to see my Uncle Billy who has been in The Kent and Sussex hospital for just over 2 weeks. I have felt worried by his health for some time, but for these last few months I have not felt able to give much support. It pleased me really that conditions had got to a situation where hospital was the only option for him. My own experience tells me that hospitals care for their patients and the doctors and nurses do all they can to help people.
The day became much for Bill and me, as we turned it into a trip to help make us feel good.
The first priority when we arrived was to find somewhere for lunch. We decided to try the place we went to with Ashley last March. It is small and run by foreign people - Greek? Spanish? We don't know. Of course the menu was a bit limited as far as I was concerned.
But I happily ordered a smoked haddock risotto with asparagus and peas. I carefully picked out a fair few of the peas and thought that a few that did pass into my system would not affect potassium levels too much. Bill had a beef lasagne.
We chatted a while with a couple of ladies, one of whom used a walking frame to get about - we both seemed to be of the mind that you don't know what will befall you in life, but good or bad, you just have to make the best of it.
We learned later, from cousin Alison that it is a popular little eating place with the BBC Radio Kent people.
After our lunch we went for a walk in Calverley Gardens - my only previous visit there had been on my 7th birthday when I was staying with Granny and Grandad. There are a few photos at the end of this text.
We did a little shopping. Rymans had a very good offer on the albums that Bill uses to display the photos that he prints.
We bought sausages from the excellent sausage shop - the Tunbridge Wells sausage with nutmeg is delicious; we bought some last time we were there in October. We also bought a gluten free length of sausage made from a South African recipe.
Then it was time to go to the hospital. I didn't like the ward as much as Buckland Ward which I got to know well. Uncle Billy, though has a really good situation at the end of a long narrow ward, in a big bay window, and he looked really very well.
He smiled a lot and his eyes were twinkling and he happily talked of his hospital experiences.
His legs are still large and very sore looking, but now have the strength to allow him some mobility whilst using a zimmer frame. Perhaps it is not a good thing that the physiotherapy department feel that there is little more they can offer him and have left him to practice on his own.
I am not sure what lies ahead. There is talk of him going home during next week and he is aware that he will find this hard. Alison has always thought it would be good if he could go to the cottage hospital for more physio and more general rehabilitaion and at last Uncle Billy agrees with her. But maybe this is not about to be offered.
Alison joined us for the last half hour of visiting.
Then the 3 of us went to the hospital restaurant - much better than at the East Surrey. We had eaten a good lunch and Alison was to meet up with some friends for a meal during the evning, so we had a drink and a little snack. I decided that the oaty flapjack might be tolerated by my body - although of course oats have gluten just as much as wheat.
We had a very pleasant hour and a half catching up with details of Alison's life and also her 2 brothers.
We left her to return to her Dad for the evening session of visiting and we drove back to Crawley. It didn't take too long despite the road to Tunbridge Wells being just about the most twisty that is known in these parts.
I guess that on my 7th birthday I must have walked through this archway into Calverley Gardens. The gardens are central to a sort early garden city, designed by Decimus Burton.
I was treated to a late night for my birthday. Granny and Grandad took me to a band concert in the evening, having enjoyed an afternoon playing on the huge rocks on the common.
The gardens are on a hillside forming a sort of natural arena with the bandstand at the heart.
I remember Granny singing her heart out - Land of Hope and Glory.
There was much winter flowering heather. The contrast of the silver pussy willow against the purple heather was quite lovely.
We travelled to Tunbridge Wells to see my Uncle Billy who has been in The Kent and Sussex hospital for just over 2 weeks. I have felt worried by his health for some time, but for these last few months I have not felt able to give much support. It pleased me really that conditions had got to a situation where hospital was the only option for him. My own experience tells me that hospitals care for their patients and the doctors and nurses do all they can to help people.
The day became much for Bill and me, as we turned it into a trip to help make us feel good.
The first priority when we arrived was to find somewhere for lunch. We decided to try the place we went to with Ashley last March. It is small and run by foreign people - Greek? Spanish? We don't know. Of course the menu was a bit limited as far as I was concerned.
But I happily ordered a smoked haddock risotto with asparagus and peas. I carefully picked out a fair few of the peas and thought that a few that did pass into my system would not affect potassium levels too much. Bill had a beef lasagne.
We chatted a while with a couple of ladies, one of whom used a walking frame to get about - we both seemed to be of the mind that you don't know what will befall you in life, but good or bad, you just have to make the best of it.
We learned later, from cousin Alison that it is a popular little eating place with the BBC Radio Kent people.
After our lunch we went for a walk in Calverley Gardens - my only previous visit there had been on my 7th birthday when I was staying with Granny and Grandad. There are a few photos at the end of this text.
We did a little shopping. Rymans had a very good offer on the albums that Bill uses to display the photos that he prints.
We bought sausages from the excellent sausage shop - the Tunbridge Wells sausage with nutmeg is delicious; we bought some last time we were there in October. We also bought a gluten free length of sausage made from a South African recipe.
Then it was time to go to the hospital. I didn't like the ward as much as Buckland Ward which I got to know well. Uncle Billy, though has a really good situation at the end of a long narrow ward, in a big bay window, and he looked really very well.
He smiled a lot and his eyes were twinkling and he happily talked of his hospital experiences.
His legs are still large and very sore looking, but now have the strength to allow him some mobility whilst using a zimmer frame. Perhaps it is not a good thing that the physiotherapy department feel that there is little more they can offer him and have left him to practice on his own.
I am not sure what lies ahead. There is talk of him going home during next week and he is aware that he will find this hard. Alison has always thought it would be good if he could go to the cottage hospital for more physio and more general rehabilitaion and at last Uncle Billy agrees with her. But maybe this is not about to be offered.
Alison joined us for the last half hour of visiting.
Then the 3 of us went to the hospital restaurant - much better than at the East Surrey. We had eaten a good lunch and Alison was to meet up with some friends for a meal during the evning, so we had a drink and a little snack. I decided that the oaty flapjack might be tolerated by my body - although of course oats have gluten just as much as wheat.
We had a very pleasant hour and a half catching up with details of Alison's life and also her 2 brothers.
We left her to return to her Dad for the evening session of visiting and we drove back to Crawley. It didn't take too long despite the road to Tunbridge Wells being just about the most twisty that is known in these parts.
I guess that on my 7th birthday I must have walked through this archway into Calverley Gardens. The gardens are central to a sort early garden city, designed by Decimus Burton.I was treated to a late night for my birthday. Granny and Grandad took me to a band concert in the evening, having enjoyed an afternoon playing on the huge rocks on the common.
The gardens are on a hillside forming a sort of natural arena with the bandstand at the heart.I remember Granny singing her heart out - Land of Hope and Glory.
There was much winter flowering heather. The contrast of the silver pussy willow against the purple heather was quite lovely.
