What a month!

It has felt that whatever could go wrong, went wrong regarding mum and her hip replacement op. First she nearly dies of shock, due to a massive haemorrhage, we think she is okay, is well on the mend and we find out she has in fact got two fractures in the newly repaired hip! They had no choice but to operate again, and to partly replace the new hip, the bit that goes into the femur. As you can imagine it was the last thing any of us wanted, tho this time they didn't take any chances, giving mum 4 units of blood over the weekend to boost her haemaglobin levels, then having another 4 on standby for the op, and wanting her to spend at least 24 hours in ITU after the op. Still it made for a very anxious 24 hours for all of us. Was a bit mad at my brother, he'd had an appointment at the hospital, so was going to sit with mum till she went down to theatre, I naturally presumed he'd phone me to tell me when she'd gone down. But no, so there I was worrying all afternoon, thinking that the damn thing must have been cancelled cos there was no ITU bed. In the end I rang the ward to learn that mum had been in theatre for nearly two hours! She finally came out of theatre after five hours, then spent quite a long time in recovery, we didn't get to see her till nearly 7.45 pm, we didn't stay long as she was very sleepy.

Then this morning I got all confused, the phone woke me up, I thought it was only 7 a.m., so started to panic thinking something had gone wrong. In fact it was gone 8 a.m., and it was my brother calling to say mum had had a peaceful night. I felt terrible, sore throat, aching limbs, like I am coming down with something, had intended to go see mum, but thought best not to chance it. At 2.30 mum calls me, she wanted something taking in, she sounded bright, asked how I was, so I said I felt like death warmed up, so what does she say - that I'd better dose myself up as it will be a strain on everyone else! She seemed to have forgotten that I've just spent the last week at her bedside, plus ferrying her friends to hospital to see her. I was very upset, luckily my neice called and gave me some much needed comfort. I suppose I should take it as a sign that mum is getting better, but it was also thoughtless.

Also popped into work to see boss, she was very kind, even gave me a hug. She can be a funny old stick, but underneath she has a heart of gold, and she has been incredibly supportive and kind.

Best explain pic: another scrapbook page. I'm much happier scrapbooking when stressed than making cards. Found this photo of my sister's two boys taken at a fun fair, it is a great pic. Used one sheet of paper from my QVC TSV, a really funky paper, rather retro. Just matted the photo onto some dusky pink card, added the 'fun' using some stripey ribbon, then decided to take a strip of the dusky pink card and lay it on top of ribbon (I know not why), used some really chunky letters to spell out 'brothers', liked how the green stood out, stuck the letters onto a strip of the pink card, then cut round them - that was it! Who says scrapbooking has to be complicated! Some papers are easy to use just on their own, others tho do need some contrast.