A nasty finger and a new kitchen

I had just got used to posting on a Sunday and then it all went pear-shaped.

Mum was admitted to hospital last Wednesday after an x-ray on her  index finger revealed a bad infection which had gone to the bone.

She had been treated at her doctors surgery every week for the previous 6 weeks but the nurse recommended an x-ray this last time because it looked as though it had started to spread.

She ended up at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham and they have taken biopsy's and cleaned it up under local anaesthetic.  The bone specialist she saw there was lovely and treated mums case as an emergency and did the treatment the following day.  At least two doctors that mum has seen at two different hospitals have said that her GP should have sent her long before it got this far, one even went so far as to say it was neglect on her GP's part.

We have no idea what mum did to her finger , she says she can't remember doing anything, but some germs must have found their way into a small cut or under her nail bed somehow.  Her nail came off and the skin on the top of her finger had just peeled away.  It didn't look pretty I can tell you!

I took her yesterday to have the dressing changed, it looked better but not closed up and i'm sure I could still see bone! (I took a photo to compare next week when I take her again).  We won't know what the infection was until her appointment on June 12th.

I'm not going to put a photo on this page because truly, it is not nice, if you have a strong stomach and are NOT eating go and have a look in the tab at the top of this page if you want too.  But don't say I didn't warn you!!!!!

So, I've been running backwards and forwards every tea time to mums to get her tea and put something up for her supper and lunch the next day and help get her tablets sorted, (it's her right hand which is making it difficult to handle things, plus, she has arthritis so it's very awkward for her).  My youngest sister has been going up to wash her, she can't get the bandage wet at all so even though mum hates the thought of her daughter doing something so personal for her she has no choice at the moment.

It is best that I don't dwell on what my eldest sister has contributed to the help else I might start to rant, all I'm going to say is when she goes up she thinks it's more of a social visit and just sits and talks, about nothing really, gossip.  She's a talker i'm a doer, before she has finished telling everyone what she is going to do, it's done.  I can't be doing with it, so i'm avoiding her if I can because I don't want a falling out, and anyway she has an answer for everything and can't see she is doing anything wrong, it's just so frustrating.  See, i'm starting to rant!

I've still been going to work and I've also had Oliver twice overnight this week so as you can imagine I'm shattered.  I got back in home at 5.30pm yesterday after the hospital trip and sorting mum out, had my tea and a bath and was in bed by 8pm.  I just hadn't got the energy for anything else.

On a happier note, my kitchen is finished, Yayyyy.  We still have to decide on a blind and order a splash-back , I'm hoping we will find time to do that soon.  Of course having the kitchen done meant there were boxes to sort and things to put away and I've almost  got that all done now.  

The next big thing is Mark starting work on converting part of the garage into a shower room come laundry.  Although I will be able to shut the door on that while it's being done so it shouldn't cause too much disruption to the rest of the house, (she says hopefully).

I'm really happy with what we chose, our kitchen is not very big as you can see and the previous owner had not made the best use of the space to be honest.  We have opened the doorway back up into the garage (this is where the shower room come laundry will be), you would think that this would make the space smaller but it has had the opposite effect, everyone has said how it feels much bigger and brighter.  

I think there is a temptation with a small kitchen to fill all the available space with cupboards, but in my opinion that just closes the space in.  We have a larder unit for all food stuff and opted for deep drawers for pots, pans plates etc.  I love the drawers, it was one of our better ideas :-)

All my kitchen gadgets and baking tins i'm keeping in the pantry under the stairs.

It was an opportunity to have a good clear out and get rid of all those things you keep but never use, or all the duplicate things, I had 3 large mixing bowls, why I would need 3 large mixing bowls I have no idea!  Now I have one, the one I used to use all the time anyway :-)

The appliance that both me and Mark are loving having again is the dishwasher.  For almost three years we have been without one and it's soooo good to have one again.  It's lovely to walk into a clear kitchen :-)

The weather has been pretty miserable the last few days, from pottering around the garden last week though I will say that the ground needed a good soaking, we just don't want it all summer do we.

I'll try and make some time next week to share that little baby cardigan I'd started last time, it came out so sweet, i'm really pleased with it :-)  Tomorrow I'm having a day out with Joanne at the Baby Show in Birmingham, i'm sure we will come back with lots of lovely goodies :-)

Until next time, take care

-X-