At art today.

It was a long day yesterday. Drop dead tired when got in, but too tired to sleep. I had gone for my shingles injection late afternoon yesterday.

I am watching as the nurse is banging the container on the counter to mix the powder and the solution together. My anxiety levels are rising. I don't like injections. If you whip the needle out and stab my arm I am fine. But to watch the nurse spend 5 minutes mixing the solution before she puts it together with the needle is not good. I have just got to make sure it is mixed properly she said.

So my brain is asking me what happens when she doesn't mix it properly?

Just a little scratch she says and you will feel a little discomfort.

I didn't feel the scratch at all, but instantly my upper arm is feeling like it is swelling to bursting point. My brain is saying to me that is what happens when she doesn't mix it properly.

I tell her my arm feels like it is going to explode. It's only a little discomfort she says. But it really really hurts I say.

Now you go in the waiting room and if you feel any symptoms in the next 20 minutes then come back and tell me she says. But I'm telling you a symptom now I say, my arm feels like a balloon that is being blown up and is going to burst, and my arm is hanging down and I can't move it.

That is just the little discomfort she replied, go and sit in the waiting room and come back if you feel any symptoms.

In the waiting room I am wishing I had refused this shingles injection. My brain is in full flow giving me negative comments. If I was a child I would have burst into tears. But I am a cantankerous old biddy, so I sit stoically.

Finally the pressure in my upper arm eases off and I can move my arm again. It is still painful. At least I should be able to drive the car home. But I go to the fish and chip shop which is almost next door first, and have fish and a savoury cake.

This morning my arm is still painful especially when I move or lift it. But I can use it and grip, gripping or holding doesn't cause pain. I have a day of appointments again today. I would love to stay in bed today under my electric blanket, but I can't.

I turn up for my appointments today but I find the health care professional that saw to me is now retired, and there is a different system in place. The care has been passed over to the District Nurses who seem to be playing a bigger role now.

So, I now have a different way of contacting people in the case of urgency, and I can be seen in different places and towns, BUT this new system is all dependent on me being able to drive/having the ability to continue driving.

I am still far too overtired. I did have an appointment tomorrow, but as I was in the same building today where my appointment is tomorrow, I cancelled tomorrow's appointment and re-made it for another day.

Roll on Friday where I can stay in bed, and we are promised sun!

I was at art this afternoon and I got challenged to do a painting from a line drawing in a book  which didn't interest me.

So using the children's crayons I have, I did this painting. I enjoyed doing it. It was done from a black and white line drawing in a book.

I am waiting for some Amazon parcels. They were supposed to arrive earlier today, but new time is now from 6 to 8 pm...I am in bed keeping warm, trying not to fall asleep...

UPDATE: My parcels have just arrived! Because it was now evening and dark when my parcels were supposed to be delivered, and also my security light has failed to work when someone walks near it, I had been wondering how the amazon deliverer was going to find my 'secret' safe place to leave the parcels because it was too dark to see. So, I had the idea of leaving two rooms lights on so that in theory it would light up the area outside through the windows where the deliverer was meant to leave the parcels. It obviously worked well! I have just been out in the dark to see if it was effective (it wasn't fully dark when I turned on the rooms lights, so I wasn't sure if it was good enough), but now I can see it lit up the area well!

So back in bed with a cuppa and a gin and tonic, and opening my parcels!!!!