Preparedness for when

Popperwell

Age Concern(or whatever they are called now)are doing some kind of marathon to raise funds and awareness of the elderly who are cold.

These charities have their hearts in the right place and no doubt those who take part too but it is again the public doing it all and the policies that are hurting the people the most are coming from the politicians...

And it is affecting people of all ages and circumstances(working or not working)

All the charities are doing is papering over the cracks, the churches are being asked to do more...and yet many of those are financially strapped themselves and the collection plates are not as bountiful as they once were. And what with all the food banks and soup kitchens...

Sadly much of the fabric of society is under threat.

ALIBOBSY

OH and MIL saw the specialist yesterday just before they came home. BIL is officially diabetic and is having insulin. He advised not to expect him to be out of hospital in less than 8-12 months, he also mentioned alot of infections in his bowel and stomach for which they were also pumping in strong antibiotics, he summed up by saying despite him sitting up and eating etc, they still considered him to be seriously ill.

MIL and OH's sister went up today. When they got their they were running around prepping BIL for emergency surgery. The infection has spread and they need to open him up and look to remove possibly part/all the pancreas and some/all his bowel. They have given him a 50/50 chance so it doesn't look good.

So sad he only in his 40's. In recent years he has pushed all his family away, but I keep thinking back to when I first knew him at work, without him I wouldn't have met my OH and have the family I now love as he introduced us-ironically in a pub. I remember him with the kids when they were younger and how much he loved seeing them, but he found it difficult as he yearned for his own with his first wife she had a seriesof miscarriages and his second went through IVF with no luck. With hindsight I now wonder how much the drink affected his fertility, which then made him more upset and so he drank more.

I know OH feels sad and almost like we shouldn't have let him push us away, but life gets in the way and with 4 kids things are so busy and he didn't just do it with us. Even his mum and dad rarely saw him for months and months. I guess for him the alcohol became all consuming.

Trying not to cry as don't want OH to get upset and he isn't my brother, but it's so sad and such a waste. OH gone to do the school run, then he is going up to hospital later-they say he will be in surgery for hours-went in at 2pm.

Anyway ev1 keep warm in the snow falls to come, 2T stay safe in those storms and keep prepping.

Ali x

Popperwell

Oh Ali,
It is all so very sad. And the trouble is even if the best scenario is possible it is going to be so difficult for him, the family, such a long journey.

On another thread we have another case not so unsimilar but in that situation it is only time which is looking very short.:(

And of course I feel for you and others, I would anyhow but I have been through the caring and loss of those dear to me so it is even more real to me.

Thinking of you all...

Take care
Pops x

2tonsils

Crikey, what a day! I wonder if the Foreign Legion would take a volunteer of my age?

I ran outside last night and managed to save my almost dry washing from the downpour we got at ten pm. Watched the new sky box as we had a signal Yeah! Then went to bed at eleven after unplugging everything.
At 4am I was woken up by what sounded like a hurricane roaring above the house...my OH was fast asleep. I decided I could not close the last shutter without waking him so stayed in bed where it was warm and cosy. Three and a half hours later we still had the howling wind, torrential rain, hailstones, lightning and thunder outside the house. It had thundered non stop for all that time. I fell asleep and woke up at 8.30 to discover my OH didn't even know it had happened.....sometimes I think being hard of hearing must be wonderful.

We have had glorious sunshine, a cold wind, a hot wind and three more hail storms since with just one flash of lightning directly outside the house. Apparently we are going to get this till Monday at least, and now its gone very cold in the wind and looks like s n o w. Now have all the shutters locked so I don't have to get up in the middle of the night or even think about it.

Spent all afternoon trying to work on the Greek email service that is the equivalent of Hell on earth.....I even had to install internet explorer to see if that was any better but no.....so I have sent my boss an email suggesting I use my email system (which actually works and is a million times faster than theirs is)....no wonder they struggle to communicate with business contacts! It took me two hours to compose an email on their system and send it, then I found it had deleted it instead. I could have done that in two minutes on mine. I think its just a very outdated system that they use on their outdated computers.....

Managed to restock today in case we do get shhhh.....snow or can't get to the shops due to the storms. I was thrilled to see the Greek supermarket had really increased their range of gluten free flours and crackers and stuff. They had gone down in price as well so there must be good demand for them. I also noticed lots of healthy seeds and berries at really good prices so I will stock up next time I go. I was horrified to find Lidl had increased the price of a small tin of fruit cocktail by 45 cents to 1.45 euros....scandalous and I did not buy it, I will make my own.

Hope you are all warm and safe, going to look for an update for you soon, will post it when I have it.

BessieBooBoo

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

OH and MIL saw the specialist yesterday just before they came home. BIL is officially diabetic and is having insulin. He advised not to expect him to be out of hospital in less than 8-12 months, he also mentioned alot of infections in his bowel and stomach for which they were also pumping in strong antibiotics, he summed up by saying despite him sitting up and eating etc, they still considered him to be seriously ill.

MIL and OH's sister went up today. When they got their they were running around prepping BIL for emergency surgery. The infection has spread and they need to open him up and look to remove possibly part/all the pancreas and some/all his bowel. They have given him a 50/50 chance so it doesn't look good.


Hello all

So sorry to read this AB, we have a family member who is in a similar situation... Not quite so ill though. He also refuses to recognise he has a problem, and there is nothing worse than feeling you can't do anything... Really feel for you all.

BBB

meme30

Alibobsy:- Sorry to hear that your Bil is worse. It's a hard situation for all of you.:grouphug:

pineapple

Ali so sorry to hear about this - it puts some of our problems into perspective. Fingers crossed that the surgery goes/went ok
xxx

2tonsils

Windy Wilson's weather forecast for Tuesday/Wednesday next week
http://s1342.beta.photobucket.com/user/2tonsils/media/windywilsonimage_zps3d1a0212.jpg.html

(slightly censored lol)

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING - TUESDAY 29th JANUARY (possibly Wednesday) FOR STORM FORCE WINDS AND TORRENTIAL RAIN -

Windy says you heard it here FIRST and and it's still only Wednesday 23rd and I'm predicting a storm, 5 days before the telly have even mentioned it. . . . . . WHOOP WHOOP !!



Over the weekend, there's a mahoosive area of low pressure forming, and I mean ******* mahoosive !!

If you can look at the image, you'll see the isobars are packed tight (the white lines) this means it's gonnae be extremely windy. You can see the 3 wee arrows bringing a southerly wind. It's also coming in off the Atlantic 'filled up' with warm moist air (hence the milder weather from Tuesday/Wednesday onwards) which means a !!!! load of rain as well !!

Low pressure weather systems in the winter are bad news guys - wet, windy and miserable - heavy rain, snow thaw, more flooding, and extremely windy . . . . . . . .

Me personally, I'd rather have cold, clear and crisp . .


Those are all Windy's words by the way but at the moment all my weather friends are in agreement it could be a major weather event...

pineapple

Just a heads up. Some of us are expecting a heavy dump of snow tomorrow. If this is you - it was on the news that it might be enough to bring down power lines. :eek:

2tonsils

I just found this one as I was looking at the weather for Greece, as you can see Greece is going to get walloped by two storms...we are at the edge of the first one way down on the right of the picture. It's looking nasty so if I disappear you know we are battening down the hatches and off line. Amazingly we have a great picture on the sky box and absolutely zilch on the local Greek stations...I think its going to be a rough night!
http://metvuw.com/forecast/forecast1.php?type=rain&region=europe&tim=30