Breakfast – a meal to set you up for a difficult day, or even a heart attack. This one lacks bubble and squeak and black pudding because I’m trying to become more health conscious.

Julia has been struggling. She is much better now but it took more upheaval to accomplish anything., and I ahd to enlist the help of my sister.

Basically, since she had to return to A&E last week, she has shown little improvement, has bled several times in the night and from Monday onwards, has been starting to look old and tired. I haven’t known whether to worry or not, and have stuck to my approach of changing dressings when necessary and being generally upbeat. It was, to be honest, getting more difficult. Finally, by Wednesday, she was ahving trouble talking and staying awake.

However, this is a woman who had to leave school at 16 to support her family but eventually ended up with two degrees, a postgraduate diploma, worked in fields, kept us going in the Quercus days by working a Sunday shift that started at 5am, brought £miliions in grants in to Nottingham and had a couple of babies. She hates being seen as weak and would rather die than admit she needs help.

By 6pm on Wednesday it looked like she was going to achieve her ambition. Fortunately, my sister had popped round with cake and a water pistol (that squirrel is in trouble now)  and joined me in bullying Julia into going back to A&E. I will spare you the boring details, particularly as they left me at home (I tried a token protest, but didn’t try too hard). It included included a lot of time waiting for results, having a camera inserted into her throat via her nose, blood tests, drugs, more blood tests, a scan and some other messing about.

Haddock Special at the Fishpan, Scarborough

The conclusion is that she needs to go to an ENT clinic. The doctor said that the wait is about three weeks but he will ensure she is called within a week. She was told this two weeks ago. They will probably have to open up the wound again to clear it out, as there is a large haematoma in there which is causing problems (again, we were told that two weeks ago). The wound also needs restitching as it is untidy and has not healed. Two weeks ago she was given antibiotics to prevent infection. Last week, she was given different antibiotics because she was feeling rough. This week she was taken off antibiotics because the gasping for breath (after checking heart and lungs) seems to be a side effect of the antibiotics.

Correct, it would be hard to make this stuff up.

And, when she goes in for work on the wound, they will probably glue the tear in the vein. The ENT specialist on week one said it should have been done. They said so today too. It’s a typical sign of a service under pressure – they never have time to do it properly, but they do have time to do it again. She’s been in A&E three times when once should have been plenty.

And finally – the thing they stick down your nose to photograph your throat (her vocal chords are looking good she says, though I’m not sure what she’s comparing them to) costs £350 and is single use only. They throw them away. I said she could have brought it home so I could attach it to the computer for examining coins. Yes, of course I’d stick it up my nose too, wouldn’t you? I can’t see why they couldn’t just wipe it down with an anti-bacterial wipe. It’s not like you need to be very sterile with something you’re shoving up a nose, is it? Obviously you’d have to make sure they were a distinctive colour so they didn’t get mixed up with the colonoscopy kit, but apart from that, it would be quite simple and save a fortune.

My sister, incidentally, was surprised to be asked to press some buttons during the process. While the doctor was guiding the camera my sister had to press buttons to set the photography up. I’m sorry I missed that.

Just one last thing and I will let you go. Julia has a fan club. She was explaining her problem to a junior doctor when they interrupted her, saying  “I know who you are, I’ve heard all about you.” Apparently in medical circles she is  spoken of in awed tones as the only person known to have cut their throat with a plant pot.

We had salad tonight – pear, blue cheese, leaves, walnuts,  spring onion, cucumber, chive flowers, tomatoes. We could have had more, but Julia didn’t feel hungry and I hate salad.