Harvest Home, And A Heartbroken Hamster

Things went very well at the Harvest Thanksgiving. Loads of food donated for the Foodbank, and a positive response to the BMS Appeal for Agriculturalists in Uganda

There were tins and packets stacked on every windowsill and the platform. And a couple of jolly scarecrows guarding the food! A far cry from my youth, when there was an egg washed "Sheaf of wheat" harvest loaf, and pyramids of onions, bowls of tomatoes, and dishes of beans and much fresh produce from local gardens. 

I led the service, Pastor Nick did a vegetable related illusion, Bob was operating the PA [which was playing up] And the children did a brilliant job of making their sukkot

Afterwards we had a splendid harvest lunch. Then Bob and I went home and slept as we were rather exhausted. At one point, I was seriously concerned that I would not be able to lead worship and preach. On Friday the left hand side of my face became very painful, swollen and 'drooping' I looked like a very sad Hamster. My smile was quite lopsided. At 830pm I rang NHS111, and the clinician who rang back said I was to get to A&E within the hour. And call an ambulance if my symptoms worsened. 

Bob whisked me off to Norwich, then left me as he had other stuff to do at home. Triage Nurse asked some questions, and said I wouldn't be seeing a Dr for at least 4 hours. An hour later they did blood tests. The rest of the night/early morning was mostly sitting waiting. 

First diagnosis after 3 hours was Bell's Palsy ["we'll give you steroids. It usually gets better but not always"] Then they decided it wasn't BP because I could raise both eyebrows. [You may have had a minor stroke, we will do a CT Scan] An hour wait for that, and three hours for results. ["No sign of stroke, but it doesn't always show up. You will have to wait to see someone from stroke team at 8am"] No stroke team turned up. At 9.30 another Dr turned up. He asked more sensible questions and sent me for a head x-ray, [I think it is a dental issue, an Xray will confirm that] I finally got out of the hospital with antibiotics, and an instruction to ring my dentist on Monday. It was 11.30. I ran, waving, towards the bus stop. The driver closed the doors and drove off as I got there! I spent an hour in the hospital coffee shop awaiting the next bus...I got home at 2.

Fortunately I had all my sunday service stuff prepared. Bob was going to supply homemade bread rolls for the lunch - but he ended up buying some in Tesco, he was too tired to knead!

We watched the fantastic Last Night of the Proms, and all those lovely EU flags [and yay! for getting back into the European Horizon research programme] 

I went to bed on Saturday very glad that the Palsy and Stroke diagnoses were wrong.

Sunday was a good day, as I have said.

 Monday I rang my lovely dentist Roshan, who saw me in the early afternoon. It was just a very bad gum infection, and the meds are making a rapid difference. Roshan checked out the Dundee Damage again and was glad that's all healing well. 

I no longer look like a Heartbroken Hamster. My smile is back! Hallelujah