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Snowangel-MK

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Blog Entries posted by Snowangel-MK

  1. Snowangel-MK
    [font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Y[color=#000000]ou’d think that I’d have learned my lesson by now but you’d be wrong. No, this was not my first culinary battle wound…many knife injuries and burns have preceded this, but I think that this one might just take the proverbial biscuit or in this case MASH.[/color][/font]

    [color=#000000][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]I apparently overestimate my knife skills, and on Tuesday morning, my poor left thumb was the victim of my recklessness. I was trying to save time by preparing a cottage pie for the evening meal early in the day, it saved mere seconds in chopping the potatoes so hastily and ended up costing myself hours of pain, anguish, and horror as a result.[/font][/color]

    [color=#000000][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]To add insult to injury I’ve had to endure several days of people giving me the ‘Thumbs Up’, and singing the nursery rhyme ‘Tommy Thumb where are you?’ to me. Not that a bit of my thumb is actually ‘missing in action’ you understand, or even went in the dinner, although I did have to show my disfigured thumb to ‘Mini Me’ to prove this before she would eat her food![/font][/color]

    [color=#000000][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]After six hours of incessant bleeding and throbbing, I caved and went to MK general. As if the long wait wasn't bad enough the chairs were so uncomfortable by the time I was seen the pain in my bum was nearly as bad as my thumb; my theory being the NHS do it on purpose either to take your mind off your injury (assuming it wasn't your ass that was the problem) or they hope you get so uncomfortable you decide to give up and go home. No wonder patients were wandering about all over the place, the soft furnishings are anything but soft, well those that could walk were wandering anyway... I even saw a patient on oxygen outside the entrance doors having a cigarette, but at least he put safety first and disconnected the tank before he lit up![/font][/color]

    [color=#000000][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]I was seen quite quickly by a Triage Nurse who put an Alginate dressing on to help stop the bleeding so it could be butterfly stitched or sutured when I was seen properly. Then the second nurse removed this and tried to use steri strips it but disturbing it made it bleed again so much so by the time she’d finished it had soaked though the dressing and she had to start over again![/font][/color]

    [color=#000000][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Now I’m currently sporting a very burdensome thumb dressing, and I’m quite disabled as far as domestic duties are concerned as I've been instructed to keep it dry and rested. The worst of it all is that I chose to cook rather than do my nails. I'm betting that had I done my nails, I would have been more careful with that knife, and could have avoided this whole bl**dy mess. [/font][/color]

    [attachment=122367:Thumb.jpg]
  2. Snowangel-MK
    [size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=black]When I read an article recently about endangered wildlife, it prompted me to write about my own somewhat unexpected relationship with a hedgehog.[/color][/font][/size]

    [size=3][color=black][font=Arial][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]According to Oxford[/font][/font][/color][/size][color=black][font=Arial][size=2][size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] [/font][/size][size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]University[/font][/size][size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]'s wildlife conservation unit, the [/font][/size][size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]UK[/font][/size][size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif] hedgehog population has dipped to about 1.5m compared with 30m in the 1950s. Hedgehogs sometimes breed twice in a year, but autumn babies rarely put on enough weight to survive the winter.[/font][/size][/size][/font][/color]

    [size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=black]One afternoon in July I got a call from Mini Me who was out in the nearby playing fields, she had found an injured baby hedgehog that was too[/color][color=black] [/color][color=black]weak[/color] and badly hurt to even roll up into a ball. Mr D took a cardboard box and went to bring them home, when they got back it was with the smallest Hoglet I had ever seen, he was only about 4 or 5 weeks old, his fuzzy little face looked up desperately and I was absolutely horrified at the serious injuries the friendly little chap had sustained. I cleaned his wound but it was badly infected so we contacted our local animal hospital who were happy to treat him free of charge if I did the nursing, it was touch and go for several days although the x-ray showed no break to the leg the laceration was so deep it had severed the nerves and tendons in his leg and he was going to need an amputation once the infection had cleared up. [color=black]So there we were – for the next few weeks, I was responsible for a hedgehog who needed two lots of medication twice a day. [/color][color=black] [/color][/font][/size]

    [size=3][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][color=#000000][attachment=122086:2011_0715spikey0003.JPG][/color][/font][/size]

    [size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=black]Eventually, a three-legged hedgehog with a slightly sideways walk counted his blessings at being alive – life is very precious, even to a hedgehog.[/color] [/font][/size]

    [size=3][attachment=122088:2011_0727spikey0005.JPG][/size]

    [size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Sadly Spikey can’t go back fully into the wild but he can enjoy a safe and secure and hopefully happy life in our enclosed garden.[color=black] We called him Spikey, because any wild creature is male until proven otherwise (this is a bit sexist I know, but it's traditional). I did learn how to sex them down the line and he is in fact a she, but I didn't want to mess him about. [/color][/font][/size]

    [size=3][attachment=122087:2011_0805Spikey0002.JPG][/size]

    [size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=black]Feeding hedgehogs is easy. Dog, or Cat food, tinned or dry, tinned dog in Spike’s case topped with some crunchy meal worms, he loves meal worms. Don't give them bread and milk – lactose is not good for them. They eat slugs too, but they carry a nasty parasite that affects hedgehog lungs. Talking of parasites I got rid of his fleas, but it is a myth that hedgehog fleas can live very long on anything or anybody that isn’t a hedgehog. [/color][/font][/size]

    [size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=black]Eventually Spikey weighed over a pound, the weather warmed up, and I moved him from his indoor home in the utility room into a hutch the garden. He comes in at night at the moment and will probably move back inside for the winter unless we decide to let him hibernate.[/color][/font][/size]

    [size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=black]Anyone could do it – look out for hedgehogs in your garden this autumn, perhaps if we all kept an eye out, we could save a much-loved British species from extinction.[/color][/font][/size]
  3. Snowangel-MK
    [color=#000000]My new postman looks like Jim Bowen... so much so I had to 'Google' Jim to see if he was still alive and where he was living just in case it said working for Royal Mail in MK !![/color]

    [color=#000000][attachment=121765:_38312237_jim_bowen300.jpg][/color]

    [color=#000000]I didn't really want a new postman, my lovely postman, that happy-chappy, deliverer of my letters and parcels on an almost daily basis, is no more…I had suspected as much last week when I discovered a little red and white card in my letterbox instead of my package. In case you don’t know these red and white cards are from the Royal Mail asking you to go into the sorting office and pick up the parcels yourself! Not only that, but you have to wait a minimum 6 hours (sometimes 8!!!!) hours before you can collect them. *swoons in a faint*. Do you have any idea what torture that is ? [/color]

    [color=#000000]Anyway, at first I thought that maybe my postman was on holiday and business would be resumed as normal in a few days, but no.... he has changed routes [img]http://hw.nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/cray.gif[/img][/color]

    [color=#000000]Now, I’m sure that my new postman (aka Jim) will soon get the hang of not making me go all the way to the sorting office for my parcels. I have already had a word and asked the new postman to leave my packets in the usual place for me and lo and behold this morning there was one sticking out from behind the plant pot when I got back from walking the dogs. So, much as I will miss my old postman’s “morning, love!” it's time to celebrate the beginning of a new partnership ‘Jim Bowen’ brings me packets and I beam from ear to ear like a lunatic while trying to stop myself saying.. “Super Smashing Lovely” [/color]

    [img]http://hw.nwstatic.co.uk/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.png[/img]
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