It all started to go wrong at 4.20am when I woke and had to go to the bathroom. Outside the bathroom I suddenly found myself walking in water so, after hesitation about putting the light on (had it come from the flat above? Electrics, would I get electrocuted? Oh, what the hell!) I pulled the light switch to find the bathroom and kitchen totally flooded, our immersion tank had overflowed over the top of it and water was pouring out at a horrific rate as our water pressure is really high for whatever reason. After a quick panic, yelling to Pete to come (stupid, what could he do) I turned the water off - phew! Ok, grab towels - only to find them all totally saturated, as was everything in the airing cupboard. So, then followed 2 hours of using one of the hand towels in use to try and mop up what I could. 4 bucketfuls later I had mopped up the worst, ripped up the bathroom Lino and carpet and decided that was the best I could do for the moment. At 7 am I rang our landlord, who lives next door, and he came straight round. He had arranged for the plumber to come at 8am, and we pondered the question of how to dry the kitchen carpet which, luckily, was flotex so repelled rather than absorbed water. He brought me lots of old towels and sheets to lay down to soak up what was left and then it has been the dehumidifier on all day today and, amazingly, it is dry now. All the stuff in the airing cupboard (why do I keep so much in there??) has had to be washed and dried, and no sun so everything in the tumble drier which has pretty much been on all yesterday and today - washing machine, tumble drier, dehumidifier - our electric bill will be enormous, not to mention the water bill!!! Not to mention all the water in the house, today I found our wheelie bin (full size) full to the top with water - it sits under the overflow pipe. Luckily Martin was here and managed, with a struggle, to tip it onto its side and empty it - gallons of water down the drain. Somewhere in between mopping up I noticed that Pete's overnight catheter bag was empty - was it blocked? Oh no, it wasn't sealed along the bottom so had just run straight through onto the carpet for several hours! Another major clean up!
So, could it get any worse? Surely not! But, oh yes it did! The plumber arrived, had to go to get a part, at which point Pete decided to keel over on me. He passed out, no response, eyes rolling. Call the ambulance - again! By the time they arrived (not long) he was coming to a bit but was carted off to A&E - I couldn't go as was waiting for the plumber to finish. The house got quite full with 3 paramedics and the plumber! Eventually he was admitted to a ward for tests, etc and I was told he would be in at least overnight. The dr in A&E was appalled at the saga of his catheter and said I had to insist on it being dealt with. At 5pm the ward rang to say he could come home but they had upped some of his medication, they had referred him for an ultrasound scan for a small lump on his testicle (oh no!) and had referred him to urology - they assured me they HAD referred him so I will start hassling urology on Monday. So yesterday was spent running between the hospital and coming home to pick up saturated sheets and towels off the floor, load and unload the washing machine and drier, then back to the hospital. I can think of better ways to pass the time!
They decided the problem had been he basically got overwhelmed with the pain in his right side and just keeled over, so have upped his nerve blockers to 9 a day and see how it goes. Today he hasn't been quite so bad, but the pain is still there.
Now I wonder what else life has in store for us, it certainly isn't getting any better. What have we done to deserve this - makes us wonder!
And that's it - not looking forward to 11th September next year!
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