A Week Off Work – What To Do?

Spending Time with the Wife

March is the time of year that I spend as much time off work as possible and time on myself and the missus birthdays.

This week is for the wife.

So, what did we do?

Sunday 5th

Not a lot, honestly.

I arrived home from work just after six in the morning.

Gathering my clothes, I put them in the machine for later, then headed for the sofa to wind down, relax and catch up with some YouTube videos.

A few hours later, the wife got up, and we sat in front of the tele together and had a cup of tea and some breakfast.

I had to go to bed at some point, as we had a food delivery later that day.

The wife had been having problems with one of her succulent plants.

Having told her several times over many days that she should do a specific thing in a certain way with the plant, I took the succulent and gave it a good drink, and now we will see how that goes.

Eventually, I got my head down for a few hours, and the wife said she would get me up when it was about time.

Who Needs Sleep

I didn’t sleep well.

My body knew I had to wake up at a certain point, and I woke up a little too early.

I tried to get back to sleep, but the wife came in, telling me it was time to wake up, but the delivery wasn’t here yet.

Delivery was late.

Not by much, but hey ho… Fifteen minutes is better than two hours.

After putting everything away, I went into the office, finished a couple of blogs and had something to eat.

Eventually, we did sit down and watched a couple of things until the wife went to bed.

I finished the night by watching Sherlock: The Abominable Bride.

I made my way to bed at about 3 in the morning.

Monday 6th

It is my fault… It is something I can’t control yet.

When I am overly tired, I snore.

My snoring and the wife kept waking me.

After a while, I was fed up and decided to get up.

After getting a drink, I went directly to my office to upload my latest ASMR video and to start writing a new blog. During this time, I also researched products to help with my snoring. The one thing I liked the look of. Is at a ridiculous price.

I also sent a message to a dentist to see if they could help. At the moment, I haven’t heard back yet.

The wife has woken up.

She wasn’t annoyed with me about the snoring. She knows it is something that is bothering me as well. Although I could read the underlining tone that said she was not pleased. So, I got up and went and made some breakfast, and we went forward with our day.

The wife checked on the plant, and she might be doing okay.

I continued writing my blog and other things until it was time for me to leave the office. The wife was due to have her counselling session.

I managed to finish the blog I started and have started on this one.

Presents

Over the past few days, I placed some items in my basket from aliexpress.

The wife’s birthday was coming up, and even though my purchases wouldn’t be here on the day, it would still be something nice to look forward to. The only problem was I wanted to treat myself to something as well as get some things for my wife. A Birthday present to myself of sorts. It took a few days to work out what I wanted. Have you ever been in a situation where you have everything you need? So anything you want is pointless. I had to think hard about this, what could help me in some sort of way? So I chose the following.

The first image below is for the wife. The following two are for me. I did buy something else but SHHHHHHHHHHH!

The helmet cap is for when I wear my helmet. I don’t feel I am cushioned enough. Knowing full well, I should think about getting a new helmet. But hopefully, this will help for a while. The watch is because I have been thinking more about my health recently and hopefully I can get some useful information with the watch, to help improve it.

We eventually had dinner and waited for bedtime.

Tuesday 7th

It’s my wife’s birthday today. We haven’t planned much though we are going out and will see what happens.

I had woken up early and continued with this blog. I also started updating one of my tablets, for our holiday, in a couple of weeks. Somehow I managed to screw it up. Not my fault, mind. Too many updates at once brought up the blue screen on death. So, I had to reinstall windows 11. Even though it is a pain, I enjoy working out the problems and solving them.

The wife woke up a couple of hours later. She was feeling a bit groggy. We made breakfast and slowly woke up.

Shopping Online

I decided it was time, to finally, buy some anti-snoring devices. I didn’t know which one to buy. So, I went to Aliexpress and searched their selection. Whilst researching, I found out about TRD (tongue-retaining device). What these do is, hold onto your tongue as you sleep, making sure it doesn’t fall back. It does this by sucking your tongue into the device and keeping it in place. I found two different types and bought them.

MAD

They were reasonably cheap. Deciding I wanted to try the MAD (mandibular advancement device). The device is a mouth guard that you mould to your teeth. What this MAD device does to your mouth is make your bottom jaw move forward a little to prevent your tongue from falling back. This is one of the causes of snoring.

Aliexpress, being from china. This means you can buy items, most of the time, cheaper than the rest of the world. This is because most of the stuff is made there. So everything except one item I bought is less than a tenner.

Before going out, I had to do a Covid test for the event on Thursday. I have surgery coming up, and I have to show proof. That I wasn’t ill. Here’s the evidence.

At about 2ish, we went out for a bike ride on Tiffany.

I Screwed Up!

Whilst riding down to our destination. We came upon some traffic. I decided to start filtering through the traffic. At one point in the journey, the wife asked if I could stop filtering, and I did. When we arrived at our destination, I find out the wife is in the midst of having an anxiety attack. Usually, she’s okay with how I ride though today, something clicked, and it just got too much for her. Letting her deal with it the best way she knows how. I called my brother, who we were meeting, to bring some tissues along.

I had parked in the wrong place. But after talking to my brother on the phone, we met up and made our way to where we were going. I headed back and brought Tiffany around.

Mind was having a plant sale. Mind is an organisation that helps people with mental health problems. Today, they were holding an event to raise money for their charity. The problem was no one showed up except for myself and the wife.

The Event

When I returned from collecting Tiffany, I found the missus sitting. She was still going through her process of recovery. So, after I spent time talking to her for a while. I started to look around and noticed they didn’t have much to offer.

I don’t want to put them down… But… What they had on offer was terrible. The plants were half dead and had been sitting in their pots for so long in the open that they had started growing moss. The primary plants they were hoping to sell were flowers. These were in excellent condition. They were created especially for the event.

I was going to take some pictures and show you how it was. I couldn’t do it to them.

Good Company

The people there were lovely. Genuinely friendly and easy to talk to. They did their best to help my wife while I was fetching my bike. The wife has a mind that is hardly ever relaxed. She was amazed at how comfortable everyone was, comparing them to myself and my brother, and she just couldn’t understand how people could be like that all of the time. She wished she could be more like that.

My brother had donated some of his vast collection of books and DVDs.

The wife did get a succulent and some DVDs. When she re-pots the plant, I will show you our new addition. She also got some extra empty pots.

Home

Before coming home, the wife popped into the St.Clements surgery. Then we were eventually able to go home.

When we got home, we relaxed. The wife asked to have a takeaway for dinner. So, I found the local Chinese restaurant that we sometimes use called New World. They had recently created a website so you can order online. This is helpful and easy for us “introverts” not having to speak to someone on the phone.

And that’s how we ended our day.

The takeaway arrived, and we rested and ate, watching our shows until bedtime.

Wednesday 8th

I again woke up early again and continued updating this blog. The dentist I enquired with a couple of days ago called me back. They couldn’t help me. And as I had already purchased some items. I wasn’t that bothered but thanked her for her help.

The wife had re-potted the plant she had bought yesterday.

Now here’s the thing: For the past week, the wife has been getting excited about seeing the latest Scream film. The missus then found out online that they were doing a double feature online at the local Vue cinema of Scream 5 and 6. Only to find out today, when we were going, that the local Vue wasn’t holding the viewing.

So, of course, she is extremely pleased about this. She decided to continue watching some of the DVDs she bought yesterday.

Thursday 9th

Today is the day.

I get up around 8ish and I took my second Covid test. I am safe.

So, I relaxed and had something to eat while I waited for my time to go to the hospital.

The hospital I went to was called KIMS Hospital in Maidstone, Kent. KIMS is a private hospital where the NHS was paying for the services due to no spaces available in an NHS facility I arrived at around 11.30 a.m. I waited for them to collect me. Being a little early, my appointment was for noon.

The room I was given was like a hotel room. Have a look.

What was I In For?

The reason for my visit was nothing major. But, I had a Ganglion in my left-hand middle finger. A Ganglion is a cyst that grows in your wrist or hand area. I already had two on my right wrist. But the one on my finger irritated me while I worked. So it had to go.

After settling in, a nurse came in and took my food order. They make you eat and drink after the procedure. Which I thought was cool. Usually, it’s just a cup of tea and some toast.

Then my nurse came in to give me the rundown on what was going to happen to me that day and check my vitals.

I asked her if she had a heater. It wasn’t that I was cold. It was due to me coming down on the motorbike (not the best idea I had), it had poured down with rain. My shoes, socks and the bottom of my jeans were soaked through. I was wearing a raincoat, so my top half was okay.

Sadly she didn’t have one. So, I did the best I could in the circumstances. I hung up my clothes and filled my shoes with tissue paper. The only thing I couldn’t save was my socks. In the end, I put them in my bag. But luckily, the nurse gave me some sock slippers that helped a lot. Everything dried up enough to be comfortable to ride home.

I ended up waiting around, nearly four hours. Then I was taken to the theatre.

The Surgery

Although I knew what was going to happen. I didn’t realise HOW it was going to happen. After being set up on the surgical bed. I was surrounded, by about five people, two nurses, one anaesthetist, one surgeon and one surgeon assistant (in training).

Now here comes the fun part. They washed my hand and then painted iodine on my hand and arm. The main surgeon. Started putting needles into my hand, about four in total. I have never felt pain like that. I’m used to needles when taking blood. The needle goes in, and the pain lasts a second. This time the pain was constant for each needle, that was put in me. I did my best to control myself. The nurse gave me permission to curse. So about the third needle, I let out a slow “FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCK!”

The test came to see if the numbing had worked. The surgeon poked a knife at my pinky finger, and I felt it. The actual finger, nothing. It did feel like my middle finger had swollen three times its usual size. They then placed rubber tubing down my hand, stopping at my wrist. It was tight. But I said when they asked that I could bare it for a few minutes. Then they pushed my hand through a blue blanket. And then the Physician got to work. After five minutes, not even that, it was done.

The doctor showed me what was inside my finger, and I laughed at the size of it. It was so small.

The Problem

After being stitched up. The doctor wrapped my hand up. I wasn’t happy. I wasn’t going to be able to ride home with it. What I had wrapped on my hand was a boxing glove. After going back to the room I spoke to the nurse about it and she said we would sort something out. All I really needed was for the wound to be covered up, so I could put my gloves on. I was going to have a little trouble with gear shifting with the first three fingers being numb.

Going Home

I knew I could do it but I was still, a little concerned. My fingers were numb, but I could still move them. Thanks to Rebecca I was able to put my glove on and ride away from the hospital.

I went the wrong way home. Adding about half an hour to my journey. When I realised this it was too late. I found a side road and used Google maps with my headset and it guided me home.

I hit traffic. It was rush hour and traffic was backed up. I didn’t want to do it but I wasn’t going to sit waiting an extra hour to get home. So I started filtering. Knowing, I would probably pay for this later. I took my time and made my way through. My hand did ache, but I didn’t stop. Until finally, I was home.

I checked on my wound, and it seemed to be okay. The stitching had held, and the doctor did a good job. I put a new bandage on and set myself up to relax for the rest of the evening. The numbing finally went by the time I went to bed. The finger is hurting, but it doesn’t feel like it’s attached to my body.

Weird, I know.

Friday 10th

I woke and realised the wife had gone to sleep in the front room again due to my snoring. So I got up and sent her to bed and tried to get some sleep on the sofa.

The wife woke up a bit later, still tired. But she needed to be up as she was having a meeting with her counsellor. I also had a meeting with my lawyer a little while later.

While I was waiting. I uploaded the shorts version and the lengthier version of my ASMR video I uploaded on Monday.

The wife wanted to go out… Well… Not really, but she had some errands to run. KIMS hospital had given me a letter I had to deliver to my doctor, so I joined her.

For the next few hours, we went out.

Dropping the letter off at the doctor’s, I realised, we had forgotten the parcel my wife had to return. There were no worries about missing the bus as we had already missed it. So, we went back home, collected the parcel, and headed for the bus stop. We arrived at Lakeside shopping centre, dropped off the parcel, and headed to the various shops we needed things from. And then some window shopping.

We finished off the day with some burgers from Maccy Ds. I bought some Vanilla Float-flavoured Dr Pepper and then purchased some cheap Blu-rays from Cexs.

Of course, when we got home, we realised we had forgotten a couple of things. The wife can sort this out later. Benefits of working in a shopping centre.

Saturday 11th

Nothing to do today. I am trying to finish this blog, and the wife is catching up on her sleep.

When the wife finally gets out of bed, we have a cuppa and catch up on some tv shows.

I cut off the bandage on my finger and let it expose itself to the air. My finger looks like it’s been underwater for a couple of days. Apart from that, the finger is in good condition apart from the stitches. Fair enough, I can’t close the finger into a fist, but it’s getting better. There’s no pain all I feel is a little tension when I move it.

I treated myself to some of my frozen Greggs sausage rolls. In my mind probably the best sausage rolls in the world. Prove me wrong. I ate them whilst finishing Star Trek: Into Darkness and followed it up with the Adjustment Bureau. The wife caught up with her soaps.

I have been debating whether I am ready to go back to work tomorrow. I contact my managers through email, asking for their advice. The manager I spoke to advised me to listen to my doctor. So, from tomorrow the 12th, I will be off sick from work. I will be losing money. Though that’s the price I have to pay for my health.