Ode to my dog

The last few days have been, well let's say trying! Not because of anything in particular (although our 3 hour trip to A+E didn't help, see below for more about that!) but just because I felt moody and irritable and cross. And this is when having kind children back fires on me, because instead of avoiding their grumpy mother they constantly try to cheer me up, ask me if I'm ok, try to help me with everything (I know they are very sweet but they have some personal space issues, or I do anyway!) So in the end after me throwing a bit of a paddy (this is the bit where Lewis laughs and says "A bit??!!") Lewis took the boys to his mum's while Caitlin stayed with my mum. Alone in the house with my grumpy self I felt a little better and snuggled up to watch some TV on the BBC iPlayer. However, after watching 5 minutes of some RSPCA documentary, I felt like I needed to go and bond with my dog. I brushed him, and then took him for a walk in the fog. I realised then how much I love my dog. Most people see me telling Dash to go to his bed, simply because he likes to nose people until they fuss him and that can get pretty annoying. But he is in fact a great dog. He doesn't whine to go out for a walk all the time, he seems to sense when I am in the mood to walk him and when he will just have to be content with a few laps of the garden (I never said I was a perfect dog owner). He sits halfway up the stairs standing guard, and never barks unless there is someone coming near to the house, which is very reassuring especially when I am on my own at night. He is quite happy to have a warm bed and a regular supply of food, and requires little more than that. He also barks when people come near me when we are out walking and while that can get annoying if it is someone I want to speak to, it can be quite useful when I don't feel like talking to anyone. Most of all, Dash is 100% loyal to me, he may obey Lewis every now and then, but he is definitely my dog and my protector and that's just a bit special.

So the A+E thing...Esaias got something in his foot while we were at the beach on thursday. We bathed him and tried to remove it with tweezers to no avail. On friday I rang the Dr - they were closed as it was Good Friday. So I called NHS Direct, they were only taking urgent calls. So I went to Boots and asked to see a pharmacist, they recommended a magnesium sulphate paste, but advised me to only leave it on until Sunday. They said if it still wasn't out by then I would need to take Esaias to A+E. So there was nothing doing on Sunday, so I trundled off to Grimsby Hospital on Sunday evening. We arrived about 7:45pm, and were directed by the nurse to the children's waiting area. There were three children waiting in there including Esaias. One boy who was only 6, had blood running down the side of his head, and was still bleeding at 10pm. The other child was a little girl of 5 who had fallen out of bed. She didn't move her arm once the whole time they were in there, and anyone could see it was really making her uncomfortable. Ofcourse I stuck my oar in and complained mostly on behalf of the two other children in there and a Dr came to see the pretty much straight off. However by 11:15pm we were still waiting, so I told the doctor that he either needed to look at Esaias or I was going to take him home to bed. I was given the option of subjecting Esaias to a very painful injection and waiting an hour for the DR to remove the splinter ot taking some anasthetic cream and doing it myself at home. So home we came. This morning we put the cream on and managed to remove the foreign object, which in facte ended up to be a 20mm thorn! Bless Esaias he must have been in so much pain. I know that I am lucky we have the NHS and we could have come away with a HUGE medical bill for all of that, BUT I would really have expected children to be a priority at that time of night, and they will be getting a piece of my mind!