Thread: Rather depressing

At the end of last week I dropped my steroid dose, I think I may have had a bit of an infection as well, I felt terrible. It was the day of a funeral, a good friend, but the ceremony was in London at 9.30 am. I would have needed to be out of the door by 7.am to be sure of getting there, and I had had a night of waking to cramps and felt terrible. I barely got out of bed. It was a disappointment to miss it, but his son is having a celebration of his life on his birthday next month, which will be some compensation.

I have upped the steroid slightly, spread the drop, and things have recovered slightly. My sight was beginning to grey up again, the trend seems to be to gradual improvement now.

Dave the cat has been carrying on, gradually becoming weaker, but still fond of company and capable of a purr when made a fuss of, until yesterday. Then he had a very bad day, simply staggering from one spot to collapse in a heap in another. In the evening he retched and vomited, despite not having eaten for some time. We called the vet, who came and gave him an injection, and I have been out in the damp, grey, dawn digging the last of the hole I started yesterday afternoon. We had been anxious that we would know the time, but when it came there was no doubt. He had as much of life as he could, without a terrible, traumatic end, there simply were not any good bits left.

Soon it will be time to look forward, there are positive signs. We have new next door neighbours who seem pleasant, civilised people. Our younger daughter is out of halls and into her new student house, the older daughter has also been house hunting, and seems to have settled on a place, I am gradually working my way through the publishing instructions on Lulu, yesterday I managed to set the page size, my editing job is progressing. No doubt there will be set backs, no doubt they will be overcome. But right now it is a bit of a grey September morning and steroids leave me a little tearful, that's my excuse.

Hi Oily, I'm so sorry to hear about your cat and your continued health struggles. It sounds like you're still managing to look for the good things in life though. Here's sending you some good vibes from across the world and wishing you luck in your continued editing work.*

Hi there Olly..sorry to hear about the cat.
It is not all that depressing from what I read in your writing.
Although the title suggested so your actual tone in your writing sounds very positive.
I am thinking you have overcome the worse and things can only get better so hold on there.

Even though I was expecting the news about Dave, when I read it I got no further than the third paragraph before I had to stop for a bit. I went and told the other half, and had a little cry.



Hey, I read some funny stuff earlier regarding research at St Thomas’ into a link between Chlamydia and eye infections. It was all about fallen women so it couldn’t of been anything to do with you.

I wish you well Olly and I am so sorry to hear of your struggles. Take care and rest!

I'm really sorry to hear about your cat, I know how hard it is to lose a pet and it really does get better, at least you were able to spend his last days with him and gave him the chance at a peaceful passing away rather than letting him suffer.
Good luck to your daughters and I hope your health improves.

Olly, I know how you feel when you lose a good friend (a cat) - ours had cancer and he just walked out of the house. We searched for days and days, but couldn't find him. Even my dad, who never wept, could not keep his eyes dry on the day we realized we'd never see our Pluche back.
Also I hope that your health does improve a bit (hoping the same for mine, as according to my doctor I'm a walking time bomb - blood pressure into the extremes and my heart beats too fast).

Olly, I'm glad to see you on the forums and sorry to see that things are not going well. Losing a pet is really rough, even without the other things going on for you. *hugs!* Warmest wishes from here.

That is very depressing, especially losing the cat. T_T

Hope you recover well and that this month becomes better.

I'm sorry you're having such a tough time, and doubly sorry that your furry friend has left. But I am pleased that you're back on the forum.

Aw, Olly, I'm so very sorry about Dave and your health issues and all. *hugs*

Hi, Olly. Sorry to hear about Dave. I've dug those holes in the garden, in our dogs' favourite sunbathing spots. It's never a nice thing to have to do. Hope your gradual improvement continues. There's no harm in shedding a tear every now and then, and certainly no need for an excuse--though it's quite convenient if there's an onion about.

Good luck

Thanks for all the well wishes everyone, I am hoping that Monday morning damp dawn was a bottoming out point for a bit. Dave has been ill for some time and gradually getting worse. The timing was a prolonged and difficult decision, we were not too soon, I don't think we were too late.

Hallum dying was more of a blow, he was a little older than I, he came here from Barbados as a young man in 1961, the year I left school. Suffering from a speech impediment as a child he had taught himself to speak received English from Ealing Films he watched repeatedly whilst working as a projectionist in Barbados, typical of the determination and character he displayed, not many widowers manage single parenthood as successfully as he did. We were very different people in many ways and sometimes the methods by which we arrived at our conclusions had origins literally a world apart, but somehow we would manage to end up in a similar place. He had lung cancer, having smoked since a teenager, from diagnosis to death was a matter of a few months, he was very much my friend.

This week the sun has been shining, although it is low and play the devil with my cataracts at times, today I visited Justin, Hallum's son, and a large black cat, from the new neighbours next door, was sunning itself in the garden. Nothing is ever as it was, but the wheel still turns.

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

Nothing is ever as it was, but the wheel still turns.

Aye. Aye, it does, Olly.