Lockdown just got even more locked down!

Regular Baggees will know that one of Clever Bird's main ways of helping Hormonal Hannah to keep her depression at bay, and her anxiety low, was to get Furry Mama to take her and Pepper Pooch to the beach. And more recently, to get Grotty Groom to take her to see her horses.

As neither of these options are currently available, instead, Furry Mama has been taking Hannah, Calum and the Pooch for long dawn walks.

This was helping Hormonal Hannah a little, so much so, that she had become brave, and was letting Furry Mama take the Pooch out for his walk during the late morning, if Baggy was too tired to get up with the sparrows.

Getting a bit of exercise each day, in the fresh air and sunshine, with the birds tweeting, surrounded by nature, helped to keep Hormonal Hannah's angst-ridden meltdowns to no more than a bi-daily occurrence. It's so difficult during this coronavirus pandemic to see a way forward, and although Baggy has always lived pretty much in the present, she would know that Furry Mama had a plan, Grotty Groom had a plan, even The Domestic Goddess had a plan, but currently that's impossible. Having no plan, can feel like having no future.

Will Furry Mama ever be able to go to the beach again? Will Grotty Groom ever be able to restart her plans to ride Joey and Wesley? Will The Domestic Goddess ever be able to go and mooch around the shops to find all the exotic ingredients she now needs for her cooking? Well, yes, of course she will - but who knows when! So Clever Bird had found ways to make Hannah happy with her current lot: meditate, live in the moment, learn to cook well, garden, spend lots of quality time with number one furry, walk the pooch.

Then, as is the theme of Baggy's life, each time she is on some kind of a track, she's swerved off it! On Wednesday, disaster struck.

Gloria Gardener was watering her garden, whilst Calum repainted an old bench. The Pooch was running around, chasing after his soft-squeaky ball. All was well with the world. Clever Bird is astounded by the cleverness of the Pooch. He's learnt in a matter of days, that if he takes a tennis ball, (one of the dozen or more that still seem to lurk in the house and garden) to Furry Mama, nothing happens anymore; but take a totally deflatable, squeaky, rubber one to her, and it gets thrown! Okay, so the squeak is more than a bit annoying, but at least his teeth don't get worn away.

Gloria continued to water the garden, as Furry Mama wondered why the Pooch hadn't reappeared with his ball. She found him, at the top of what Gloria affectionately calls the "mole hill".

"You okay Pooch?"
"Duz I looks okay mum? I iz holding my leg in the air for a reezun u know!"
"Have you hurt your paw? Oh heck, that's rather a lot of blood! Let me see."

There was so much blood that Baggy nearly fainted, and shouted at Calum to keep Pepper where he was while she went off to get padding and bandages. Like that was ever going to work - Pepper follows Furry Mama pretty much everywhere. So he followed her all the way down the steep steps to the kitchen, where with some struggling, shouting, swearing and total panic, she managed to bandage his paw. An hour later, the Pooch was whimpering, so Freda Fretter panicked that she might have put the bandage on too tight, and took it off. Furry Mama checked his paw; there was no blood, and she couldn't see a badly split pad, so she left the bandage off. Pepper hid himself behind the sofa, and started licking his leg.

"Leave it Pepper!"
"Nah mum. It hurts."
"Pepper, leave it!!"
"Carnt!"

Furry Mama dragged Baggy from the settee to check on the boy. There was blood all over the carpet. She picked his paw up, but could see nothing. Clever Bird got him to hop onto the sofa, and made Baggy put her reading glasses on.

"Let's have a look at that paw baby. Lift it up. Oh sh**."

Baggy managed not to faint, as she saw the inch long deep cut, on his inner leg, just above the top pad - not on his paw, at all!

Furry Mama bandaged it, but Freda Fretter couldn't relax, as Pepper whimpered and kept looking at her with massive sad eyes. In the end she decided that she had better call the vet. Having described the wound to the vet, over the phone, she then had to un-bandage it once more, so that Calum could take photos to e-mail to the vet who wanted to see it for himself. It was decided that it was so deep a cut, that Pepper would need stitches. However, as he'd eaten that morning and he'd need general anaesthetic for the stitching, it would have to be done on Thursday morning. Calum, Pepper and an extremely worried Furry Mama were at the vets in Saxmundham by 8.30am, (their own local vets is closed for the duration). Hannah had been in tears (of anxiousness), twice before they even arrived. They waited in the car park, and the vet came out to collect the Pooch from a safe distance. The vet explained the plan. Furry Mama mentioned that Pepper might actually be allergic to stitches, as he's reacted to them before, and the last lot he had in his leg all burst. Freda watched Pepper head off, tail down low. Hannah started to blub. Calum drove away, as Clever Bird made Hannah take deep breaths. 

Halfway home, Baggy's phone rang. The vet had decided that if Pepper was calm enough, as the wound was so clean and deep, he would staple it instead of stitching it. This would mean no general anaesthetic, and was therefore a lot less risky. Fortunately, that's what happened, so Pepper was home again by mid-morning. In pain, and feeling sorry for himself, but home!

The next morning, he seemed a little chirpier, but was in need of large cuddles. Is there any wonder that Baggy doesn't always get the best night's sleep?

This morning, Furry Mama has removed the bandage, as instructed, (well actually, in all honesty, Calum did it, as Freda Fretter was scared she'd hurt the lad), and the staples are holding, and the wound looks good. Marvellous, and a big relief.

But...

The Pooch must rest. He is not to be walked until at least after the staples are removed in another eight days time! This is a challenge - not just for Pepper, who is already wondering what on earth he has done wrong that means he's not even allowed to go up into the main part of the garden, but also for Hormonal Hannah! Now her latest coping mechanism has also been removed. It's not just that she can't get out with Furry Mama. As Pepper follows Baggy around everywhere, even Goria Gardener can't get up into the main part of her garden. So, time for plan C, D or E, as Hannah can't remember what she's up to now.

Clever Bird has decided that Creative Clara might have to be the one to distract her this time...

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Blue.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 8.
Tears: Pretty constantly, as anything can set her off at present.
Overall day: Good.

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No Baggy was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!

Has Covid-19 been around longer than we realise?

Clever Bird has been completing the Covid-19 symptoms app. every day, trying to do her part in helping the experts to try and track and make sense of this ghastly virus. Each day, as Baggy is "Not feeling her normal self", she's asked a bunch of questions about her symptoms. Today, as she was answering the questions, it occurred to her, that she and Calum might already have had Covid-19! Not recently, but last December! Had Clever Bird been completing the app. then, she would probably have been saying 'yes' to every question. The beauty of writing a diary, or in Baggy's case, a blog, is that you can check back on things that otherwise you might have entirely forgotten. Hormonal Hannah makes Baggy forget most things, but not being extremely unwell a few months ago. She thought that it was in January, but on whizzing back through her blog, she realised that it was in December last year.

https://baggybodysback.blogspot.com/2019/12/feeling-rough.html

In fact, to be more accurate, Baggy was ill for most of December! Number one furry was ill first. Really ill! A week or so later, Baggy followed suit.

It started with a general feeling of tiredness and headaches, which after a few days got so bad that Baggy was literally sleeping for 18+ hours a day. Bad cough. High temperature. Difficulty breathing. Aching all over, to the point of not being able to get up without help. Stomach cramps. Then seemingly getting better for a few days, before rapidly getting much worse - sickness and diarrhoea, weak and achy, high temperature, the shivers, tight chest, dizzy and breathless!

Sound familiar Baggees? Yes, that's what Clever Bird thought! It took weeks to get over it and it turned out that quite a few people in the area had also had similar illnesses, and been stuck in their houses for a while. Was it Covid-19? Clever Bird presumes that she will never know, unless a test is available for everybody, which could identify whether a person has been previously infected. 

Partly with that in mind; partly because Clever Bird thinks it's likely that social distancing measures will be in place for months to come; partly because Furry Mama is worried about Pepper Pooch's mental health; partly because it's exhausting getting up at 5.00am; partly because Hormonal Hannah is struggling with all of this, Clever Bird decided to take charge today! She persuaded Furry Mama to take Pepper Pooch out for a late morning walk, and to risk meeting other people.

They headed off up the mediaeval track that runs directly past the house. Much to Freda Fretter's delight, absolutely nobody was on it.

Hormonal Hannah began to relax, and to enjoy the birdsong, as the Pooch sniffed his way along the track.

To add a few extra minutes, they then headed around the village. Passing through its dead centre...

... where Psychic Ploppo admired the old church, and wished that she could go and sit in it for a while.

The truth is that Hormonal Hannah needs to be strong, and to try to get back to as normal a routine as she can, within the current limits. The sunrise walks will continue, but only every other day. Yesterday's was interesting.

Clever Bird decided to do the walk they've done a couple of times, in the reverse direction. Why not? It's a circular walk, so what could be different, other than the views?

And the views are very different! It's as well that Calum was with her, or Baggy would have managed to go the wrong way completely. Grotty Groom thinks that perhaps she is more like her horse than she realises. Wesley will happily walk past something on a daily basis - but if Grotty then rode him past that exact same spot in the opposite direction, he'd jump out of his skin, as if he'd never seen it before. Baggy now totally understands that concept!

It also hadn't even occurred to Clever Bird that undertaking a circular walk, in its opposite direction, could be any different physically. Until that is, she heard Baggy saying every few minutes, "My knee hurts Cal," or, "We're going uphill again."

 

From here on in, she will be doing the walk in a clockwise direction, and taking advantage of the fact that the majority of it is downhill! 

But Baggy's arthritic knees coped, if somewhat noisily, and they made it home, thanks to number one furry having a sense of direction.

Baggy remains extremely grateful to be safe and well, and forever thankful to all the people who are fighting this awful coronavirus by working for the NHS, working in essential services, or doing their best to follow the social distancing rules...

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Blue.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 5.
Tears: Baggy woke up in them during the night.
Overall day: Fine.

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No Baggy was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!

Thank goodness it's still okay to exercise once a day, during lockdown.

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Blue.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 5.
Tears: Every time that Captain Tom is on the news - Bless the lovely man.
Overall day: Good start.

As Hormonal Hannah lay in bed fretting last night, Clever Bird remembered something that her doctor said to her a while back, "Sometimes it's easy to go to your anxiety, because it's what you know," - or words to that effect. And that's true, Hannah is so used to feeling consciously anxious, that sometimes she almost doesn't feel herself if she's not worried and stressed. Point made Clever Bird, so each time Hannah starts (inevitably under the current climate), to become anxious, Clever Bird is trying to get another member of the gang to distract her.

Yesterday, as it was a stunningly beautiful day, it was Gloria Gardener's turn to distract Hannah. Creative Clara forgot to do proper before photos (as per currently usual), but she did a part of the way through one (above). Her job - to clean the wonky garden steps of their debris...

... whilst Furry Mama threw a ball for Pepper Pooch at the same time. Just as well Baggy is a master at multi-tasking. 

It took a while! But Gloria was happy with her results.

She does have a whole other set of steps to do, but that will be for another warm day! As it was so warm yesterday, and as Baggy and number one furry were rather tired, they didn't get out for an early-morning walk yesterday, so they made up for it this morning.

They set off at 5.15am for a 4 1/2 mile walk.

Hormonal Hannah was delighted that they met not one other person on the entire walk and they were safely back home again before the sun was even fully up. Furry Mama gave the pooch a shower to get the filthy pond water off him, then The Domestic Goddess rustled up Baggy's favourite new healthy breakfast, Blueberry Oat Pancakes.

And yes Baggees, in spite of everything, Baggy is carrying on with her new healthy lifestyle plan. The Domestic Goddess is thoroughly enjoying cooking delicious food, and Baggy has regained her enjoyment of eating!

Food, glorious food!

Creative Clara is also helping Hannah stay calm by blogging; she will also be making some more jars for The Domestic Goddess's nuts and seeds later today. Baggy continues to learn to meditate, and when she can actually get into her bed, is sleeping well...

Finding things to do during this lockdown is definitely keeping the gang on track...

Note to readers: For the avoidance of any doubt, every character in this blog is Baggy! No Baggy was harmed in its writing, although some of them get pretty confused!