Bath boards, bog seats and barking

Well it's now single figures in days to my op  (all assuming it goes ahead,  not tempting fate here). God knows how that time has gone so quickly. Not that that's a good thing, I've still got too much work to do. I need one of those time turner things that Hermione  has.  I'd have said a clone but the time turner  option benefits me without the obvious drawbacks to everybody else in having two of me to deal with. I wouldn't wish that on anybody. Not even sure Kev would go for that despite the hopefully obvious potential benefits. Mind you with my hip he'd need a clone in fully working order to see those benefits!

I finished in the office this week. I'm quite glad I'm working next week from home as it meant Friday wasn't so final. It was a bit strange as some people did make a point of saying bye as they knew they wouldn't see me again for several weeks but generally it was nicely low key. There were a couple of people I had hoped to catch up with but that didn't happen for various reasons. But I did get a nice surprise when one said she'd come and see me when I'm off. We've worked together a while but never socialised outside work and I live miles away and I wouldn't have expected it, so that was a lovely thing to hear. I think most people I work with though will just be glad of the peace :)

I know I'm not the quietest person anyway but my intrusion on the decibel scale has been worse than usual with my bloody cough. I'm on ventolin and still going (yay ventolin passes the spellchecker much easier than pholcodine did). The cough itself hurts and has now got excruciating as I am so sore in my ribs and chest. (Spellchecker observation #2 'excruciating' tried to autocorrect to 'excreted' even after I added the 'u'. Can a spellchecker be dyslexic? And why did spellchecker try to capitalise itself? And why am I now getting obsessed with just what the non-capitalised spellchecker does? This is in danger of heading into Ronnie Corbett rambling territory (sorry US people, British comedian, reference probably will mean nothing. May also mean nothing to British who are not old like me)). But back to the cough. It bloody hurts now. Seriously the hip has nothing on this chest pain. Surely I shouldn't be approaching major surgery worrying about the potential of cracking a rib and puncturing a lung. Or lying on my recovery bed and having to deal with more pain above the waist than below. Mind you I will at that point be plied with strong drugs. Silver linings and all that. 

So having left the nice normal world of the office I paid a visit to somewhere today that had never really been on my bucket list of must-see destinations.  Ableworld. A local mobility store. 

It's a lovely place. If you are old, disabled,  in need of special things. With all due respect it's not somewhere I thought I'd be visiting now. But visit I did, to buy a bath board and a booster cushion. I know,  control the excitement.  I just about managed to. Though it did actually get good when I mentioned I had osteoarthritis  (spellchecker got that after just 3 letters!) as I got to fill in a self declaration and became VAT exempt. Grabbing these perks!

Having got home to calm down from all that there was a letter waiting for me. It was a prescription for another aid. This time paid for by Cheshire East social services. But to be colllected from my local mobility store.  So for a second time in one day, back to Ableworld. Cheshire East are tight wads apparently. Other councils pay for more. Other councils would pay for my bath board.  But not them. They just bought me this

A toilet seat. A 4 inch raised toilet seat. I can hardly contain myself.

Yes this is what my life has become. Days out at a mobility store. Twice. In one day. And the thrill of VAT exemption and a free toilet seat. Sighhhhh