So, you’ve had two grandsons in hospital, as well as your wife. So, do all of you speak about your experiences in hospital?

Yes. Yeah, my wife and I refer from time to time, you know, things come up. The elder of the two grandsons and I, we’re now getting back to business, if I can put it that way. But initially, let’s face it, it was back in January we came out, so February, March, a couple of months, we communicated at least once a day, checking on each other, how do you feel today, et cetera, et cetera. And when one of us had a letter or a call or something, the other one knew about it. So, we kept like that. Hence, I told him that I was going to be talking to you and he then told me that he had had an email from you because you’d had problems making telephone contact with him.

So yeah, no, we talked everything, you know. Things happened to both of us, you know, like a bruise appears on his leg, is it because he was manhandled, who knows. But I’m just saying that it’s just one thing…the other thing that sort of came to mind. But we talk to each other about how we feel, and we can understand what we’re talking about because we’ve both been through it identically. It's probably silly to say, but the younger grandson who went straight to the respiratory ward, he doesn’t quite have the same understanding because he hasn’t been through what two of us went through. And in a way, it’s almost a pity, it would be better if we could all talk three equally. But we involve him as much as we can and try and educate him.

But yes, we do talk. And we’re now trying to, as I say, more of the conversation is now work, because they’re trying to do a bit. But we have found that, you know, you have to take it very steady because you can go and do a few hours on something and then, my goodness, do you pay for it, you know, because your body’s just not up to it yet. You think you feel alright but you’re not really.

But I’ve found, particularly when I wash the hair, that I’m actually losing some hair. The first time it shook me because…that’s only recently started to happen. The water wasn’t running away and the reason was there was so much hair had got in the plughole, you know, I call it a plughole even though it’s a shower, you know what I mean, the drainage point. So…but my wife, who, as I say, suffered and she was in ICU as well, it was serious and then I looked after her when she came home. But she had a period of hair loss as well. So, it seems to be a bit of a feature. But, you know, I suppose at my age, I’m lucky to have as much as I’ve got.

And I think that’s the length and breadth of the problems. I’ve been asked because obviously I’ve had sessions with critical care team and also the respiratory team, and they all ask me questions about, you know, how I am and what’s happening and all the rest of it, and try and tell me what’s normal, what to expect or not. But no, I think I’m very lucky and there’s nothing much…basically, my limiting factor is the hernia problem, that’s…apart from that, but I can still enjoy life.

What happened is…and she’s, like, doing 13-hour shifts and she came in from work one night and wasn’t feeling right. And she’d always…she’d actually started a practice as soon as the pandemic thing, you know, as soon as the Covid thing first raised its head. She would come in, we wouldn’t greet each other, she would go straight upstairs, strip, shower, before then coming and giving me a kiss and saying hello. So, you know, we were being sensible like that because of the fact she was coming from hospital.

Anyway, on that particular night, she came in and things were obviously not right. And she did go up and that, shower, and she said she wasn’t well and we should…she should isolate. The word Covid didn’t come up at this stage. She wasn’t well and she should isolate. So she obviously didn’t come to our bedroom, she went to one of the other bedrooms which she uses as a dressing room. And fortunately, just down the passage from that bedroom there’s a bathroom, et cetera, toilet. And then I’ve got a separate toilet up on the first floor as well.

She lived in her room and only left it to go to the bathroom for a number of days. And what happened is, I had an antibacterial aerial spray which I used everywhere up on the corridor upstairs. I would wear a mask and gloves. I put a little coffee table outside of her door and I used to leave a tray of food or whatever she wanted. And the communications were via good old Facetime. And after a few days, she seemed to be getting better. But then things went downhill after that and, you know, I said, you know, you’ve definitely got something serious and you need to go to hospital. And so, I made the call, and she went into hospital.