Ramblings of a drug dealer

Another chaotic day. We started wearing masks and gloves yesterday, or maybe the day before, to help our messaging to all the patients who continue to come in for shampoo, hair colour and cards. The seriousness of lockdown just hasn't sunk in to some, but we do feel a bit safer this week, both physically and in our processes. Timeline wrong.  Written 26th March

Yesterday my life changed in a way I have anticipated for a while, but never expected. It's all a bit strange so far, and I guess I just need/want to capture the moment, because I don't know what today or yesterday will be like as a memory. After 92 yrs on planet earth dad didn't need his old body any more, so left it behind. I'm sure he'll get a new one later, but for now the one with the sore back, the blue finger and the slightly scrambled timeline is finished with. One good thing is that the dementia only changed the last 18 months or so. I was going to say "only robbed us of" but that's not really true. I haven't been robbed of anything. Dad was still dad.....just a different kind of dad. And he never lost us......he was with us till the end. I've no idea how it would have been for us if Murray and I had been with him in our pink visor masks, yellow bibs and blue gloves at the end, but ultimately it doesn't matter. He died.......that...

Man it's been manic. And it will get worse, but we don't know what "worse" looks like. Probably 3 deaths locally linked to COVID-19 and the old guard just don't get it. Not sure what it will take...... So glad to have been released from HIS non-clinical role, as all hands on deck required just to keep up needed. And the schools are all due to close tomorrow (except the ones they are keeping open to babysit the kids parents don't want....parents in NHS). This could be the first step toward total lockdown. So how do we stop Johny from his daily visit tae the Muckle Cross, or Helen from her trip tae hear the local gossip? Am I doing enough in terms of self and staff protection? Starting to get a wee bit scared.

Rapid change in how we are living with the imminent threat of an unseen virus. Today mum went to Tesco for some shopping, for the last time (until she's allowed out again) and was shocked.....when she got there, the freezers, chillers, biscuit shelves and bog roll isles were bare. How will living with shortages be? Could be interesting. Dad only allowed visitors for a couple of hours a day, with no children and no more than two people at any one time as of today........Oh! no real change I guess. The last three days at work has been a bit like Christmas, but without the Pringles and Quality Street. We have not Calpol, very little handwash (of any kind), and I am learning to control my indignation when customers insist on the "antibacterial" type to kill the virus...........you understand my problem?......and a few loo rolls. Anna has a new cough today, so the Edinburgh family have gone into lockdown for 14 days. I guess they get out next month. Harry has a new cough to...

A funny thing happened on the way to........complete the sentence. Except this morning it didn't. Actually, yes actually, nothing very funny happened at all today. The journey to Glasgow wasn't particularly funny, nor was the workshop, nor the phonecall from mum asking if there was a paper today, nor the phonecall from Duncan Green telling me that he was starting dad on some amoxicillin because his CRP levels were increasing slightly and he had a slight crackle at the bottom of one of his lungs. The sprint to Queen St station wasn't particularly amusing either. In fact, I think there could be some mileage in a series called "A really ordinary bunch of stuff didn't really happen on the way to..." However, it's half past six, I'm at Pitlochry, and COVID-19 level has just been raised to level 4, but that's an NHS England thing so of course we will have a different version of the same thing here. It's hard to know how this virus is going to affec...

It's that time. How many times have I said, or heard, "we should write that down"? So here we are. 4.30 on a Wednesday afternoon in January, and the 2020 thing hasn't really sunk in. The last few months have been a bit of a .......I was going to say rollercoaster, but that goes up and down, whereas it's been mostly down with a few little flashes of lightness that squarkle in the darkness.......so lets just say it hasn't been the easiest time ever. We lost Grumpy on November 6th, which was a bit of a shock. Elspeth and Fiona were with him, which was good for them in a way, but it's not the best phonecall to get at work on a Wednesday afternoon. It's hard to write much just now.....maybe another Wednesday. We've kind of lost dad as well, although he's still got his sense of humour on a good day, and I started a poem "Dementia stole my daddy". I haven't actually got any further than that because I'm no good at poems, but its a...