Rumours of my demise are..........

[J.R.]

......... slightly exagerated !!

Sorry I haven't been around for a while, but one way and another, it's been a very eventful ten days.

A week ago last Sunday, after refereeing at Horley, we were relaxing watching television at around 10p.m., when Riagan, (Our 'Little King') had a light supper and went out for his evening stroll.

About 45 minutes later the phone rang and I was informed by our veterinary surgeon that the lad was in their surgery. "Gosh, he walked up there quickly !" I joked.

Not so. He had been found half sitting in the middle of the A.24 Dorking by-pass, approximately 150 yards from our house with severe lacerations to his head, his tongue bitten through and having lost a very great deal of blood. Thank God for micro-chips.

The long and short of it was he had a 3 day stay in the surgery, the first 24 hours without direct examination but to allow for stabilisation. After full X-Rays, no fractures but plenty of stitches. He took 3 more days at home before eating and drinking again properly and I'm stuck with a bill for the best part of half a grand !

If that wasn't all quite enough, the monday after he was hit, I came down with the dreaded swine-flu which has taken 9 days to shift and I'm not completely over it all yet.

I've got a lot to catch up on, both on here and in the footy world. (The joys of Administration), so please bare with me !!

So if anyone wants advice on how to deal with the piggy-illness after contracting it, I'm your man !

[Kim2s70-77]

Hope you and Riagan are well on the mend. What a rough couple of weeks!

[sejintenej]

At least Riagan is home an on the road to (I hope) full recovery. Our last dog, Charlie Brown. had a thing about my sister-in-law's dog D. C (correctly Daft Critter) and would go visiting. Of course that led to his arrest on a number of occasions. On the last occasion his ID tag got missing so he was logged as a small brown and white dog and eventually sent by the police to the rescue centre. we found him there after a very long time (including visits to the cop-shop) - the size of a sheepdog, black all over with some white on his chest and one brown foot!

As for Swine Flu, it did get here. My younger grand-daughter had a nasty accident at school which damaged her foot and threatened to destroy her career. To recover her parents brought all three grandchildren here; the day they left Issy felt a bit funny and lay down with a temperature, sore throat, headache ..... She was like that for two more days and after some work on her feet was back on points after 3 weeks! A doctor friend was worried for me because in theory I have little immunity left but somehow I escaped on that occasion.

The moral seems to be that being young and extra fit can help but it is all a game of chance. At least John, you now have immunity to it when the forecast worse epidemic strikes.

[kerrensimmonds]

Dear John and Raigan
I hope you both get better soon. What a nightmare!
Kerren

[Fjgrogan]

John, so sorry to hear that you are both in the wars, but good to know that you are on the mend - it is not the same around here without you! In the circumstances, I guess it would be unfair to get pedantic about 'bare with me'!

[Mid A 15]

Hope you both make a full recovery soon.

[midget]

Sorry to hear about your woes. I hope you and His Excellency make a sppedy return to good health.

Maggie

[kerrensimmonds]

I live within 20 yards of a main railway line, and in a Close where teenage motorcyclists often do fast 'wheelies'. My last house was in a quiet, urban, residential Close - yet one day I came back from a dog walk to find a cat in the road, with blood pumping out of an eye socket. I remembered that a neighbour had roared past me in her car, as I walked down into the bottom of the Close. I wrapped the cat in towels and took it to the vet. Its owners were identified and found but sadly it died within 24 hours. Years later, living here, I know why my cats don't go outside unless I am at home and it's a nice quiet summer day and I can keep an eye on them. Sometimes they protest (when they are not sleeping, that is....) but at least they are safe.

I hope that Raigan is insured, JR? And I truly hope that he makes a full recovery.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Sorry you were both "Struck down"
Glad to hear you are both on the mend, --- in the American Health System, YOUR bill would probably have exceeded that of "His Highness" !

We complain about the NHS, (But having sat on an NHS Board,) there are worse systems of "Care" !!!

[J.R.]

Fortunately, I'm exempt from all prescription charges, though as my GP advised, at least three days bed rest, plenty of fluids and the usual pain-killers did the trick.

Incidently, he's very anti Tamiflu unles the symptoms keep increasing after 48 hours.

No - The little King isn't insured, so we are having to come to some arangements with our veterinary surgeons.

I found it odd that when the Vet got the good Samaritan finder to ring me (He didn't want me to have HIS phone number, for some reason), he refused his address so we could send his wife some flowers. Said it was unneccessary.

There are still some very nice kind people about.

[kerrensimmonds]

I'm not surprised, JR. It's called 'data protection'. When my dog escaped on Day 1 (I was looking after her for a year while her owner went to Canada.. that's 5 years ago and the dog is still here, but that's a different story) she was picked up by a neighbour who took her to the vet and the microchip traced her to her original owner (who had not yet gone to Canada). I was not allowed the details of the kind samaritan who had found her and handed her in to the vet, but by process of elimination I worked out who it was (my neighbour over the road). Likewise if someone wanted the contact details for one of our students, however legitimate the request might seem, we would not comply but would turn the invitation round and ask the student to contact the enquirer, if they so wished.

[J.R.]

Sorry about the delay in updating.

I'm afraid it's been a very hectic bank-holiday weekend.

League football Saturday, Ladies football Sunday at Horley, league football again Monday morning.

The little king got a clean bill of health from the vet on Friday morning. He's got his voice and appetite back and is limping less and less.

I'm not too proud to say we have gone cap-in-hand to both the R.S.P.C.A, who have already promised help with the bill and the P.D.S.A., so that should help a bit.

Onwards and upwards.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

When I left the Army, I toyed with the Idea of becoming a Vet.
I was advised to visit a Vetinery Surgeon --- (No jokes please !) by the University.
I duly spent a fascinating day with him, expecting to learn, more than I knew, about Horses and Cows.
Not so -- His advice was "The Money is in Cats and Goldfish !"
I couldn't get a place for another year, and I had a Wife, two Children and a Greyhound to support ----- So I never became a Vet !
A God-Daughter if mine, qualified as a Vet, but now works at Porton Down (MOD Experimental )
There must be a Moral there !!!!

[Vonny]

Sorry to hear you have been ill JR but glad to see you are on the road to recovery!

[J.R.]

In a very recent conversation with my GP, it seems I'm in an exclusive club of around 700.

This is the number of actual cases of swine flu that the GMC accept so far in England and Wales.

So much for Government scare tactics. Yes - I'm fully recovered and have to report that I'd rather have swine flu than any of the other varients, though this is unlikely as I do have the annual 'jab' against them !