Hope Gats is back up soon.

I heard from Ballykissangel this evening, too [ wondering if she had dissapeared as well]. She is not at all herself, and was very sick during the holidays - due for more tests tomorrow at the hospital. They don't really know what is wrong yet.

I hope they are able to help her soon.

I feel a lot better that there are so many concerned and active people . I just hope he gets back in here soon. Thanks all for your reassurances.

Yes thanks Sue for your efforts to check up on our boy. I already knew I wasn't alone in feeling concerned and helpless, and in offering help. But he really is stubborn and determined to do it all for himself, isn't he? I totally understand it, but find it frustrating nonetheless. Anyway, if the good thoughts and prayers of so many wonderful caring people count for anything, he's looking pretty good!

I had a very unexpected high this afternoon, the source of which is not totally unrelated to our Gats. I had to take my mother to the hospital for her 6-monthly venesection (she has an iron problem, so they 'bleed' her to lower the concentration). She's always understandably nervous before, and a bit frail after this procedure. The outpatient haematology department is combined with medical oncology, so there are always lots of very sick people around. The first time I had to take ma in there my heart sank when I saw all the cancer literature displayed, as she had to watch her own mother die from liver cancer under even more than usually awful circumstances, and is still sensitive about it. She also tends towards drama, so I imagined scenes of weeping and gnashing of teeth, and also wasn't sure what to expect from other patients and family as I thought it must be a very stress-filled unit. But it turned out to be a very caring and supportive place, with wonderful staff, Red Cross volunteers making cups of tea, and plenty of laughter. It was when I was sitting there chatting about knitting with a woman whose husband was having chemotherapy that I realised just what an amazing atmosphere it was. And it makes me feel so proud of people, who could by rights be dejected and miserable, when they rise above it all and are so optimistic. In the big general treatment room I was joking with another man having chemo, and listening to the chattering of another group at the other end, joking too with the nurse trying to find a vein in my mother's poor arm (and my mother - I try to have a story ready to distract her with while the needles are actually being played with, but the nurse was a bit slow this time so I had to ad-lib!)

Anyway, it's just nice to get a little fix of the good side of people sometimes...I feel like I've had some therapy myself!

I'm afraid I am like your mother, Ing, and they have great difficulty in finding my veins at hospitals when I have to go (have being the key word! ) It is good that we managed to get someone to check up on Gatsby

You poor thing Jane! I must take after my father, as my veins pop up easily. What's really good about this Unit (and why we go there instead of just the local Blood Bank) is that they actually give her a local anaesthetic, which helps a lot. I don't know why they don't just do that everywhere!

I just had a really lovely surprise email from my 2nd cousin in Massachussets (but I wish she lived somewhere easier to spell!) She's never actually written to me before - until last year, when I discovered and got in contact with her brother, I didn't even know she existed. She sounds like a complete nut (in a good way, of course!) and has also been diagnosed with AD/HD (as well as me I mean). It doesn't really surprise me, as I think it is rampant through my father's family (as is depression), but it is still interesting.