I have been suffering from the flu – the Spanish word for which is Gripe, how appropriate! I’ve spent the last 10 or so days in bed which is why we’ve been blog-silent.
Last Wednesday I went back to the hospital as arranged for an x-ray and to see the consultant. I was very disappointed when the consultant said that I was to spend another 2 months in plaster, and that it will be November at the earliest before I can start putting weight on my foot.
Later that day I fell on my foot quite badly. It was my own stupid fault, I used my crutches to go down the steps from my workshop and missed the last one and fell. It was the same time that my temperature started and I was worried that this might have been as a result of my fall. However it was just co-incidence and the start of flu.
There’s not a lot else to report – however I am sure that when I am back truly in the land of the living I will be full of interesting tales to recount…
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
...we both visit the surgery
Yesterday we had a two hour wait at the surgery. However this time it wasn’t for me, it was for the person we shall just refer to as Divot Head, who not believing when I said he needed two hands to push wheelchair – needed to prove it to himself by tipping the chair and falling under it. I had little more than my pride (the little that is left) bumped as I led there legs in air looking at the sky. Divot meantime managed to give himself little-boy knee grazes and a nasty chop in one of his fingers. As I laid there looking at the sky a number of things went through my mind. ‘Poor Ian’ was not one of them.
So it was with slight satisfaction that Ian had to drop his pants in front of the nice nurse and she rammed his backside with a needle. I also felt a tad smug at his whimpering, and indeed his scream as she came at him with a needle – and he had not even been jabbed at this point. He now looks slightly ridiculous with a bandage round the top third of his finger. I think the frosty silence – and the fact that he was threatened with loosing some of his vital and not so vital appendages should he ever come close to me when I’m in the wheelchair again might have made my feelings perfectly clear.
I felt a little embarrassed as we went to the surgery yesterday – not just because of the above, but also because my bandage was such a state; kittens and general wear and tear over what had become a week between changes had taken it’s toll. The nurse always sends me out looking neat and tidy with the top of the bandage neatly folded, and I return with some unravelling mass looking like something that has been found in an Egyptian tomb. The end of the plaster is decomposing a little too - but I'm not too worried as I am at the hospital tomorrow.
The nurse normally gives my foot a little wipe too, however because it was a week since my last visit it had gone rather crusty. A bit like what is left in the bottom of a Greggs Cheese and Onion Pasty bag after the pasty has crumbled whilst eating. Uuuuuuuugh. Embarrassingly large flakes of skin fell off in a heap. Poor nurse. I think that it was more apparent as the swelling has gone down quite dramatically and this made the flaking worse.
I am getting quite good at hopping down the stairs from the workshop. Going up is crawling, but going down is getting easier. The trick I found is have my bad leg forward rather than back and to hop on the count of three – not let momentum step in. To start of with I had my bad leg behind me which didn’t give me my balance easily after each hop.
I was a little surprised at the thunder and lightening we had again on Saturday, I think as a weather forecasting tool seaweed is probably more effective than my ankle. It cleared the air and it is not has hot as it has been.
Tibs and Fibs are settling in well, they spend quite a lot of time playing and the rest sleeping. Last night they were sat on the back of the chair and both hitting Ian on his head. And they say you can’t train them……
So it was with slight satisfaction that Ian had to drop his pants in front of the nice nurse and she rammed his backside with a needle. I also felt a tad smug at his whimpering, and indeed his scream as she came at him with a needle – and he had not even been jabbed at this point. He now looks slightly ridiculous with a bandage round the top third of his finger. I think the frosty silence – and the fact that he was threatened with loosing some of his vital and not so vital appendages should he ever come close to me when I’m in the wheelchair again might have made my feelings perfectly clear.
I felt a little embarrassed as we went to the surgery yesterday – not just because of the above, but also because my bandage was such a state; kittens and general wear and tear over what had become a week between changes had taken it’s toll. The nurse always sends me out looking neat and tidy with the top of the bandage neatly folded, and I return with some unravelling mass looking like something that has been found in an Egyptian tomb. The end of the plaster is decomposing a little too - but I'm not too worried as I am at the hospital tomorrow.
The nurse normally gives my foot a little wipe too, however because it was a week since my last visit it had gone rather crusty. A bit like what is left in the bottom of a Greggs Cheese and Onion Pasty bag after the pasty has crumbled whilst eating. Uuuuuuuugh. Embarrassingly large flakes of skin fell off in a heap. Poor nurse. I think that it was more apparent as the swelling has gone down quite dramatically and this made the flaking worse.
I am getting quite good at hopping down the stairs from the workshop. Going up is crawling, but going down is getting easier. The trick I found is have my bad leg forward rather than back and to hop on the count of three – not let momentum step in. To start of with I had my bad leg behind me which didn’t give me my balance easily after each hop.
I was a little surprised at the thunder and lightening we had again on Saturday, I think as a weather forecasting tool seaweed is probably more effective than my ankle. It cleared the air and it is not has hot as it has been.
Tibs and Fibs are settling in well, they spend quite a lot of time playing and the rest sleeping. Last night they were sat on the back of the chair and both hitting Ian on his head. And they say you can’t train them……
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Holiday
Well, the visit to the healthcentre was a failure yesterday as the healthcentre was shut, although I did enjoy my foray round the village in the wheelchair again. I am not sure quite how this happened – however I thought I had an appointment to get my dressing changed, but it transpired that Friday was a holiday so everything was shut. Bit of a shame as having allowed kittens to play with the bandage (it is great for them to climb up like a climbing post) I am looking a bit tatty. Course, I don’t think that I’ll be welcoming little kitties to climb my leg when they get bigger, and I should be more disciplined now - but they are just little bundles of fluff now and so cute…. So I'll have to go on Monday and get it changed, and then that will definately be it until hospital on Wednesday.
A had a bath last night and it was delightful (it is the bath aspect and not the washing that is newsworthy here you understand). You are either a bath or a shower person and I am definitely a bath person. Try as I might, I cannot get the same pleasure from relaxing with a glass of wine and good book in a shower. And there is nothing relaxing about a shower hanging over the edge of the bath, trying to balance and wash without falling in or out of the bath. So last night I taped my leg up and had a proper bath – just like the old days, but with one leg wedged up by the taps so it didn’t get wet. Apart from the fact I had to be winched out by Ian it was great. I’d only tried a bath once before, and that was early on and I think I was still finding my feet – as it were. I am now a lot more graceful with the hopping and balancing which is why I found it easier. A bit late on – but one thought that I did have was to get a 2 in 1 shampoo to save messing around with rinsing my hair twice.
A had a bath last night and it was delightful (it is the bath aspect and not the washing that is newsworthy here you understand). You are either a bath or a shower person and I am definitely a bath person. Try as I might, I cannot get the same pleasure from relaxing with a glass of wine and good book in a shower. And there is nothing relaxing about a shower hanging over the edge of the bath, trying to balance and wash without falling in or out of the bath. So last night I taped my leg up and had a proper bath – just like the old days, but with one leg wedged up by the taps so it didn’t get wet. Apart from the fact I had to be winched out by Ian it was great. I’d only tried a bath once before, and that was early on and I think I was still finding my feet – as it were. I am now a lot more graceful with the hopping and balancing which is why I found it easier. A bit late on – but one thought that I did have was to get a 2 in 1 shampoo to save messing around with rinsing my hair twice.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Tibia and Fibia
Our new additions to the household, Fibia is at the front trying to unravel my bandage.
Yesterday I woke up, felt a twinge in the ankle and knew it was going to thunder. It did - but not until 12 hours later, wonder if that means I am going to have a weather-forecasting ankle now.
I got a prescription from the doctor for calcium supplements, they are huge - so I checked the packet to make sure they weren't horse tablets or something. They are chewable ones - lucky I checked it out as I could foresee a horrible tablet-stuck-in-throat accident otherwise.
My ankle is still quite swollen I am making sure I keep my leg up when ever possible. One more trip to the healthcentre on Friday and that will be it I guess until the hospital next week for an x-ray.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Wheelchair!
On Thursday night, a couple that we know came round to check that all was ok as they had not seen us for a while which was nice. The conversation then developed along the lines of Belgium or Belgians, a wedding, cats and wheelchairs. I have not idea where the Belgians (or Belgium) came into it – or indeed the wedding, but the cats might have referred to the bar Gato, where we had a poster asking for wheelchairs. Anyway – it was all a little confusing and Ian wondered if we may have said yes to a Belgium cat – or any variation of cat/wedding/Belgians ,but the next morning the doorbell went and there they were with a wheelchair – Hoorah!
Within the first 20 seconds I drew the first blood – mine unfortunately as I wheeled myself into broom handle. Not too bad – but enough for me to spend the day looking as if I had dribbled tomato ketchup – not the sophisticated look I was aiming for. I then managed to wedge myself into a corner and unable to reverse out and needed rescuing. As I was randomly bumping off walls and doors, Ian told me I looked like I was playing solo “coches locos” (bumper cars) and that it might be easier to ‘drive’ if I imagined I was a tractor reversing a trailer. Excellent advice - shame I've never driven a tractor with or without a trailer....
We then took our first trip out into the village with the wheelchair. Because it is such a hassle to get the car out for such short journey’s I’ve not been out much – however it was great to be able to get to the health centre without messing around with the car. Ian pushed part of the way and I self –propelled the rest. However we did stop for a small ‘debate’ as to whether he thought pushing me with one hand over cobbles at what appeared to be 50 miles an hour, seemingly out of control, was a responsible way to push ones already slightly damaged wife, and he, in turn, wondered whether my screaming ‘watch the car/house/curb’ was completely justified (which it was).
Yesterday we took the chair out again and went to one of the bars. The ‘quick drink’ developed and we spent a pleasant afternoon – there was quite a group of us around a table and people stood around the table. I hopped off to use the loo (we took the crutches as well as the chair) and my almost-worse nightmare was realised. I didn’t pull anything off the wall, but I wobbled as I hopped around, grabbed the flush chain, it came away in my hand and I could not reach up to put it back. So I hopped back to the table with the chain discretely in hand to give to Ian to sort out, who was unfortunately choosing this moment to be particularly dim and thought I was giving him a present. Quite why I would give him something resembling a toilet chain as a present, I have no idea, but whilst Ian was waving it around wondering why I had given it to him, he gave everyone the opportunity to see what I had done – and as he went off to fix it, the bar erupted into more laughter. So much for trying to be discrete.
However – all in all the wheelchair is a Great Success!
Within the first 20 seconds I drew the first blood – mine unfortunately as I wheeled myself into broom handle. Not too bad – but enough for me to spend the day looking as if I had dribbled tomato ketchup – not the sophisticated look I was aiming for. I then managed to wedge myself into a corner and unable to reverse out and needed rescuing. As I was randomly bumping off walls and doors, Ian told me I looked like I was playing solo “coches locos” (bumper cars) and that it might be easier to ‘drive’ if I imagined I was a tractor reversing a trailer. Excellent advice - shame I've never driven a tractor with or without a trailer....
We then took our first trip out into the village with the wheelchair. Because it is such a hassle to get the car out for such short journey’s I’ve not been out much – however it was great to be able to get to the health centre without messing around with the car. Ian pushed part of the way and I self –propelled the rest. However we did stop for a small ‘debate’ as to whether he thought pushing me with one hand over cobbles at what appeared to be 50 miles an hour, seemingly out of control, was a responsible way to push ones already slightly damaged wife, and he, in turn, wondered whether my screaming ‘watch the car/house/curb’ was completely justified (which it was).
Yesterday we took the chair out again and went to one of the bars. The ‘quick drink’ developed and we spent a pleasant afternoon – there was quite a group of us around a table and people stood around the table. I hopped off to use the loo (we took the crutches as well as the chair) and my almost-worse nightmare was realised. I didn’t pull anything off the wall, but I wobbled as I hopped around, grabbed the flush chain, it came away in my hand and I could not reach up to put it back. So I hopped back to the table with the chain discretely in hand to give to Ian to sort out, who was unfortunately choosing this moment to be particularly dim and thought I was giving him a present. Quite why I would give him something resembling a toilet chain as a present, I have no idea, but whilst Ian was waving it around wondering why I had given it to him, he gave everyone the opportunity to see what I had done – and as he went off to fix it, the bar erupted into more laughter. So much for trying to be discrete.
However – all in all the wheelchair is a Great Success!
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