Octobe

Good morning!

Being in bed in hospital sounds boring. And when you are feeling not quite up to the mark it can be.

But there are positives and after four months my life is far from dull. No more so this morning when I was prepared for the day.

It was just before six when two nurses roused me - the first in the ward - from pleasant sleep, made my bed , gave me my first medications of the day. A pause, then the vigorous bed wash followed by breakfast - cornflakes. Blood pressure  and blood sugar tests and all done by 8.20. A record. A whole new day ahead.

I am now sitting up watching the nurses at work with the other patients  Perpetual motion. I don’t know how they do It. Despite the shortage of staff and the relentless pressure they still have the patience to come at the press of a button to meet my needs, even to helping get my iPad and radio working or picking up items I have dropped from my crowded bedside trolley/table.

After four months the days slide by and at last  there is a real prospect of my going home. A plan is shaping, a programme for home care being arranged.

Still no date although it will probably be a few weeks yet depending on my being able to get myself up and walking.

I am now managing my first steps, trying to extend  that by a few yards each day. My first aim, to get out of the  ward door and into the corridor then along to the bathroom. Luxury.

I have tried to be patient from the first days in Vigo hospital , now, mercifully, a distant memory, and I will remain so until the day finally comes when I go home and slowly restart my normal life.

The end of the tunnel.

 

October 7

 Toothless

‘All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth’ according to the popular song. Unfortunately for me I need my whole mouthful. I am still waiting to be able to talk, smile, and, more important eat as before. That stopped four months ago. three days after returning from Vigo hospital in Spain The A&M department at Heath hospital lost them in my rushed transfer to Llandough hospital.

I, my family and friends tried for weeks to arrange for me to have a new set with no success My former dentist in Penarth said I was no longer in his books and would have to ‘ go private

There is now some hope. After weeks finally confirming that there is a visiting dentist for Llandough hospital he came to make moulds for new my teeth, saying he would be back to take second impressions in three weeks. That was over four weeks ago.Worse, he said it would take a further thirteen weeks  before I got my new set.

 Christmas!

Then I will probably have the rigmarole of  applying to have them at no cost,

October 6

 Recovery

Just had some very good news. Werner, my friend for sixty years, is recovering at his lovely hill top home in Esslingen, Germany after a very serious operation.

We met when I was the Caerphilly council organiser for the twinning between Caerphilly and Ludwigsburg.

As a graduate, during his year teaching in the the Rhymney Valley, he often came to us in Winnipeg Drive and over the years we and our families made many visits.

We enjoyed their walled mediaeval town and their lovely home and garden extending into a vineyard and seeing our families growing up. Two years ago Werner and Sabine visited me in Sunrise home with grandson Lino who was a student at Wells College.

What a contrast with his home were his digs in Bargoed overlooked by the biggest coal tip in the Rhymney Valley.He came to love the valley, returning several times.

More good news. Brenda my niece who emulated me by breaking her hip has returned home from hospital after a mercifully short stay. While she was there we had a daily email chat on the vicissitudes of hospital life.

The good news has heartened me and I also hope to improve more quickly now.

Karen came yesterday and went to my flat to see a vocational therapist to see what might be needed for me to go home. Encouraging.

October 3

 An astonishing coincidence. My  niece Brenda is in hospital after breaking a wrist and hip inna fall at home exactly three months after my accident.

And we have daily chats via email about about life in hospital.

There is a lot that we agree about, the total change from normal life, the routine and rules, the need to keep cal and be patient.

I manage most days, appreciating the staff have annarduous job with both our hospitals short  staffed but agreeing that the most contentious aspects of our treatment is physiotherapy and their mantra is, no pain, no gain.

I discovered this seventy years ago when in a Cardiff hospital the physio insisted I moved my damaged immediately after the operation.Excruciating.

I appreciate it is important to get movement as son as possible and put up with the pain but it is not easy.

 For two years attending Caerphilly District Miners Hospital I underwent a whole range of treatment, from injections with ever bigger needles and electric shocks which eventually solved the problem. I could walk, even run again,