And eight months since my last post.........

Well whaddyaknow, the foot operation to fuse my joint finally happend!  Almost three years since it was first scheduled, I was admitted as a day patient at our local hospital, but ended up staying overnight due to the lateness of my place on the operating list.  

I had a spinal anaesthetic which, when taking hold made me feel drunk and sober both at the same time!  Losing feeling in my legs normally happens after a few beers or a bottle of wine (you realise I'm exaggerating, don't you?) but then my head will also be mush.  The anaesthetic however, left my brain working perfectly well, so see what I did there?  Drunk/sober?  No? Oh well, you needed to be there........  They asked me if I wanted a sedative too so I gladly took all that was on offer and kipped through most of the operation.

It was too late to send me back to the day ward so they found me alternative accommodation in a side ward off one of the main ones.  I had a great roomie called Dorothy, a lady in her 70's and after a quick natter found we had mutual friends.  That made the experience more bearable.  I'd been starved of course all day, in fact going beyond endurance so when the nurse brought me a cuppa and a sandwich I was so grateful I almost cried.  Anyway, it saved me from chewing at the bed-frame!

Once the feeling came back into my legs it was rapidly followed by the most appalling itching, especially round my tum and bum.  It went on for hours!  I was given an antihistamine which seemed to settle it down a bit, but it began all over again and kept me awake.  Seemingly it was a side effect of the feeling coming back into my nerve endings.  Small consolation since I'd just scratched myself sore in my sleep.

So here's my plastered leg and foot while in the hospital.

Later in the day the physiotherapist came to see me armed with a pair of arm crutches.  Sadly I couldn't use them as my balance is bad and I'm quite weak down my right side.  Off he went and came back with a zimmer frame and all manner of aids for the bathroom.  The zimmer was marginally more successful than the crutches in that I have 4 points of contact with the floor instead of 2.  All good you'd think?  Yes, while bobbing around in the little side ward in straight lines.  Not so good at home having to negotiate corners from room to room.  I got so tired and weaker still with my hands and shoulders taking the strain of hopping on one leg with the zimmer.

Thankfully my lovely friends have loaned me their daughter's folding wheelchair and it's fine going through doorways and will turn tightly so that has been my saviour.

As I write this is the end of the first week. It's definitely been a rollercoaster ride, but I've had visits, cards and messages from family and friends and that has lifted my spirits no end.

Tonight I've booted Grumpytrousers out to the pub.  We've been cooped up together all week and both need a well earned break and a bit of peace.  So while he's propping up the bar of the local, I'm in my favourite chair, with the wheelchair in nearby reach, watching cheesy music programmes instead of the Olympics, and having a read of Rita Marley's life story.  Aaaahhhh!!