Stuffed up weekend

I have spent the weekend with tissues stuffed up my nose to absorb the never ending stream of liquid from my nose :( I have a cold! Sinuses blocked and giving me a headache, dripping nose driving me crazy. Temp has been up and down all weekend and just felt BLEUGH!

Honey is making good progress and the wound is  looking good.


Day after op
 

Looking a bit bruised and battered on her shoulder. They removed the tumour and a fair bit of surrounding skin and tissue.



Sunday 4 days on

Bruising has diminished and wound looking good. She's leaving it alone - so far! She is fed up with walkies on the lead though. There was a frisky young pointer type hound at the park today she wanted to run and play with, but I dare not let her loose because she would run at full speed, even if it hurt, and inflame the wound again.The stitches come out next Saturday.



News update - funeral, physio, dog op

Monday was some day. I was up early and on the road to Bristol to my sister's. My lovely 'larger than life character' cousin William had died recently in France, following a fairly short and unpleasant fight with cancer. He had lived in South Wales for most of his life and his heart lay there so he was brought 'home' for a cremation service on Monday.
My brother in law drove my two sisters and I to Narberth for the service. Apart from a few cousins and partners who managed to come, it was a huge crowd of friends from his years in Pembroke. There was a lot of Welsh being spoken and many kind words and fond memories of William. Three things came to the fore about him: his kindness to others and love for them; how much he was loved by all; and how everyone remembered him for his filthy jokes! That was our Will.
I cancelled a trip to Suffolk for the weekend so I could be fit for hours of travel. It took me 2 hours to my sister's, then 2.5 hours to drive to Wales. We had a 'light' lunch before the service (jacket potatoes all round - but HUGE potatoes with a mountain of filling plus side salad!) then headed to the crematorium. It was a lovely and moving service. Brought back memories for me as William's second grandchild is on the way and will not know his/her Granddad. Our little Alex was just a 'bump' when Peter died too.
The journey home was a bit quicker, but it was after 10.30 before I was home again after another 4 hours + on the road.
Tuesday I mostly slept and lay with my legs elevated! (Apart from a bad move on the stairs that jolted my new knee painfully!)
Wednesday was a busy one. I dropped Honey off at the vet for the op to have her cancerous tumour removed. The headed to hospital for a physio session. My knee was a bit stiff and painful after Tuesday but I gritted my teeth and got through the session ok. The PTs have signed me off now YAYYY! :D No more hospital trips for physio.
I dashed to Wimborne for a late lunch with John before heading home to collect Honey.

She was a bit groggy and obviously very sore after her op and the site looked rather angry. She slept after getting home. I ended up sleeping the night on the sofa with her on the floor, as she could not make it upstairs to sleep with me when I went to bed. After an hour of her whining and crying I gave up and joined her downstairs. Peace for us both then :)

I did the same last night as it looks like she will be able to manage the stairs tonight. (I hope)
Thursday the wound looked a lot better and calming down nicely. Very little swelling now.

James popped round tea time to help Jenny swap our old huge 'fat' TV for the new thin one I'd bought. It's a big screen and super to watch.
The old TV is in the boot of the car ready to go to the tip this morning :)
I hope there's a man or two around to help shift it out of the car!
I just need to sort the DVDs and Wii games now and give the whole table/trolley a good clean. I do dust round regularly but was a bit horrified at the layer under the old TV as I could not clean under it.

Have a great weekend whatever you're up to. I think I might be watching some movies :D
xx

Six weeks and driving again!

This week was the turning point regarding the knee. I was scheduled for another physio session on Wednesday and it was preceded by the 6 week check up with the surgeon.
Well I say THE surgeon but the only time I saw my surgeon was 5 mins before the op as the sedatives kicked in. Sounded like a Polish name beginning with W and featuring a few z's. Every day I was in hospital I had a different doctor visit me. (I liked the dishy Greek one!) So I wondered which one I'd be seeing this time round, and true to form it was... yet another new one!
I never got to meet the surgeon whose name was on all the letters from the hospital LOL.
Anyway... since I did not have the OK to drive again yet I needed transport to the hospital for this vital day. My son's lovely partner has been acting taxi driver for me but she and the rest of their family were in the grips of Noro virus (D&V) so I had to find other transport. John kindly offered to get me there as he was not working until later. He dropped me off not far from the main entrance, close to the orthopaedic out patients clinic. As I entered the building I checked my letter and only then noticed it was at the Derwent Unit where I had the op - right round the back of the hospital site! So I had a nice walk round the hospital in the freezing cold with crumbs of snow drifting down now and then. BRRRR!
The docs were running a bit late so I still had to sit and wait for a bit. I thought there were not too many waiting to be seen but they had a devilish scheme with two waiting rooms. You waited a while in the first then got called upstairs to... another waiting room LOL. Anyway I saw yet another registrar! Young, good looking and with what sounded like a German or Austrian accent. He spoke excellent English and was quick but thorough. He was pleased with progress so far, but recommended more elevation and icing to help keep swelling down. I have a little way to go on the bend - got it up to 95 deg now, and more work needed on straightening the leg - it's already much better than the other knee so I am getting there! Anyway he gave me all clear to drive, and doesn't want to see me again until an Xray at 6 months.
I then had to head to the physio session a bit late. I managed the last half hour of the class, after another chilly walk round the other half of the hospital site! The physio's have relaxed me to 2 week gap between sessions as I am making good enough progress.
Jenny had her lunch break at 12 (her office is within sight of the hospital) so she collected me and took me home after the physio.
I was knackered. The longest walk I've done in ages all round the outskirts of the hospital, plus the physio session. I had a bite of lunch and slept for an hour!

Now I am driving again thank goodness and back to taking Honey to Baiter Park for walkies. She is very happy and so am I. Lovely to be able to walk in freedom without a walking stick again.

 

Friday I went to a concert at Poole's Lighthouse arts centre. It was the French based band The Churchfitters. They frequently come over to UK and are very popular over here. We were in the small studio theatre downstairs and it was packed out. Thanks to Rosie, Chris, Boris and Nelson for a great concert.
 The only small problem I had was going up and down the steps between the rows of seats with no hand rail or walking stick for support. I did it fine, just a bit slowly, and I felt a sense of achievement.

I have been driving around, doing a bit of shopping, and taking Honey walkies, without any side effects and feeling very comfortable. All looks good :)

I've had two bits of sad news this week. My lovely cousin William passed away. He was a few years older than me and had multiple cancers. His recent years have not been good for him. He was a farmer, beef cattle mainly, and moved to France a few years ago from south west Wales. He was trampled and gored by some of his herd a year or two ago and struggled to get well after that. William was one of my favourite cousins, a jovial man with a really naughty sense of humour. He always had a store of mucky jokes to tell and had us in stitches whenever we met.
They are bringing him back to Wales for the cremation service next week. I am going with my 2 sisters and brother in law.

The other bit of bad news is that Honey has a lump and I've just had the call from the vet who said lab tests have confirmed a cancerous tumour. It is a type not likely to spread to other sites, but will grow back if not completely removed. It's the same type our first dog Joey had. He had 3 ops for removal but it kept coming back. We had him put to sleep when they could not operate any more and he was starting to be aware of the lump 4th time round. The lump is just to the right of the small black scar on her shoulder (old wound from before we had her).

I hope Honey's lump removal op will be successful, or at least keep the cancer at bay until the end of her days. She's 9 1/2 now and getting on in greyhound years. I will not let her suffer any pain.

Life is a bugger sometimes :(