The May Day Weekend

With Pauline back home and Sue and family joining us the weekend has been good.   It is so long since we were last under one roof together.   Everyone enjoyed it and Pauline's spirits were lifted too.   The Friday experience was hard going but once we got a good night's sleep all went well.   Sue and Derek and Ellie went all over the island and enjoyed revisiting old haunts.

The visitors left this morning and should be home about now.   I got busy cleaning the house etc and soon Pauline was up and relaxing in the lounge.   The District Nurse will remove the clips from the operation sites on Wednesday and then I think we shall see some real progress with walking.   Whilst Pauline has used crutches already the walking frame is currently the best way around the house.   Over the next few days we hope she will start to use crutches more and more.

She is relatively pain free now and can bend the leg a little more each day.   Her strides (with the frame) are getting longer and getting her into bed is much less painful.   The one thing that can cause trouble is if she tries to sit with her feet on the footstool that I bought when she was discharged from the Walton centre last December.   Bridging the gap sets off strong pain.   So I help her turn round and support her legs along the three seater settee.

We have both been on a steep learning curve since Friday!   So now we give thanks that she is progressing well.   The target is to be able to visit Toledo, Spain twice at the beginning and end of September.   If you have not been there you won't understand the importance we give our forthcoming visit.

Surprise, surprise!!!

After forecasting Pauline would be home middle or late next week imagine my surprise when she phoned to say she was being discharged yesterday, Friday.   This put my day in disarray.   I had just parked up in Llandudno outside the fish merchants!   After making my purchases for Friday and several weeks onward I drove home, put the fish in freezer bags (no time to clean the squid, so that went in the fridge), collected clothing for Pauline and set off for the hospital.   I arrived there at 12.45pm and the occupational therapist was completing her assessment of Pauline's ability to cope at home.   I got her things ready, dressed her and then took all bags and baggage to the car.   I had already collected a wheelchair from the entrance to the building.   In addition there were some things being loaned by the occupational therapy department to stow in the car.

Having loaded the boot I returned to take Pauline to the car.   It took quite some time to get her in the car and then we set off home.   Upon reaching home it took about 30 minutes to help her from the car, walk her round to the door, get her up the single step and into the lounge.   It was 4.05pm before we had our lunch!   Just after 7.00pm my daughter arrived and it was a late late evening meal of Seafood Jambalaya with my personal variations.

Last night we slept extremely well and today is turning out less frenetic.   Once the pastry is up to room temperature I can make an apple pie for tomorrow's main meal.   Tonight we shall be eating susage casserole followed by a lovely looking tart from Waitrose.   The latter is not a member of Waitrose staff!

As I said previously, the hard work has now begun and it will take a long time for rehabilitation.   Nevertheless, we shall succeed.   Now that I have purchased our local resident cards for the Welsh Highland and Ffestiniog Railways, I am looking forward to the day when we can travel cheaply behind those remarkable locomotives that tackle gradients and bends that are amazing to see.

Yet more progress

Yesterday I was overjoyed to receive a text message from Pauline to say she had walked with the aid of crutches as well as a frame.   On visiting her in the evening I found her absolutely exhausted.   Going through the trauma of falling, breaking a major bone, being treated in A & E, having an operation and then having to learn to walk again is incredibly tiring to the human body.   In addition was the nausea when she started to walk and the setback that proved to be.   She has been through the mill!

Yesterday was spent, apparently, calling the nurses when a new patient with dementia kept getting out of bed against orders!   Time passes slowly in hospital, even with books and a Kindle to read.   I should think she will be home by middle to late next week and then my job really starts!   This weekend sees Sue and family visiting from Rochdale so I have to go to Llandudno to buy fish for the coming month.   Mermaid Seafoods is the only decent fish company in the area that is open for retail sales.   It's situated at the rear of an industrial estate and necessitates the negotiation of many bumps and potholes as well as the avoidance of vehicles parked here and there.   But the prices and quality are very good.

Making a start

For a week now Pauline has struggled with the effects of her operation to repair her broken leg.   For the first few days she had the greatest difficulty in making any progress at all.   One of the problems patients needing physiotherapy have is that the physiotherapists are not on duty at weekends.   This means two days in seven are lost in terms of rehabilitation.

On Monday 30th April she was struggling just to get out of and into bed.   She kept feeling sick.   On Tuesday she stood up to walk with the aid of a walking frame and in seconds was violently sick.   Another day was lost.   Following this she was given an injection to combat the nausea.   On Wednesday she managed to walk quite a distance in the ward and I received the news that she was getting mobile.   Imagine my pleasure to discover at evening visiting time that she had done this three times.   The result was that she was totally exhausted.

But this is the start of what I hope will be a steady recovery.   Even so, I have had to cancel an intended trip to our home town of Nelson in Lancashire where I was due to preach at the United Reformed Church on 3rd June.   I can see no possibility of her being able to travel for a couple of months.   I very much hope our holiday in Andalucia, Spain in September will still be on.   I feel sure sufficient progress with mobility will be achieved by then.

After being helped to walk following her spinal operation last December and then having to start all over from a worse position, Pauline will need all her reserves of strength and determination to return to normal.

Two experiences for the price of one

Since her accident on Tuesday, Pauline has had her operation to pin the femur.   My visit to her in Intensive Care on Wednesday evening she did not remember.   I cannot say I am surprised because she was very confused about many things at that point.   The following day, yesterday, she was back on Conwy Ward and by the time I visited in the evening she had, with great difficulty, got out of bed for an hour.

Despite the pain she is experiencing, the progress, I believe, is excellent.   How long her full recovery will take is unknown but I would bet on it being less than average for someone in her sixties.   her surgeon visited her yesterday and, when she mentioned the "torn muscle" following her fall a few weeks earlier at Henllys Hall he said it was very likely that the break had started then.   Personally, I think it means she fractured her femur on that occasion and broke it on Tuesday in Amlwch.

One interesting fact is that her surgeon, Mr Mel Jones, is the author of a very interesting article on the world wide web about the Anglesey bonesetters.   Follow this link to find out more:

http://www.ganapathihipkneesurgeon.com/anglesey%20bonesetters%20and%20modern%20orthopaedics.html

When we were in A & E the charge nurse told me Pauline's leg was to be placed in a "Thomas Splint" and this was what happened.   It is the same design as the originals made by the blacksmith in Liverpool who worked for Dr Thomas.   I found the story fascinating and was reminded how important Anglesey is in terms of history both for Wales and the United Kingdom.   Seeing the doctors selecting the spot to inject the femoral nerve to give pain relief whilst the splint was attached was also interesting.   They used an ultrasound scanner to find the nerve.   The femoral nerve, artery and vein are all very close, so it is all too easy to hit the wrong part when injecting the local anaesthetic.   Looking at the picture, I could see a large pulse which told me I was looking at the artery.   I am pleased to say they hit the right spot!

So, the news is that excellent progress, involving pain, of course, is being made.   I am very grateful for that.

From Bad to Worse

As you know, Pauline had a fall in March and has had severe walking difficulty since.   Yesterday I took her to the local health centre to see the doctor regarding her gout problems.   Whilst there she had a blood test to see the level of uric acid.

We then left the health centre and halfway to the car she fell and we had to call an ambulance.   The health centre staff were extremely supportive and helped us greatly.   The ambulance eventually arrived after about an hour.   Yesterday was a day when there was an inundation of 999 calls for ambulances.   Add to this the rural situation and you can see why it took so long.

An X-ray established that Pauline had broken her femur high up the bone.   Today she will have an operation to pin the bone.   The hospital will try to get her a bed in the High Dependency Unit after the op.   What the prognosis will be I cannot tell at this stage but we should know pretty soon.

In the meantime I am visiting each day and supporting in every way I can.

Watch out for an update!

A Difficult Time

By the time we had celebrated Pauline's 65th birthday it seemed that all we had to do was work on her temporary brain damage to get things sorted out.   Little did we know how it would work out.   It was not long after that Pauline began to experience strong pain in her right hand and wrist.   We put this down to arthritis from which she has suffered for a number of years.   As it didn't respond to anti inflammatories Pauline visited the health centre.   Doctor Robin, (a retired GP who does a lot of locum work for our surgery and is the father of one of the partners) suggested it might be gout.   I was pleased because I knew how quickly I recovered from gout when I first experienced it 5 or 6 years ago.   However, we are talking about Pauline in this instance. She has a track record of  not always doing things the standard way.   For weeks there was no improvement.

During this time she took tablets for which the side effect was diarrhoea, and, boy, did she spend time in the bathroom!   Back she went to Doctor Robin who immediately prescribed something to take care of the trots.   But still there was no improvement to her symptoms.   To cut a long story short she was prescribed steroids which have brought down the inflammation in her arm and legs and the gout is coming under control.

However, during this period my cousin came to visit us and asked us to visit him and his wife at the place where they were staying.   Whilst there, Pauline suggested we went out for a short walk.   Within 5 minutes she had fallen when she missed the bottom one in a flight of steps.   I helped her up and the damage seemed to be a twisted ankle.   Within 3 days it was OK again, but a pain had started in her left leg towards the top.   Medical advice was to call at Stanley Hospital in Holyhead and borrow a walking stick.   We went and acquired the stick and hoped this would help.   By Monday, this week, the pain was still bad so Pauline decided to go to Ysbyty Gwynedd A & E department for further help.   On examination the doctor found it was muscular and advised her to keep on exercising and it would take about 2 months to improve.

So now the experience is watching her struggle to stand, to walk, sit down etc.   I just hope she will be better by the time we travel to Nelson to join old friends who used to worship in the two former Congregational churches there.   In the mean time I am continuing to act in full support.   There is some good news, though.   The temporary brain damage is almost gone and the only problem is memory.   Well, I have had a bad memory for decades so I am sure we can live with it!