The final Countdown…

I was becoming more mobile as the weeks went on.  I was still on a lot of medication but none as strong as the morphine. 

The highlight of my freedom to move was when I was allowed a shower!  A proper shower so I could sit in a bath chair, wash my hair, clean myself and feel the simple pleasure we take for granted.  I think I bored the poor nurse with my excitement at having a shower!  The first time I had one, I sent her off to do something else so I could sit alone and enjoy the peace and quiet, and the never ending stream of water.  I must have washed myself at least a dozen times before submitting to getting dried and back on the ward.  The simplest pleasure that I took for granted - how I had missed it!

My aunt came over to visit me the day before they moved me.  She stood at the end of the ward and looked round, then walked out.  She hadn’t even recognised me.  I had my hair pulled back and the steroids had given me a round face, I can understand why she didn’t recognise me and although a little upsetting, I later found it funny, the steroids had clearly changed my face beyond recognition to even some members of my family!

Physio got me up and moving and the leg was still showing no sign of wanting to move without help.  I remember the day when Physio brought me in a Zimmer frame and I went from the bed to the end of the ward, one leg moved forward and she lifted the other leg.  Gradually I was able to drag the leg with the aid of the hip doing the work but I was up and those muscles that had been in bed for so long and had disappeared, slowly started to appear.  I was given a foot brace to put inside a shoe which stabilised the foot, slow, slow progress but to me it was a major breakthrough.

Eventually, I heard talk of moving me to another hospital close to home whilst they waited for a space in rehab; either in Sheffield Northern General of on Lincoln Ashby Suite.  In the meantime, they were sending me to Grimsby.  I was mortified.  Didn’t want to go and sit in a hospital bed and wait, perhaps even be forgotten about.  I got upset and stressed and they calmed me down; however the day before the ambulance was coming to take me to Grimsby the nurse rushed in to me, excited and smiling, Lincoln had a bed.  They were sending me to Lincoln! I would be across the road from where Mark worked, forty minutes from Laura and close enough for friends and family to visit.  The excitement couldn’t be contained; I was going to be closer to home and having rehab that would see me walking.  This time the tears were of relief.

The day before I went, I managed to drag my sorry state of a body all the way to the toilet with the aid of a Zimmer frame and physio; it was the most exhausting thing I had ever done but again to me it was another achievement. I did have to have a wheel chair to bring me back though and was quite funny being pushed along with a zimmer frame above my head!

On my final day in Sheffield, I packed up all my belongings, and waited for the ambulance to take me to Lincoln.  I was sad to say goodbye to the nurses but was looking forward to rehab.

Bit of light reading!