Thank you!
The fog is lifting now, and I am able to think beyond the next round of tablets. I have learnt the hard way that it is not sensible to reduce painkillers too soon! My appetite is returning, too, but one small meal a day is quite sufficient.
Following the cortisone injections in December, which had only a marginal effect on my back pain, I had a lumbar decompression in February. It was either that or remain more or less housebound. Clearly, that was not something I wished for. I enjoy walking with Barry and the dogs and intend to resume it as soon as I can.
Meanwhile, Barry is doing a splendid job of keeping the house running. The laundry is accomplished at lightning speed, much more efficiently than I do it, but there is an ongoing problem. What he regards as dry feels damp to me and I know that if it is put away in that condition, it will begin to smell musty. I cannot tell if I am super sensitive to the dryness or otherwise of the washing. Hence, the fireguard is festooned with garments ‘airing.’ It’s a good thing we don’t have any visitors! Any we are likely to have will be family and entirely familiar with our slovenly ways.
I can clean sinks and loos and work surfaces, and Barry insists that he enjoys vacuuming and sweeping, cleaning the cat litter, organising the rubbish, preparing meals, walking the dogs. He has learnt to inject Jellicoe with insulin – that was the main thing worrying me when I went into hospital, although I was only in for one night. Hospitals like to discharge patients as quickly as possible, to reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infection, and in the belief that people recover more quickly in their own homes.
My son is due to have an operation on his hip in April, an injury caused by karate when he was a teenager. He is going in as a day patient – in at 7:00 a.m. and out in the late afternoon.
It seems to have been my family’s call to engage surgeons in different disciplines in the past few months. I may have forgotten one or two but they include appendicitis, (youngest daughter) torn ligaments, (youngest daughter and plumber son-in-law) testicular torsion, (oldest great grandson, 10 years old) shoulder (writer son-in- law) prostatectomy, colonoscopy, basal cell carcinoma (all Barry)
We normally manage to steer clear of sawbones, so I suppose it was our turn. We are grateful that we are usually fit, and by no means do we take our good health for granted, but thank the good genes our parents gave us.
