Cast-off

A couple of weeks after having the smaller cast on, I saw my physio again.  She was very pleased with the flexibility and told me I could stop wearing the cast for things like driving short distances and no longer needed to sleep in it.  Given that those were the only things I was actually still wearing the thing for, after I left that day I have not worn it again!  She also said we can start to work on strengthening from now on, which means it could be about to get a whole load more painful!
A couple of days later, exactly 6 weeks after the operation, I was back at Spire for an x-ray and a meeting with my surgeon.  He seemed pleased with how things are going and asked to see me again in about 6 weeks.  I have to say, I left his office feeling somewhat deflated.  If I'm honest, I don't think there is much difference in my wrist now from how it was before the operation - aside from another bluddy great scar.  It still hurts just as much (in fact sometimes more so), and my range of movement hasn't improved at all.  I know I shouldn't, but sometimes I feel a bit negative about the whole thing!  A colleague asked me out of interest what sort of things the lack of rotation limits me from doing, as I guess until you can't rotate your wrist you have no clue as to how not being able to do so might affect you.  I've listed a few things below.  Although none of these are a massive hinderance, over the course of each day they do add up and although not life-limiting, it can get pretty frustrating from time-to-time!

• Eating or doing anything that requires holding a spoon/fork level.
• Opening and closing my car boot.
• Wiping my bum (sorry, TMI!!!!!!!).
• Applying lip gloss or lipstick.
• Plucking eyebrows.
• Carrying cups - I can do this but it hurts.
• Carrying a plate - I can't level it out so stuff would fall off.  So if you combine this with the point above you have a problem!
• Washing and applying moisturiser to certain parts of my body.
• Eating chips and dip (and anyone who knows me knows how often I do this!).
• Doing my nails.
• Doing my hair.
• Washing my face and doing my make-up.
• Blowing my nose.
• Picking up cats and small children - I can't create that cradle.
• Holding my mobile in my right hand means I can't hold it flat.
• Licking my fingers on my right hand isn't easy!  Neither is eating pizza!
• Using a camera.
• Ladelling soup at the work canteen. Or anything else for that matter.
• Accepting change.
• Getting soap into my hands from soap dispensers.
• As and when I think of more, I'll add them, so this will be an ever-expanding list!!!

Anyway, as an aside to all that, here is a picture of the new scar.  Very neat, but not exactly subtle!  Thankfully, because it's on the far side of my wrist, and because I can't rotate it, it's actually quite hard for me to see it!!  There's always a silver lining!!

Beautiful Emily

One of the hard parts about breaking my wrist, and the subsequent lack of strength/rotation and requirements for more surgeries, has been that it has been hard for me when it comes to being around kids.  My niece always wants me to play with her, and although she is gentle and thoughtful, it is hard for her to understand there are limits to what I can do.  For example, picking her up is really quite painful!  I do it anyway because I cherish every moment to get a cuddle!!  Then there are the twins - Charlie was interested as to what this thing was on my arm (Jake wasn't bothered at all!) and knew to be gentle, but being 3.5 years old and a boisterous toddler means that sometimes gentle is forgotten!
My best friend had a baby girl back in June, and being in plaster has meant I've not been able to cuddle her on many occasions, however I was pretty determined I would be able to hold her on her Christening day, when I was very proud to become one of her god-mothers :-)
I'm not much of a religious person, however there is something about being in a Church.  Last time I was in this one, it was to see my best friend walk down the aisle and become Mrs Walsh, so it'll always be a special place!  The same vicar did the Christening service, and at the part about where you are bringing light into the child's life, we got given sparklers!  We were asked to spend a few moments thinking about the victims of a bad motorway crash also, and although I did briefly, I used the time to instead think about my four friends who are currently fighting cancer.  I hope it helps in some way (and nobody saw the tears!).  There was a line in one of the hymns that particularly struck me "Give me courage when the world is rough, keep me loving though the world is tough."
Anyway, Emily Grace Walsh, I promise to be the best God-Mummy I can be!

No Cast!!!

Beautiful Emily x

Mummy and God-Mummies

Sparklers!

Time Flies...

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last blog post!  I don't really know where the time has gone, but so many things have happened in that time which probably accounts for me losing track of it.

I had my big cast off four weeks after the op, so six weeks ago now.  It was changed for a smaller cast which I was told I'd have to wear for four weeks (two more than I was anticipating) and which I was able to take off, and in fact was encouraged to start doing so.  Of course I took my physio's words (which were 'you can try taking the cast off now and again') to mean I didn't need to wear it, and subsequently went back to the office and took it off for the rest of the day.  I then decided driving the next day would be a good idea too.  I guess I just really wanted to get back to normal as soon as possible, and with two holidays coming up I thought that maybe I could just skip this step and not use the cast and therefore not have to take it on holiday with me.
Cue pain and the requirement for more codeine to manage it.  Duly got a telling off from my physio, who reminded me the idea was to wean myself off needing the cast, not just stop wearing it straight away.  I think I mentioned before about my stubborn streak - well in this case it was sort of working against me!  The good news was that the amount of flexibility I had straight away was pretty impressive, and not far off what I had before the op.

So, I reluctantly took the cast on holiday to Kent with me when I went away with some friends.  Honestly, it made no difference to how my holiday went so I don't know what I was worrying about - I had a fab time!  We were lucky with the weather so we had a halloween party, including decorating the cottage, carving pumpkins and setting off fireworks.  We went for walks, ate loads of food (including one of Ali's legendary roasts), visited the Spitfire Memorial and shopped in Canterbury.  The less said about the trip Ali and I took to Herne Bay and Culver Beach the better, although our day did improve when we ended up in a pub in Broadstairs and then sat in our cars letting waves crash over us!
I also had my birthday treat from Pete whilst we were away, which was to hand-feed a cheetah.  A truly memorable experience and I can't recommend highly enough a trip to the Kent Wildlife Heritage Foundation.

Doodles

Decorations on my cast, courtesy of Richard, Ali, Suzie and Pete...

Back to normality

After just over two weeks away from work, it was time to go back. To be honest I was ready for it, as I think the routine helps distract me, and I was looking forward to seeing everyone.
Still being unable to drive meant that I had to have lifts to and from work which to be honest is one of the hardest things about the whole situation. Having no independence and having to rely on other people for so many things gets frustrating, and then there are the things that other people can't help with (like having a wash or eating dinner) that become so much harder. This whole experience has taught me how much I take for granted. And I could definitely have more patience from time to time! When I found myself swearing at my knickers and tights for getting stuck and rolling themselves up together (try pulling that lot up with one hand and you'll see what I mean!) I realised I need to learn the art of taking a deep breath and chilling out every now and again!!! I'm usually quite good at laughing at myself but when you're tired (and believe me only having the use of one arm and being in pain is more tiring than you'd think) you need the odd reminder!

The first thing I had to do in the office was rearrange my desk. I got pretty good at using the mouse with my left hand when I was first in plaster, so I swapped that over. I also had to pull the keyboard right to the edge of my desk, as I couldn't reach it with my right hand. It took a little bit of getting used to, but once I had, I was able to work pretty quickly.
Getting lunch is something I need help with, as I can't hold a tray, and it's often tricky to grab your food and drink, and still leave a hand free to pay-and this is before we take into account getting napkins and cutlery! Luckily I've had lots of help from my lovely colleagues so it's been fine!
The other thing that's been tricky is finding clothes I can wear to work that fit over my cast. I spent some money on some cheapy casual clothes in anticipation but I hadn't really thought about work stuff! Surprisingly most dresses are ok as they are mostly short sleeved so as long as my cast fits through the arm-hole all is well with the world. This means more wrangling with tights but these are the sacrifices one must make in the name of fashion combined with warmth!!!! I only have one coat that I can wear, and it's not exactly stylish, being my waterproof more often worn teamed with wellies for walking, but after a couple of days shivering I admitted defeat and started wearing it.

I've enjoyed being back to some sort of one-armed normality, and I haven't found things as hard as I had thought they might be. Mainly due to the support I've had from friends and family, but also partly due to my stubborn personality. It's a personality trait that has stood me in good stead over the years, and I now know quite how much being stubborn and determined can help you recover and adapt much quicker than you might from little setbacks like this. The negative thinking side of my personality makes it hard from time to time but the stubborn 'I will not be defeated' streak will usually beat that side of me into submission!

Random Ramblings.....

Some more of those random thoughts and memories....

1. After mentioning before about how I was trying to speak in French but struggling, I also remembered my ski buddy trying to speak to the radiographer in French and failing miserably.  She was trying to say to him that it should have been her laying in the bed injured as she had done all the falling over on the trip....the one and only time I fell over and look what I managed to do!  I've been told that not falling over enough was the cause of my problems - apparently I didn't have enough practice at it.

2. I got texts from friends which meant the world to me as I was laying in bed in Briancon after Sarah had left.  It's easy to be strong and keep it together in front of other people but the moment you're left to your own devices (and left to your own thoughts) it becomes more of a battle.  They gave me something to think about other than the pain, and the impending operation.  I also got a little video message from my folks, brother and niece which I watched many times over - home seems a long way away when you're laying in a hospital bed abroad!  My phone bill was astronomical but it was worth every penny.

3. In order to be able to fly home, I had to get a 'Permit to Fly' from the hospital, without which the insurance company wouldn't book us on the flights.  The night before we were due to fly home, the insurance company rang me and asked me to fax a copy to them......Montgenevre is a very small resort, I had no idea if there was a fax machine!  There's only one place in resort with WIFI and that was a pub which I was not able to walk to - I ended up having to take a photo of the permit and using data roaming to send the photo via email which cost a small fortune.


4. When I was in the recovery room after the operation in France, there was a poster up in there the likes of which you'd normally see in a classroom.  It was detailing nerves, tendons and veins running around arms and shoulders, I think.  I do remember thinking that if you're about to perform an operation on someone you really ought to know all that stuff already and not be referring to an educational poster!  And if it was there for the benefit of us patients to give us something to look at, might I suggest an alternative subject matter?!?!  A nice scenic view perhaps?

5. Anaesthetics don't sit well with me, and whilst laying in recovery looking at the aforementioned poster I was sick and it was bright green.  I was saying 'je suis desole' to the nurses.  I'm sure you didn't really want to know that but there you go!!

6. Before the operation, when they were numbing my arm, I got to see it and what it looked like broken and it was not good!  Then after the local anaesthetic had numbed my arm, they asked me to slide myself across from the bed I was in, onto a trolley to go into theatre.  Thing was they wanted me to move to my right...with a deadweight for a right arm.  So I had to hold my broken right arm with my left arm and try and shuffle myself across all the while thinking that it must surely not be good for a broken joint to move about this much.  I was wheeled into theatre, only to have to move myself off the trolley onto the operating table which as you can guess, was on my right!  Then I remember the surgeon (Max) talking to me, but I wasn't listening to him as I could feel my arm being doused with iodine.  I could feel my arm and they were about to cut it open!  Max must have seen the panic on my face as he said to me 'You can feel it?' to which I replied yes.  He just shrugged his shoulders and said 'It's OK' in that proper Gallic way.  The next thing I remember is waking up.  So he was right I guess, it was OK!

Friendship and Fresh Air

The biggest benefit to having some time off work was that I was able to spend some time with my best friend Ali and my god-daughter, and also my fellow god-mummy Donna. I'm so happy that I was able to be out and about because I know I would probably have just wallowed a bit otherwise, and spent too much time in bed, on the laptop or watching crap tv.
On the Monday Ali and I went for a walk around Dinton Pastures. This is not unusual, it's a walk we do often. What was unusual was that for the first time this year, we were NOT wearing wellies! Don't get me wrong, I adore my wellies so love any excuse to put them on, it's just amazing that all summer we have been in wellies, and yet we hit October and can walk in summer shoes!




I also had to go back to the physios to get my cast adjusted, as it was pressing on the nerve that runs down the outside of my thumb, meaning my thumb was completely numb and I had that awful trapped nerve tingling sensation. A few goes with a heat gun and some moulding and it's all good!

We had a bit of a shopping day on the Wednesday - it was an accident honest! We had a lovely walk around Southlake in Woodley, and then off we went into Reading with a slim shopping list.....I don't know quite how it happened but all I will say in my defence is that the dress was in the sale, and well, the shoes match so perfectly!!!! I think it was Emily's first girly shopping day :-)

Then on Thursday Donna joined us for a lovely (albeit bluddy windy) walk around Dorney Lake - an olympic venue no less. Followed by a massive lunch in the Pineapple which meant I didn't need to eat again all day!!

Down time

The first weekend in October saw record-breaking temperatures......unfortunately I felt rough as a badgers arse for all of it. The headache and nausea from Friday night carried through for 6 days (and I was actually sick too). Couple this with pain from my wrist and it's fair to say I was pretty miserable, although I tried to pretend I felt better than I did as I'm pretty stubborn and I don't like missing out on the fun! Imagine feeling hungover for 6 days solid and you get the picture! In the end I spoke to a doctor who prescribed me some anti-emetics which literally worked like magic. Apparently if you feel nauseous, taking painkillers is fairly pointless as there is likely to be an imbalance in your stomach meaning they won't be absorbed properly (and that's if you can keep them down). On the plus side I have a load of the anti-emetics, so next time I do get a hangover I'm sorted!!

When I first broke my wrist, I went back to work pretty quickly, and as a thank you I got awards which I exchanged for vouchers. I wanted to add to my charm collection to remind me of why I got the awards and decided to buy a bone charm as there were none of skiers. All bar one charm (Lilo's charm) up until this one have been gifts and it's nice to know each and every one has a sentiment attached to it. So I now wear 5 charms on a necklace every day (although someone else has to put it on for me as it's not physically possible for me to reach!). I love just looking at them all (the ones on my bracelet too) and thinking about how lucky I am to have wonderful people in my life.

I also bought a charm for my Grandma at the same time, as we were planning on visiting on the Sunday. Unfortunately she was rushed into hospital where she remained for just under a fortnight. Thankfully she is home now, and hopefully we can share a little gin together soon!

As Grandma was poorly, I wanted to be with my family so we spent the Sunday round my folks place with my brother and my gorgeous niece. She's a cheeky monkey and I love her so much, so I had a massive grin on my face when whilst we were sitting down to eat our roast dinner, she leaned over and whispered 'I love you lots and lots'. She's never said that to me before, and it took me by surprise a bit!!!! I also left with a work of art that I'm sure will be worth millions one day.....

New Cast

A week and a half after the operation I had a new cast put on to replace the backslab/bandage one I woke up with. Not a moment too soon either as I couldn't use the shower cover I had been loaned (affectionately referred to as the 'arm condom') without the bandages unravelling. This meant I had to sit down in the bath and use the shower attachment to have a wash, which I was struggling with really badly due to my right knee being so sore-sitting on the floor and getting up again are both still an issue for me now. This lead to a lot of frustration, and on one occasion I slipped and banged my bad arm on the bath which was seriously unpleasant!
Ali took me along to see the physio's who first cut off the old cast. I got to see the wound for the first time and was pretty surprised how big it was, but to be honest I was more concerned about the fact that I had no feeling in the skin on the top of my hand and leading to my little finger! I was assured this would come back (two weeks on from then I can confirm it has-phew!). It was so nice to get the old cast off, as it was lined with some sort of synthetic gauze stuff which was so itchy it was driving me mad and I had managed to scratch my skin raw in places I could reach!

I was expecting the new cast to be the same plastic mesh stuff I had first time around, however the two physio's emerged carrying a large, slightly molten sheet of solid plastic which they proceeded to mould around my arm as it cooled and hardened. Weird stuff but very light! After a few adjustments (made using a heat gun and scissors) the cast was ready, and sealed shut with a few strips of Velcro. It's pretty good because I can take it off to clean both it and my arm which is a big bonus! Another big bonus was swapping the big blue foam sling for a slightly more stylish one :-)




When I got home my wrist was aching really badly so I took some codeine to help with the pain and had an early night as a headache and nausea kicked in.

Back to Earth with a bump!

After returning from Cornwall, it's fair to say I was pretty exhausted, albeit in a good way!  Everything seemed to catch up with me in a big way so I spent the Wednesday and Thursday of that week chilling out at home and trying not to do very much at all.  I felt really nauseous, in pain and if I'm honest, a little sorry for myself!
I was cheered up by my ski buddy who sent the most beautiful bouquet of flowers which arrived on the Wednesday.  I was so chuffed to receive these, and more cards from friends and relatives, and also to get a visit from said ski buddy, her family and another close friend on Thursday night.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I've been doing a bit of running on and off for a few years now.  When I found out back in late 2005 that a friend had been diagnosed with breast cancer, I decided it would be my motivation to get fit and run a 5k race for life.  This somehow escalated into deciding to run a half marathon (don't ask me how!!) and I completed my first one in September 2007, two months before my friend lost her battle, aged just 31.  I kept up the running, and over the years have completed 5 half marathons (some for fun (?!), some to raise money for Cancer Research).  Throughout, I held a little ambition to one day complete the London Marathon to try and raise even more money for both Cancer Research and also for Thames Hospicecare, who looked after my friend.  Well after four years of applying, I found out on September 29th that I had been successful in the ballot to run in 2012!
After the initial elation wore off, I opened the rest of my mail that day and was brought back to Earth with a bump - the other letter I got was the referral to a knee specialist that I had been waiting for.  So finally I have a place to run this marathon I have been wanting to run for five years, but I know I can't run it as here I am with my right arm in a plaster cast and my right knee grumbling just going up and down stairs and walking, let alone running!
I know there is some irony here, and I can see the funny side of receiving two such conflicting items of mail!
So, the big news here is that I WILL BE RUNNING THE LONDON MARATHON IN 2013!!!!!!!!
Am I mad? I think I might be!!!!

My first left-handed signature

As promised, the image above is the paperwork filled out whilst sitting on the piste with a broken wrist......

How long should a blog post be?

I have a feeling that mine are quite long, even though I've been omitting various snippets of information, and a lot of the memories that swirl around my head! I guess as this is my blog I can make the posts as long as I like, so I'm going to include some of those memories here, in no particular order, as they come to me.

1. I had to wait a little while at Briancon hospital before my arm was set in plaster because a man had been caught in an avalanche and was being brought in, so they needed to keep staff available (from what I gathered, he didn't have any broken bones or serious injury when he arrived).

2. When I was having my arm set, there were 3 (or 4) nurses fussing around me, attaching monitors and putting the mask over my face, all babbling at a million miles an hour. I was fighting the oxygen as I was trying to understand what they were saying but eventually they faded away and I could hear something very rhythmic instead (possibly my own pulse?!). I was panicking a bit for some reason as I could feel my arm being moved about so I tried to count without much success! The next thing I remember was my arm feeling very warm as they put the plaster on, and then I came around just as one of the nurses said "Parfait!" before plonking my arm on my chest. Then they all went and left me on my own in the room for what felt like a long time. I do remember thinking it doesn't get much better than parfait though!

3. The hilarity of trying to convey the spelling of my name and address to the piste rescue man whilst still sitting on the piste - the pronunciation of I and E in particular! I'll scan in the resulting document so you can see and laugh. Oh how much easier it would have been if I could have written it myself!! I was also very concerned about where my gloves were for some reason (I've been told this was probably some kind of coping mechanism, trying to distract myself from what was really happening).

4. Trying to speak in French to the radiographer after my second visit to him when he asked how we were supposed to be getting home. I was still a bit drunk from the oxygen and in a lot of pain, so struggling to speak in English let alone French-I was trying to say 'par avion' and that we were supposed to be home 'aujourd'hui' but for some reason he thought I was on about going to Avingon!!!

5. The hospital staff referred to me as 'L'Anglaise' rather than Katy when they weren't talking directly to me. It would appear they don't get many English people in Briancon hospital!

I have loads more of these to write down but I've been sitting here for long enough and really ought to get dressed!!!!

A bit of sea air

A couple of days after the operation I headed down to one of my favourite places-Cornwall. I'm lucky enough to have family I can stay with down there, and we had a lovely few days taking in the sea air, soaking up the rays (yes there really were some!) and stuffing our faces.
It's a fair old journey, and I forgot a pillow to rest my arm on, so I ended up tying the big blue foam thing to the handle above the car door so my arm was sort of suspended. Got a few funny looks but along with some sweets and some codeine it did the trick!
We spent the Sunday at Sennen Cove with my Auntie and Uncle. I love it there so much - I spent my 21st birthday climbing and camping there, and had a BBQ on the beach to celebrate. Watching the sun set here is amazing!



The weather was good to us, so we had a bite to eat, before the obligatory stroll around the Capstan Gallery. Then we headed to Cape Cornwall where we met some very windswept cows!






The next day we headed to Watergate Bay for some lunch at Fifteen, and a stroll on the beach. We've been going to Fifteen for years now and I've not had a bad meal yet (nor have I bumped into Jamie, more's the pity!). Can't recommend the whole place (hotel, beach hut etc.) highly enough!





We then headed into Truro for a stroll around the shops, but unfortunately I wasn't feeling great so we didn't stay too long, although we did end up back in Truro for some food in the evening which was lovely (just don't try and get a Chinese takeaway on a Monday!!).
We headed home on Tuesday via another favourite place of mine - Bampton in Devon. We have family friends here who used to run a B&B, and we popped in for some lunch and a glass or two of wine. The view from Rows Farmhouse is amazing, I could spend days just staring at it. It's good for the soul!



The combination of sun, sea air, food and painkillers made me very snoozy the whole time but the trip definitely did me good. It took my mind off the pain and the anaesthetic after-effects, and I'm very grateful to those involved for looking after me so well!

Patience and Beyonce!

The two days after the operation were not great if I'm honest. When I woke up the morning after (very early) I felt like I had the mother of all hangovers, nauseous, hot and shaky. My wrist was also giving me a lot of pain. I knew the best thing would be to sleep, but my body just wouldn't let me, so I lay in bed feeling a little sorry for myself. I tried to listen to some music to take my mind off things but weirdly sound was distorting in my head, a bit like when you have a head cold and your head is all bunged up! I decided to admit defeat and moved to the sofa for a bit of daytime tv, and was almost brought to tears by the pain (sorry Dad your phone call came just at this moment!). I remembered in France the evening after the operation was also pure agony so I thought to myself, this won't last, the pain will be better tomorrow.
Now after 31 years, I think I know myself pretty well, and I know that I always feel better if I am dressed and made-up, so I set this as my target for the day. I didn't have the energy (nor the balance!) for a shower so I had a quick wash and by 3pm (yes, it took hours, you try getting ready using only your left hand!) I was back on the sofa eating a bagel and feeling relatively human :-)

The one symptom that seems to be hanging around like a bad smell is the nausea, and Friday was no exception. I had a shower and got dressed but barely ate all day. I was going for a girly Beyonce night round a friends house which had been planned since before I even knew about the op and I was determined I was going! So, I made some date bars one-handed (yes, I was quite proud of myself for this!) and off I went. Problem is my tummy did not really like the idea of wine! I pushed on through though and had a few glasses anyway, including some bubbles to celebrate some birthdays, and a fab night was had by all! We watched the Beyonce performance from Glastonbury and pretty much all wished we were her, and gossiped (is that even a word?!) the night away!

Wrapped up in love

Yesterday was a big day for me. The start of putting things right and getting my wrist fixed once and for all. I know I'm likely to need at least one more operation some time down the line, but at least after this one I should get much less pain day-to-day which will be nice!
It has to be said, I was absolutely gutted to discover the problems with my wrist, and what it would take to fix them. Basically I have three problems;
1. My ulna is still broken and not healing so requires a permanent screw.
2. Where my radius was broken and pinned was not done very well, in that the alignment between the radius and ulna is out, which is why I can't rotate my wrist beyond 90 degrees. Basically when you twist your wrist around, your radius and ulna cross over one another, and mine no longer can. The only way to really fix this issue is to re-break and re-set the radius, so basically start again! This is a big operation and so not one that my surgeon is considering any time soon!
3. The mis-alignment of my radius and ulna has a secondary impact in that the ends of both bones are now a bit too close to the bones in my hand. This could mean in the future I will have more motion problems, this time with moving my hand up and down. If this does happen, another operation would be required.

So the operation yesterday was to fix the first issue and provide me with some permanent metalwork, and relief from the pain I've been in since I did this back in early April.
I was warned before the operation that this is unlikely to help much with rotation issues, and also there is a risk of nerve damage to the nerve running down the outside of my wrist, as this had to be moved aside during the procedure. I shall have to wait and see, although it wouldn't be the end of the world to lose sensation there-it's hardly a particularly sensitive area anyway!

I was sat in my room in my hospital gown, dressing gown, compression socks (very sexy!) and hospital slippers, with no make-up on-all in all not feeling particularly attractive as you can imagine, when to my horror I realised that in the room across from me was a colleague from work! I had to acknowledge him as I was taken along to theatre, and I just about managed a 'fancy seeing you here' whilst wishing the ground would open up! He wished me luck which was nice of him, I hope whatever he was in for went well. He wasn't there when I got back from theatre so I assume it did!

I had a general anaesthetic so thankfully know nothing about the operation itself. My first memory was waking up in recovery where they were asking me all sorts of questions about my job and what I do etc. I remember slurring some answers and thinking to myself, why are they trying to make me talk when my brain doesn't want to work, but obviously they were trying to wake me up! They gave me some codeine and took me back up to my room, where I was tucked under a big duvet as I was shivering really badly. I think that it was about 5pm, and the next couple of hours went really fast! I would close my eyes for what felt like 10 minutes and an hour had passed! I have to say, I felt pretty good-floaty and warm and so totally blissfully relaxed. I was semi-awake but I couldn't focus on anything-it felt like all the thoughts in my head were fluttering just out of my reach so I couldn't quite grab them. It's a nice feeling to be that totally and utterly relaxed!

Around 7pm I was sat up and given some food, which I did manage to eat. Unfortunately it made me have a bit of a funny turn-hot, shaky and very nauseous. I was laid back down and all my blankets removed, and soon felt well enough to try walking. I was assisted to the loo by two nurses (you aren't allowed to leave if you don't spend a penny!) and then I had some help to get dressed, before being released at around 8.30pm.

I had some pain during the rest of the evening as the anaesthetic wore off, however I was feeling so lovely and happy I didn't really mind. I had so many lovely messages from family and friends wishing me luck, and asking how I was doing afterwards, that I just felt so wrapped up in love, and full of appreciation for all the wonderful people I have in my life and I went to bed full of happy thoughts (ok, and maybe some drugs too!!).

What's it all about?

Yesterday was the day of my third operation this year.
Let me give you some background to my story!
Back in March I went on two skiing holidays, and on literally the last run of the second holiday, almost in view of the bottom of the piste (where the medical centre is, I was shortly to learn!) I caught an edge in the slush and fell. I felt my right wrist jar, but didn't think too much of it at first. That was until I took a look at it, and realised all was not well!
My ski buddy Sarah was on her way down and couldn't hear me shout, so I managed to flag down some passers-by, who luckily included a piste rescue man. He called for assistance on his radio and I heard him use the word 'fracture' (you need to say it with a strong French accent!) at which point my heart sank. We were due on a flight in a matter of hours and I knew how keen Sarah was to get home to her daughter.
So I had my first (and hopefully last) ride in a blood wagon, followed shortly by the grim news that not only was it indeed a fracture (still with that accent!), but a bad one that needed an operation to put in three pins. Before the journey home. Arse!!
I had managed to keep it together until I heard Sarah's voice, but hearing her made me cry with both relief (I knew she would do whatever she could to make sure I was ok, she's one of those people you would call in any crisis) and guilt. For at this point I knew we weren't getting home that day, and possibly not even the day after.

So followed a night in Briancon hospital, with my arm set in plaster under oxygen, followed by operation number one to 'fix' my broken wrist. I realised pretty early on that I just had to take each thing as it happened and deal with it one thing at a time. So when I was woken at 6.30am (having been woken several times in the night too), stripped by a nurse and instructed to shower using iodine, I just got on with it. I was regularly asked to rate my pain out of ten, and was usually somewhere around 6-7. At this point I rated it an 8 and was promptly given a "piques de morphine". I was looking forward to this having only been given paracetamol up to this point, however I can say that whilst the morphine took the pain away, it also made me feel pretty bad, like that stage of being drunk where everything spins and you need to hold on to the floor! Gutted!
The operation itself involved a block being used to numb my arm, injected via my shoulder into each nerve down my arm. I hope never to experience that again! I was also heavily sedated so remember nothing after they doused my arm with iodine, until I woke up and asked "Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé?"






Pins





View over Briancon from my bed






So there you have the background to my story. Operation number two was a non-eventful sedation and another arm block (using an injection and cuff this time, not the dreaded needle in the shoulder technique) and was simply to remove the pins 7 weeks after they were put in. I was chatting to the surgeon Mr Rahimtoola as he removed them, using literally a scalpel and some pliers!












At this point I thought I was all fixed, and full recovery would just involve physio. Unfortunately this has not been the case for me, as it transpired I had broken more than one bone and it was all misaligned and not healing properly. Following more x-rays and an MRI, it was determined that at least one more operation would be required, which brings us up to date!