Mind How You Go

I have a few photos to share with you of some stuff I picked up at a car boot sale and photographed before 'You Know What' happened. This was when I was trying to be gung-ho about keeping active, and decided to 'fight the pain'. How wrong can you be? I should have taken the advice of this cute card of the Squirrel family, which says 'Mind How You Go'!

However, today I'm still feeling very well, and have ventured outside for a short walk round the block. I know! How brave am I? It was a very short walk - just a few hundred yards on our housing estate, but nice to start making progress.

I was so chuffed to find some vintage cards - they are my current obsession.

Thanks again for all the good wishes. For those of you who were slightly freaked out by my medical details yesterday, here is a picture of a kitten... and a puppy and a chimp in a nappy. God, I love weird postcards like this!

Not too bad, thank you

I'm afraid this is another blog about my 'op', to explain a little more about what happened and where I am now. Thanks to all of you who have sent get well messages - it's very much appreciated. This may get a bit medical in places, so if you're squeamish, you may want to walk away and look at pictures of kittens instead...

So, I was diagnosed with a slipped disc seven weeks ago, and was told that it should get better by itself. It didn't, and I was in a lot of pain, despite lots of painkillers. It seemed as if someone had set fire to my leg, and this leg arsonist was not going to allow me to move anywhere. About 10 days ago, after three particularly debilitating days, I finally thought it was getting better. There was less pain and I could finally do something as normal as standing in the shower.

However, one of the danger signs my doctor kept checking for was incontinence, and numbness in the groin. Thankfully, I did not become incontinent, but I did get numbness in the groin, thigh and bottom. It was as if my bottom had gone to sleep after sitting in a hard chair for too long. So last Sunday saw us in the A & E department of the Bristol Royal Infirmary waiting for hours for a doctor to come and look at my bottom!

He said I needed a scan in the next couple of days, but the request got lost, and I didn't get the scan until Wednesday morning, when it was arranged for me to go A&E at Frenchay Hospital. Mr Kitsch was with me, and after the scan, we were told to go and wait in a ward, as 'they needed the bed in A&E'. I think they knew at this point I was going to have surgery, but the final decision hadn't been made. So, as I said in my previous post, the next thing was that I was told they had a bed on ward 2 and would operate that evening.

In the end, the op was the following morning. Apparently my slipped disc (it doesn't actually slip, but bulges out and presses on the nerves) was extremely large. "Huge", in the words of one of the doctors! As Mr Kitsch said, 'If you're gonna have one, have a big one!'.  I also had (have?) Cauda Equina Syndrome, which accounts for the numbness. I was also pretty unique in having had the pain in one leg and the numbness in the other leg. How nice to feel so special...

The scary thing about the numbness is that there was a 50% chance that it would spread and make me incontinent, possibly permanently. Hence the emergency of the operation. I had to have a microdiscetomy and a hemilaminectomy to decompress my spine. (Again, probably best NOT to follow the link if you are squeamish!)

I am so grateful to all the medical staff for their prompt action. From my GP who made me aware of the danger signals to look out for, to the surgeon who performed the operation, and explained everything so well. I am very lucky to live reasonably close to Frenchay Hospital, whose neurosurgery department is excellent, and although I was only on the ward for less than two days, I was so impressed by how friendly and helpful all the staff were.

I was very grateful too, at having had so much hospital experience visiting my mum and my sister in the last few years. Although I'd never stayed in hospital before, I was used to what goes on and how things work, so I wasn't upset by all the weird things they have to do. So when a nurse came to give me an ECG at 6am, I could just relax and let her put stickers and wires all over me without worrying in the least.

In fact, I was surprised by how calmly I took it all. I think the speed of it gave me no time to think, and all I could do was concentrate on what was going to happen next. I think poor Mr Kitsch has had the hardest time by far. He had to dash to and fro across Bristol to get the things I needed, and then all he could do was to go home and worry.

And now I'm back home, the poor man has to look after me. I'm really only allowed to lie down and stand up, and walk to and from the bathroom for the next week. I've been up and down stairs for meals, but I have to be careful not to overdo it. I've written this blog post in many instalments over a couple of days, standing up. In the next couple of weeks I can start to walk a bit further, and sit for short periods in an upright chair. Yesterday was exciting as I had a shower, and was able to wash my hair for the first time in a week! Boy, that feels better!

Amazingly, I am in virtually no pain now. Keyhole surgery really is amazing, isn't it? I hardly feel like I've had a scratch on my back. Frustratingly, I still have the numbness, and this will take months to go, as the nerves have to regrow. The sensation might never fully return, but hopefully I will get rid of the 'numb bum' eventually!

I can only keep thinking about how lucky I've been, and how wonderful everyone has been to me. And of course, how lucky I am to have Mr Kitsch to look after me. He has had an incredibly difficult week, with other things going on, apart from my troubles, and he has been uncomplaining and cheerful, and ready with a cup of a tea at the right moment. Which is always Very Important...

Back - just about!

This is just a quick blog to explain my absence in the last couple of weeks. My back did not get better. In fact it got worse, with some symptons that were alarming enough to necessitate a visit to the hospital A&E. After an emergency MRI scan, I waited to be told the results. After hours of waiting, the next thing I was told was that they'd 'got me a bed on Ward 2'. A bed? I wasn't going home, and was going to have an emergency operation on my spine that evening. In the end, the operation was scheduled for first thing the next morning, but I still found myself unexpectedly in hospital and having an operation for the first time in my life.

The operation was on Thursday, all was successful, and I came home yesterday (Friday). The wonderful thing is that most of the pain has gone. Less wonderful is that I can't do much for a while, and have to spend most of the time lying down. Standing and walking is okay but sitting is not allowed. I have put my laptop on a tall chest of drawers and am writing this standing up.

That's all for today, I think, but I thought I'd let you know I'm still here - just about!.

Impatient Patient

A brighter day today, than it's been for a while. I'm not just talking about the weather, but the fact that I'm finally starting to feel a bit better.

I have to admit I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself lately. My slipped disc has been stubbornly painful and my cold improved for a day or two only to get worse than ever over the weekend. I spent most of yesterday lying down, but I think that may have helped, as I felt rather better this morning. Yay! So today I'm up to blogging, and I'm sharing some of my Get Well cards from my ever-increasing vintage card collection.

Many thanks for all your kind comments and get-well wishes on my previous posts. I've been a pretty miserable, moany invalid this last week. I can be stoical for a day or two, but a longer illness makes me feel "It's just not fair!". Of course, my slipped disc is my own fault for not keeping fit enough, so I shouldn't complain. But I will anyway.

I decided last night that my cold was probably flu. If it lasts longer than a week, it's got to be flu, right? And I think that gives me a right to be miserable and whiney, doesn't it? OK... possibly I was getting a bit carried away when I suggested to Mr Kitsch that I might be dying of consumption. I told him he should buy me camellias, so I could fade wistfully away on a chaise longue, like Greta Garbo in 'Camille'. He just muttered "Camellias, right." and carried on watching Midsomer Murders.

He's had a lot to put up with. Like my endless complaining about the cold. Over the weekend I was thinking of putting the heating on! It's supposed to be summer, isn't it? I didn't put the heating on, of course. I just can't bring myself to do it. There's no logical reason to it, but it's just very wrong, somehow.

The trouble is that our house gets very cold. It's often warmer outside than inside. The front of our house doesn't get any sunshine, and is always in the deepest shadow. Well, I say 'always', but I think on an early midsummer morning, it might just catch a ray or two. Like Stonehenge or a Mayan temple, I expect the alignment of the sun at dawn on the summer solstice will light up the whole house. Hmmm, I doubt I'll get up in time for that, though.

So a bit of sunshine today has been very welcome, and I even got out of the house (only Sainsbury's, but it's a start). Maybe I was literally 'under the weather'? Well, I'm very glad of a warmer, brighter day today. Let's hope it stays that way!

Yay for Pattern!

Hooray, hooray! I love my post today! Because I got a copy of Orla Kiely's book, which I won in the giveaway on Kitschen Pink. It's even better than I remembered from when I leafed through it in Waterstones (as you do). A huge, huge thank you to Teena, for this generous giveaway. (I'm not sure how you were able to part with it!) Do check out her wonderful blog, if you're not already familiar with it.

I've photographed it with a small piece of Orla Kiely goodness that I bought in Cornwall - a face flannel.  I can't really afford/justify anything else, much as I covet her designs!

I've already spent quite a lot of time going through the book, and it's nice to see some of the less well-known patterns, and to read about her design process. 

And try to decide which handbag I would have, if I was rich enough. Answer - all of them!

Collection - My Rubber Duckies

Once again, this is not a deliberate collection, just some toys that have been acquired, but I do like the icon of the yellow duck. Although these are plastic, they always make me think of Ernie's 'rubber ducky' in Sesame Street.

Not really a collection - Novelty Erasers

Another random collection - novelty erasers. This is not really a collection, as I certainly don't collect these, but just discovered that I had a few, when I was looking round my workroom. I really like the word 'novelty'. Don't you think any object is so much better if it's a novelty version?

Anyway, I appear to have a small collection of novelty erasers. I'm particularly fond of the japanese figures, as I remember having a similar one when I was little. I was delighted when I found them on Etsy. The heads are made of wood, and are just spiked into the triangular eraser.

I'm only photographing things I have to hand at the moment, as my back is still limiting what I can do. I have a slipped disc, and have now got some industrial strength painkillers from the doctor. I can move around, but I can't really go rummaging through cupboards and boxes. Nor can I sit at the computer for very long before I have to go and have a lie down. To add to the joy, I developed a streaming cold over the weekend. In case you were in any doubt, sneezing when you have a slipped disc is a Bad Thing. You know it's coming, but there's nothing you can do about it....until....aagh! Perhaps I could stuff a novelty eraser up my nose....