Eastern Europe Trip

I’ll start this week’s blog update on a completely different note to recent updates, as on Wednesday, my eldest daughter, Katy, gave birth to her third child! A little girl to be called Elizabeth Kate – my 5th grandchild!! Isn’t she a cutie?






Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to get to see her for myself yet, but plan to do so next week…

Meanwhile, back in the hospital, Tracy is still lying flat on her back with her arm in the vacuum dressing. The proposed transfer from Hope is now not going to happen – so she will not be moving into private care in the short term either. Since my last update they’ve changed the dressing a couple of times, and the registrar tells us that the wound is now clean and devoid of both dead tissue and infection, which is great news. They’ve not changed the dressing for a few days now, but her pain is remaining manageable. They’ve now booked her in for the skin grafts – on Tuesday – so at last we’re starting to see real progress. However, this week has not been without its own dramas, as every step forwards continues to be accompanied by half a step backwards. On Wednesday she started to get a swelling on the left side of her face, which quickly changed her features to resemble those of the Elephant Man and made it impossible for her to swallow. That turned out to be an infection in her pituitary gland, and resulted in yet more medication being given to her – anti-biotics, anti-inflammatory and ear drops. She’s had so many drugs over the past few weeks, I’m starting to consider booking her into the Priory for when she finally gets out of hospital!

But she remains positive, and the news of the skin graft operation has certainly lifted her spirits. Once that is done, and she’s been fitted with the back-brace, then her recovery should start to make real progress, and we’re all keeping our fingers crossed that nothing else happens in the meantime…

My own recovery took a giant leap forwards this week, as I removed the splint and have started to walk and bend my leg. I can now climb the stairs without too much difficulty (makes a change from going up one step at a time or on all fours!). I’ve also started driving again, which is great as it means I can get to the hospital without being dependant on either Katie or Nikki. I still have to take it easily – it takes me a full 13 minutes to get from the hospital car park to Tracy’s ward – but I can see an improvement every day, which is extremely pleasing.

Nikki and I also went to see my bike this week, at the Carole Nash repair centre. Seeing it was quite a shock and I felt decidedly sick as I re-lived what happened whilst looking at the damage. There’s paint transfer on the beak, a huge dent in the tank, and, worst of all, the top of the engine is flattened from being caught underneath a part of the truck. The front tyre was also pushed off the wheel during the accident, which explains why when I’d managed to steer away from the initial impact, I couldn’t keep the bike upright. According to the guys I spoke to the bike is almost certain to be written off, and the parts list they showed me explains why, as the cost tops £4,500… excluding VAT and labour…






At least we were able to recover the rest of the luggage from the bike, including my jacket but without my new MP3 player which was in the pocket… In total, we’ve got most things back, and just the MP3 player, a snap-on ratchet, some pliers and allen keys one of the “pass the pigs” pigs appear to be missing.

I’ve already bought a replacement Snap-On ratchet from ebay to replace the lost one, which was a present from Nikki and John and one of my prized possessions…

Next week should be one of real progress, all being well, as Tracy has her skin graft operation and I continue to get movement back in my leg… Keep your fingers crossed!