Eastern Europe Trip

A quick update on what has been a rather hectic week for both Tracy and me...

I last reported that I was about to go to the hospital to bring Tracy home, and that's exactly what I did. I rushed to the hospital, arriving at the alloted time only to find that Tracy was ready, but the nursing staff weren't quite ready to release her... As usually happens, the request for her discharge medication had been sent to the pharmacy only to get stuck in the backlog and so it was quite a while before we finally managed to load up her wheelchair with all her belongings, her dressings and her medication and walk out of the hospital. Tracy was determined to walk out, which was just as well, as there was so much stuff to carry we had to use the wheelchair like a wheelbarrow!

Arriving home it was like she'd never been away, and once again the house felt like the home it had been before the accident. We celebrated with a bottle of champagne and I cooked bangers and mash (proper food, not the hospital kind!) and we washed it down with a good bottle of wine from the cellar (after having to throw away a couple of bottles that were corked - seems the cellar has not been keeping our wine as well as it should). On Saturday we went out shopping to get Tracy some clothes that fit (she's lost a lot of weight!) and to get the watch I bought her for her birthday adjusted. It was quite a heavy day for Tracy, walking round the Trafford Centre left us both tired, but at least she had an excuse!

Sunday we went to see the University that Carlie is hoping to attend in September - Keele - and as Tracy's legs were stiff ("it's like I've just spent the weekend walking in the Lakes") we took the wheelchair. We spent the day listening to the lecturers explaining the format of the Forensic Science course Carlie wants to take and being shown round the labs and the accommodation. Tracy says that being in the wheelchair made her feel as though there was something mentally wrong with her as people either spoke over her head, ignored her completely or spoke to her as though she was retarded. Perhaps we should all spend a day in a wheelchair to realise how it feels - would certainly change the way we treat people who, unlike Tracy, are confined to them.

The rest of the week was very much back to normal for us all. I was working and coming home to a cooked meal - Tracy somehow managing to rustle up great food despite the restricted movement in her right arm. Watching her struggle to cut up mushrooms made me realise how difficult things still are for her - and how determined she is not to let it prevent her from living a "normal" life (not that our life has ever been "normal"!).







So now we're getting ready for Christmas - today being our Christmas Eve! I've been out buying Tracy a couple of new Christmas presents, but don't think I'm being a nice guy - they are a new vacuum cleaner, a new microwave and a new pair of bathroom scales as ours have all broken!!

Tomorrow she'll get to open the presents I bought for her way back in December, so hopefully they'll be a bit more appropriate!

Merry Christmas!!