Getting there...

WARNING : SCAR PICTURE AT THE END OF THIS POST...

Sorry for the large gap in posts, we have been suffering from sleeping sickness.
I'm averaging about 12 hours of sleep a day, Neil is probably having a bit more.

This was a double rainbow, on Friday the 13th.
And we could see both ends of it (but they didn't photograph well..)












Over the weekend Neil learnt how to spin.

This is his first skein of plied yarn.

I have been stash diving to find him suitable learning fibre. He has been remarking on why fibre needs to be prepared properly - have I created a monster ?

I have even managed to find him his own louet wheel, we will pick it up at Woolfest.


And now if you are squeamish look away now....












Otherwise carry on scrolling down...















This is most of Neil's scar.

As you can see it is healing well. I did think it was straight originally, but it seems to be a bit wonky...

The holes from the staples are fading.

I think he should grow a ponytail to cover it, he thinks that is a very very silly, stupid idea and he would look foolish...

Squares for Ursula

For the knitters out there please can you spare an evening to knit a square for a blanket for an old lady in Ireland. She lost her house and everything in it following a gorse fire on Saturday.
All the details are here

Neil is suffering from his hospital painkillers wearing off, his neck is giving him quite a lot of pain, and it looks like the scar is itching (which is a good sign of healing). Staples out tomorrow afternoon, so I get to see the scar then (it's about 4 inches long). He is more mobile and managing to use the new water boiler without any assistance.

The dog had his injection yesterday, I was told the wrong thing by the vet on Saturday, it last 3/4 weeks and it's effects are more or less instant. He wanted to go a lot last night only for 5 or 10 minutes, but it seemed like it was every 30 minutes...
This morning we were up at 6, back from his walk at 7. I went back to sleep and he didn't wake us until about 11 when he wanted company.

I'm still suffering from lack of sleep, the last few months have caught up with me. I'm hoping that after a lot more mornings of sleep I should be feeling a lot better.

Discontinued

Neil rang at 7am, he has been 'discontinued' and I'm free to go and get him when I can.

Dog walked, breakfast being eaten, then I should miss the traffic (hopefully)

Now I suppose I have to be a responsible adult for a while.

The clearing up didn't go well yesterday - there is a path to the living room and the downstairs loo but that is as far as I got. I spent my time trying to finishing his 'coming home waistcoat' three more rows left on the body, collar and finishing round required....

Anyone want a dog ?

The dog has got to the constant howling phase of 'dog next door in season'. I tried taking him on an extra long walk this morning in the hope that he would sleep, but it didn't work.... I am sitting here with the cat on my feet listening to an awful noise, I just hope he falls asleep soon and gets himself some rest, I cant be doing with this all day...

Neil had a better night last night, his dressing was dry today (he had a leaking something yesterday that they had to put a stitch in) so the surgeon said he may be released tomorrow.

He's told me not to go and visit today, instead I have to sort out the house and do some house work so he can walk round without falling over too much stuff - those that know me will realise just how difficult that is for me, coupled with the fact I have been getting up at 6am for weeks....

Hee Hee

Just spoken to Neil, he is well drugged.
They think that he will be released on Monday.

He has watched the wedding, much to my amusement as he has said for ages that he didn't want to. He was convinced that the Queen would be wearing yellow and she was.
Me on the other hand was going to watch it, I woke up at 10.30 and managed to stay awake for an hour, so I saw them married but missed all the frock watching before and after.

I feel a bit better after a couple hours sleep. Think it will be a day under the blanket for me, and working out how many rows I did on the first shoulder of Neil's waistcoat.

The morning after

The last few days are days that I dont ever want to repeat.
After 10 hours in surgery and recovery Neil was back on the ward at 9pm last night.

I have just spoken to him and he sounds fine.
They didn't put any metal work in, they did however move him round and bugger up his frozen shoulder. The shoulder is giving him more pain than the operation.
The morphine driver didn't work properly, so he is on oral pain killers, and waiting on the physio to go and see him.

He said he should be released on Sunday.

I've taken the dog on a very long walk, he is now snoring, I am going back to bed and hopefully will manage to sleep

The long day continued....

After several more phone calls I found out that Neil was back on the ward at 9pm.
Nurse said that he is 'perfectly fine'

I dont think I will be visiting tomorrow, far too tired to think about driving, perhaps I can try and sleep through the wedding (somehow I dont think the dog will let me...)

longer wait

Just heard from Neil, who has just had a visit from the surgeon's registrar - he is second on the list, so wont be in until lunchtime....
He is watching everyone else have their breakfasts....

6 am wake up call

Neil was woken at 6, told to have a shower. He is waiting in his gown. The doctor he saw late last night said he might be first in theatre as he could be in the longest.
He is excited about having a morphine driver (easily amused !!)

I was also woken at 6 by the dog, we were back from our amble by 7 in time to talk to Neil.

And now for the long wait, crochet, coffee & toast....

Ward 3

It's been a long day...

Not long back from getting Neil a bed. When we got to hospital an air ambulance was just landing (and disturbing a game of cricket). Got to the ward, and they had given Neil's bed to someone else... so he got put into the emergency bed.
(The helicopter was taking off when I left 45 minutes later)

I set him up with 3 days of phone/radio/tv/web/films
He might try the web but as there is no keyboard and his patience at the best of times is not good (texting does not happen) with just a numeric keypad and arrows it wont be long before he throws it across the room.

So he can watch the wedding if he wants to, but somehow I think he will find something else to amuse himself on Friday.

The nurses on the ward dont know when his op will be, apart from he cant have anything from midnight onwards.. I have to phone 9ish or 10ish.
They have said that I can visit when I want as it takes so long to get there (today the times were right and it was a round trip of 2.5 hours)

The dog next door is in season, our little grey 14 year old seems to be more interested in running the hedge than where his dad is at the moment.. the cat is more interested in chasing his tail on the mat.

Minimal updates tomorrow, dont think I will have any news until 2ish.

And now I'm going to take my boots off and see if there is anything totally mindless to watch...

Good News

The lovely bed manager has just phoned, there is a bad available on ward 3 from 5pm today.
We can check in any time from then and dont have to go to admissions first.

So we are going to have a quiet afternoon watching Hellboy II and then an early tea, planning to leave here at 6 .......

Beds

Or lack of...

We phoned the ward at 11 as instructed, was told by the nurse that they would get back to us within the hour to let us know about a bed.

We phoned again an hour later, still no news.

We phoned at 12.30, and eventually spoke to the bed manager (they need more soothing hold music!).
There were 4 male emergencies admitted in the last few hours, he is waiting for discharge tests on two patients. He said he will get back to us as soon as he knows anything...

But it doesn't matter what time we turn up at the hospital - apart from me getting back home to feed the dog, getting stuck in rush hour traffic and driving 2 hours each way...

We are not happy relaxed people at the moment. At this rate the crochet waistcoat I started last night will be worn into hospital....

And the ducks have walked out on us, we saw them waddling down the garden a few days ago - at least they were a lot bigger than when they arrived....

Happy Easter

The duckies now have a raft (it was a coffee type table my dad had, I think he would approve of it's new use....)

Mum likes taking them there over night - safest place.

We have put chicken wire round the bottom end of the pond to stop the cat, it slows him down a little bit, but he is getting shouted at a lot !!





We have only named one of them - unsurprisingly this is Daffy.

We had a date for Neil's op, we have to phone to check his bed is there at 11am on Wednesday, then his admission time is 1pm.
We think the op is on Thursday, hopefully he will be home on the Saturday or Sunday.

And now I'm going to go and watch my babies again, they are so cute, and so fast on the water...

Neil did some time lapse photos yesterday, video is more tricky as they move so fast !!

Hospital Visit

Today we went to Frenchay to discuss the latest set of scans. We had to be there for 9am, so left early when we were ready before 7. I have never got to Bristol so quickly (and we weren't travelling above the speed limit). At 8.10 there was not a lot open at the hospital, luckily the unit was open even if the coffee shop didn't open until 9.30.

The result of the consultation is better than we thought, there are no further tumours, one vertebra is very thin so bloke doesn't know how much metal he can attach to it, might have to use some wire ... think it is the second one down so he should be able to attach stuff to the ones either side.
Artery to head pushed out of the way by 2cm, if damaged could have large stroke.

Think op could be in next few weeks, maybe on a Thursday (cant be on Monday as bloke has a bbq!)
Secretary should be phoning us in next few days.

Neil thinks it might be time to pack a bag... he will have reduced movement in his neck still be able to nod but limited sideways movement.

And now for some knitting:

I have eventually finished Evenstar shawl.
The beading is heavy, the graft in pattern is not as pretty as I would like, but the horseman might not notice...









Here it is blocking in the sun on the newish decking. Knitted in a hand dyed silk that I had in stash for ages. I thought there was enough of the huge ball to complete the shawl, but I was wrong, so I dyed up two slightly different colours, one for the last clue and one for the edging.

It is 54 inches diameter...





And I had a helper telling me what to do...

Now I need to go and find a bag to pack...

Full circles

This has nothing to do with circles..

When we were in Wales a few weeks ago we went on a bit of a detour here....

Well I just had to, we didn't stay long enough to find a stable.
Apparently the post office do a good job franking cards
(we didn't see the post office either...)





This was the view in the sky at the weekend, the largest full moon for several years.

There has been activity on the field/hill at the back of my house, Neil set up a time lapse watching the farmers plant posts in very straight lines.
Hopefully we will be in when they plant the trees - the tractor thing for the posts was amazing to watch (we are easily amused)



This is Neil with his blanket, it didn't take me long to make the front - about two weeks, my head was not in the best place at the time. Pattern is flowers in the snow.

He has an MRI scan tomorrow, his least favourite thing in the world....
Next week he has a pre op assessment followed by a CT scan. (I'm hoping to visit Get Knitted while he is being seen, rude not to as I'm going to be nearby)

His op has been pencilled in for the end of April, we should know more when the surgeon's secretary gets back from her holidays on the 19th April. At least we now know that he will be ok for Wonderwool.

And now I need to get back to my mindless hap shawl, I should get a lot more of it done tomorrow. It is very bag like at the moment, I missed the photo opportunity before I picked up the stitches for the borders, I should manage to finish it before the end of the month......