Just a quick aside : Our son Tom, now working in London, came to visit us
on Monday and Tuesday. Tom being Tom he wasn't going to take
the conventional route, ie the train, as the rest of us would, Oh no !!
He donned a small backpack and ran from the Barbican to Chelmsford,
40+ miles in 5 hours. Then trained to Kelvedon.

Having told a few people about this I've had several comments as you would expect :-

"Next time he goes out for a run perhaps he should run to Broadmoor
and check himself in!!"

"That is just wrong, that is so wrong that his mental health must be called in to question"

This is not he first such mad escapade Tom has embarked upon. A couple of months ago
he decided to go to our Apartment in Torquay.
He cycled there, the long way. Over 300 miles in 2.1/2 days

We really are a normal family !! I promise you.

Tom loves running and I'm proud of all his madcap escapades.
Life's never dull when Tom's around, you never know what's next.

Maybe he's Forest Gump ??

Day 3 in Hospital

Thursday 10th November 2011, day 3. I'm feeling good and settling down into Hospital life.

I notice something odd about my good leg (left) it feels like something is massaging it !! On inspection I find that I have a weird looking sleeve around it that seems to be moving in waves, and the feeling is not unpleasant. Later, on inspection I find  its a twin walled bandage type of thing that wraps around the leg and  fixes with velcro. Between the twin walls there are a series of channels through which air is pumped from a machine hung on the end of the bed. The air pump feeds 3 sets of channels and seems to pump in a random way. This of course is another way of ensuring that DVT does not set in !!

Soon after the wound was checked and re-dressed as the previous blog I was visited by the physio's.

First thing that they gave me was a crepe bandage with a loop in one end, the loop was placed around my toes and the free end was held tight in my right hand. The object of this was to pull on the bandage and to exert resistance on my ankle. Flexing my ankle with resistance applied from pulling on the bandage started to work the remaining muscles in my calf. Later I find out that approx 50% of my lower leg muscles have been removed during the operation to ensure a decent margin around the tumour.

The Physio also gives me a nice shiny new pair of crutches. I'm shuffled from a lying position on the bed to sitting upright on the edge of the bed. From here I'm instructed how to use the the crutches to go from the  sitting position to a standing position. That accomplished, and practised a couple of times I'm instructed how to use the crutches to walk. First time ever using crutches is odd to say the least, but with practise it comes easier, and I'm soon whizzing round the ward.

Physio's leave happy that I'm not about to kill myself whilst on the crutches. It's now lunch time and the I'm faced with Omelete and chips that I pre-ordered at breakfast.

In case you're wondering my omelete didn't look anything like this one, or indeed taste anything like this one probably did

The omelete that I was presented with was at best awful and at worst inedible. Probably made from powdered egg and pre-formed in a brick mould before being heated to a temperature close to that of the surface of the sun !! (that'll kill of any bugs, and also the taste) Vitellary yellow in colour, tough and rubbery in texture, it was unfortunately not for me. The chips didn't fare any better, at a guess I dont't think their origins were anything close to a potato as we know it.

Next blog  -  it's afternoon visiting time.
If you've ever been in Hospital you'll recognise this !