To and Frome

Wink went out for the first time today, except for a visit to the doctors’ surgery on Friday to have her dressing changed.  We went out for lunch, which was a nice break.  Although she’s had plenty of visitors, you get a bit bored with the same four walls all the time.  I’m not running to pick things up for her and help all the time, so that she is used to managing by the time I leave.  Zig has kindly offered her redundant vivarium for Edweena, so I’ll call in on her on my way.

I told Wink that after a week I was in less pain than before the operation, but she’s not found that to be the case yet.  It’s just the wound that hurts, not the joint, and I’ve rethunk, yet again, how much it had hurt before I had my new hip.  I remember lying in bed the first night, my painkillers having run out of juice and it really hurt, and I thought I wouldn’t ring for the nurse but just tough it out as, after all, it didn’t hurt more than arthritis did in the middle of the night.   If a 6 inch incision through flesh all the way to the bone hurt no more than arthritis – goodness, I must have been blanking out even more than I thought I had.  It’s a bit discouraging to think I’m on the way to the same thing again in my other hip, but it can’t be helped.  Anyway, the main thing is that the operation was completely successful for me and it looks like it has been for Wink too.

I’m keeping away from the computer as much as possible.  I thought I’d get on with work, and there are a couple of things I really have to do, but I’m in great need of a break.  I’m sleeping poorly and, last night, we sat quietly reading and I was aware of a great band of tension that I couldn’t shake off.  I spent the wakeful hours working out the causes, most of which are school-related and dating back three weeks or so, which shows how things have been getting to me.  Before I left, I passed on everything to someone else and have let it go – but my mind evidently hasn’t.  My resilience hasn’t failed me like this for a while, I shall take great care of myself until I’m back to normal.  One has only oneself to rely on in the long run, after all.

A card Wink received today made us chuckle.  Two hamsters were sitting at the hospital bedside of a third, who lay looking dazed, with a bandage around his head.  One said to her friend “He fell asleep at the wheel…”

6 comments on “To and Frome

  1. Z Post author

    Easier said than done, love. You can’t just chuck aside responsibilities and letting people down would cause me more anxiety than just getting on with things. I’m doing my best to switch off while I’m away and I don’t really know why I’m sleeping so badly.

    Reply
  2. Mike Horner

    Hello Z. I can usually sleep well (although I do tend to wake too early these days). Ann very rarely sleeps well, but she offers the advice that you should ‘read a boring book in bed’. She goes on to explain that if you read an exciting book it simply keeps the mind stimulated and awake, whereas if you read a boring book, or a book that you know well and like, it calms the mind until you are ready to switch off the light and sleep. I find that, on the rare occasions when I can’t sleep (which is usually when I’ve got a problem or a decision to make), if I stop trying to sleep, and read a few chapters of a book, it will keep my mind away from the problem until I’m ready to sleep. I also find that reading poetry- not too demanding poetry- helps to compose the mind for sleep. I don’t know that any of this will help – I suppose we’ve all got tried and tested means of making the bod do what we wish it to do, i.e. knock off and let us sleep. Ann sends her love to you both, as, most respectfully, hem hem, do I.
    Warm regards, Mike.
    P.s. I always liked the Nigel Molesworth books.

    Reply
  3. Z Post author

    I did just that, Mike, abandoned the book I am in the middle of and picked up a light novel from Wink’s spare room bookcase. Three hours later, I was still reading, still wide awake. I had been to sleep, from about 12.15 to nearly 1 am, gave up trying to sleep and made a cup of tea, which sometimes tricks me into thinking I’m starting the night again. I recite poetry to myself or times tables (up to 30×30), relax my body bit by bit – there’s nothing I haven’t tried over the years.

    I’d been blanking that pain as it happened, Rog, just didn’t acknowledge it. And no, I remember the disability more than the pain, which I can’t really evaluate. Ronan put a link to my FB page today of an article in the Express saying *experts* are now saying that positive thinking helps with pain. Blimey, amazing the twerps have never thought of that one before, everyone else has.

    Reply

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