Monday 22nd August 2011

Back to Work
  John came round in the morning .. so now all the family knows everything they need to know. He coped with the news very well.

He is still planning to move back in next week. I really think there is a chance that this will be the catalyst we need to start to repair the relationship between John and Sue. Sue is currently very motivated to make sure that family relationships are right and John can see how there are things he can contribute to the family, even if it is only emptying bins in the short term.

The night started badly. I was in a lot of pain in my right hip and could not get comfortable in bed. Sue with infinite patience, tried lots of things and eventually thought of the ice pack, which worked wonderfully.

It was a disturbed night, but I did get quite a lot of sleep. Tonight, I am going to try whisky.

The hospital offered me a morphine based pain killer .. for the time being, I would like to put that off.

Wonderful weather, so getting out of the house was a priority. We needed some small items of shopping, so our exciting excursion, was Sainsbury's! I sat in the cafe with a cup of tea, while Sue did the shopping.

I rather bullied Sue into getting something for lunch in Sainsbury's (rather than going home). I am comfortable and don't want to move yet!! So we are having a Panini for lunch and a real meal later.

Waiting for paninis in Sainsbury's is almost as bad as waiting at A&E. At least, the seat is more comfortable than a wheelchair. Sainsbury's has a large new cafe, but the service still resembles a WVS charity cafe!

While I am waiting Chris Barton came over to talk to me. There seems to be a reason behind every decision we take.

Judith phoned. She will call later when I get home. For the first time in my life, I used a disabled loo, feeling like a cheat.

I walked comfortably out to the car, with crutches, and discovered that I can use a normal walking motion, rather than a "dot and carry" approach. There was some pain in the hip, but that is only to be expected and it calmed down as I relaxed in the car.

More work for Sue now.
- Fill up with diesel (only 137.9, so that has to be good).
- Collect my prescription
- Buy another ice pack or two.

I joined the AtE Knowledge Pool teleconference (work!). I found this to be be very encouraging, getting back to discussion about work matters and talking to my colleagues for the first time in several weeks. I even agreed a work program for the week.

Judith phoned later in the afternoon. She confirmed that I would remain on full salary until the end of the year and I should do whatever I feel capable of. This is much more than I expected and represents a tremendous statement of support.

I spent until 6:30 working .. my longest stint since before Center Parcs.

I completed another phase of my home music server project, that I started before I went into hospital. Earlier in the week, I connected a PC to our home hi-fi system. This afternoon, I connected a PC and speakers in my room. The next step is to set up music in Sue's room.

I had some discomfort in my right leg late in the evening, then I realised that painkillers were overdue.