Silence…not golden at all!

So, after owning my new little car for a few weeks now I have decided to do something about the stereo. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it was a very modern stereo when the car was new, but at 23 years old it is starting to look a little dated. Aha, I can hear you thinking, but isn’t my 23 year old car a bit dated too? Well, yes you have a point, but that’s a classic whereas the stereo was never destined to be a classic whatever you did to it. The best thing that you can say for it is that it is at least stereo, but when you can only save 2 UHF (not VHF note) channels and the dial only goes up to 104 (and my favourite station is on 105 – 106), well, it’s not really that great. The real clincher is the fact that you can only listen to whatever broadcasts with the strongest signals – it means that my choice of channels is well, interesting. At least I’ve listened to stuff I never would normally and that’s a good thing, Right? Broadening my horizons and all that?

Wrong – I need a new stereo!

All this in mind, I picked a very nice unit – plays CD’s and will talk to my MP3 player (which has about 16Gb of music on it at the moment so should keep me going on the way to the supermarket and back). I paid for fitting too (it was on special offer and I thought it would be easy) – but the waiting list was 3 weeks. Never mind, I said bravely, I can listen to Radio Crapola for that long; heck, I may even be able to find a cassette or two hidden under the bed with all the dust bunnies or something…So that was that, they ordered the ‘special fascia’ needed for my car and the ‘special bit of wiring’ (very technical they were in the ordering department) and I drove around for 3 weeks until my appointment time duly arrived.

That was yesterday, so at the appointed hour I turned up to find they had no record of me. How they forgot a 23 year old car with a short lady owner with 2 very funky walking sticks is beyond me but apparently I’m just not that memorable! Anyway, they said they’d fit it in but could I come back in 3 hours instead of 1 to collect it. Hey, I’m an easy going sort of gal so that’s what I did and off I went (to the gym and then shopping if you must know!). After 3 hours I return to find the old stereo still in the car – they couldn’t get it out – just didn’t know how as it’s an ‘older type fitting’. No, really? You could’ve fooled me – a 23 year old car having an older type fitting? Surely not!

So, I have to take it back again next week when they have a different expert in. He apparently knows lots about such things so it should be interesting to see what he does. As long as there are no breakages and he doesn’t use any kind of brute force on my car I may warm to him yet. Mind, I should have known I was in trouble with the first guy when he told me that he was only 2 years old when the car was first registered and …“ Er we don't see many of 'em in here”. Oh, no sh*t sherlock!

Just to add to this tale of woe, when I got home I looked at the ‘specially ordered fascia’. It’s almost as big as my whole dashboard and there’s no way it will fit in my car (unless you were to take a hammer to it, smash it to bits and stuff it in the glovebox) – on the box it lists all the models it will fit and none of them is mine – heck, not even close – not even the same model, let alone the same age! I feel more than a wave of sarcasm coming on here…. I think my next visit will involve a trip to the manager’s office, a refund and a very big fat apology….

Ah well, I hope to be rockin' on, just like the rest of you, soon.....

On dogs and their humans….

Today I was walking in the park (yes I am still doing this) and I got further than I’ve ever got before (yay for me!). I managed to make it all the way to the new bench on the big bend and by the time I’d got there I just had to sit down. I didn’t see the malevolent bench that lurks in the trees (see entry) so I have no idea if it was off terrorising the bowling green or maybe just behind me waiting to leap. Whichever, I didn’t sit for too long, just in case, and started out for home as soon as I could.

On the way back I passed a little fluffy haired old lady and her little fluffy haired dog. I’ve passed her before and we've never spoken, but today she said “you’re doing well today – aren’t you?” which I took as a real compliment – total strangers noticing my progress – amazing! Anyway, I fell to wondering (as I do), whether I have been a topic of conversation for the dog walkers in the park, who often seem to hunt in packs of two or three (that’s the walkers, not the dogs). We have a good selection of dogs and their walkers and it’s just like they say, lots of them look very like their owners. I actually have this theory with dogs and cats, that they actually own us, not the other way around – I mean, they are cared for, provided for, fussed and walked and all we are is servants. Worse than that, with dogs is that their humans then seem to copy their hairstyles too (or maybe they just choose a dog to fit their hair??). Anyway, we have a nice selection. There’s the lady with the curly black hair who has a big black poodle, the little fluffy haired lady with her fluffy haired dog, the dog with the bald patches who’s man has a bald head and the girl with the lovely sleek haircut who has a Doberman. We have one lady who has 4 dogs and I think she looks a bit like all of them depending on the light, but never like to admit I’m thinking it in case people think I’m rude!

Anyway, there’s lots of evidence to support my theory – you only have to look at:

http://www.naute.com/pictures/doglooks.phtml

and this article from the New Scientist:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4837

and this one from Science agogo

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20040301230043data_trunc_sys.shtml

and for the really dedicated among you – lots of pictures of people and their dogs..

http://www.doyoulooklikeyourdog.com/dog_info.html

So, there you go – enough wondering for today I think – I’ll just go off and see if I can add something more to the ironing pile …

I am a bad blogger...

OK, OK, I admit it. I am a very naughty blogger who hasn’t written about anything for ages (well its about a week actually but who’s counting?). I have excuses (heck, I always have excuses, that’s why my ironing pile is crawling out the basket and is halfway up the stairs) – but this time I do have a proper reason for not writing anything. You see, hubby has had a week off and I thought he might be a bit peeved if I told him to entertain himself whilst I got on with communicating with the world! I’ve also been away again – nowhere exotic this time, but it all eats into my writing time.

I guess I should explain all this travelling a bit better, as I think I’m getting one huge jealous readership here and you all think I’ve got pots of money and time on my hands. You probably think that I’m some kind of hard hearted b*tch who goes off on holiday at the drop of a hat and that I don’t take hubby with me as I want him to not only pay for it until he looks like this , but also to cat sit while I’m not around. You probably think that I’m off sunning myself on some foreign beach with one hunky male rubbing in my sun tan lotion whilst getting a foot massage from another and slugging down Pimm’s fruit cup. You may even think that after my romantic evening meal has ended with my ‘man in every port’, I’m there sipping midnight margaritas (with the laundry fairy^*1 maybe?). (Pinches self) - Oops, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to tell you all my secret dreams….

Nope, seriously, it’s just not as exciting as all that and I finally decided that you might like some kind of explanation of why I am off all the time, zotting around the world. I think I already mentioned to you that I’m involved in fairly high level sport – well, it’s because of this that I have to do trips, either for competitions or for training. My recent trip to China was a training trip and I hardly saw anything at all which was a real shame. I was there 10 days and in all that time we only had one free afternoon for sightseeing. You have to believe me when I say you can’t do much sightseeing in one afternoon, especially in the kind of gridlocked city where 3 marked road lanes are occupied by 5 rows of cars!! I have never seen anything like it in my life - mere inches between them, cars and lorries wing mirror to wing mirror and bicycles weaving in and out of every gap (I think the riders all have to breathe in to do this) and totally ignoring every stop sign or red light. Anyway, I have digressed – that’s the reason for the travelling – but you don’t have to worry, my sport’s a summer one, so you’ll have to put up with me constantly over the winter!

^*1 You’ll have to see a much earlier entry for this.

Yet more travel and excitement …..

So, last weekend was time for more travelling but this time it included hubby (yay!) - we went off for a short break to Bruges with PTV and his lovely wife and had a really fab time.

Bruges is a really nice place – if you’ve never been, you must – it’s full of fabulous old buildings and canals, has amazing churches and architecture and lots of chocolate shops ^*1 and bars with 1001 varieties of Belgian beer - Mmmmmm... Kriek and oh yes – lots of cobbles…

Now, before I went, I read something that said that Bruges was great for wheelchair users so I took mine. Well, yes it’s great in that it’s flat but it’s really important that you don’t have any fillings in your teeth if you’re going to use one because guaranteed that 2 days of judderrrinnggg around on cobbles and you’ll lose any that aren’t really firmly cemented in. Still, I got a lot further than I could have on foot so it was worth every bump and shimmy. I’m still wondering how much of my bone graft has now shaken down to my bottom tho’…

After too short a time we had to come back to dear old Blighty to pick up our car and come home. We loaded up the boot with all our chocolate purchases, started up and reversed out of our parking space whilst waving goodbye to PTV (and his lovely wife). Suddenly their waves turned frantic – our car (the big and boring one I gave to hubby) was leaking its life blood all over the road (that’s oil to all you mechanically minded people out there…). That was it, no oil, no go so we had to call a recovery lorry out to get us the 200 miles home. “No problem”, the guy said “I should have you home by 11pm”. Well, he might have but for a few small details. He was very sleepy for one and was doing his best to stay awake by alternately shrugging and wriggling his shoulders and scratching his crotch and from behind it appeared that he had some strange version of St Vitus dance . Each time he almost dropped off to sleep he then strayed over the rumble strips ^*2 on the side of the motorway, alternately slowing down and speeding up when he woke again. Hubby slept (fitfully) through most of this whilst I struggled to keep the recovery lorry on the road by sheer force of will alone. At one point I decided to make conversation to keep the driver awake (no all you doubters I didn’t do this just because I like to talk too much…). I asked him if he was married and he told me that he had a fiancé who did the same job as him – in fact he had even trained her to be a recovery driver and she worked for the same company as him. I wondered if he’d trained her to stay awake by shrugging and wriggling her shoulders etc, but didn’t like to ask that….

Anyway, the car is now at the garage and we are waiting for big Bill (he’s not the guy who fixes the car, he’s the credit card destroyer) – I’ll keep you informed…

^*1 I make no apology at all for including this link and accept no responsibility for any weight you might gain….
^*2 And I thought I was through with cobbles for the weekend when we left Brugges

The Nuts and bolts of my surgery (literally!)

I will admit to seeing this idea on another blog and so have ‘stolen’ it. Well, it’s not really stealing, as the details are mine not hers, but it was her idea. Why I am being so noble and giving her the credit? I have no idea – I guess I must just have my nice head on today…Anyway – to details:

1. I had an anterior Spinal Fusion of T-9 to L-5. It was supposed to be T3 to L5 but my surgeon got bored and went home so didn’t get any further ^*1
2. It took 6 1/2 hours of theatre time.
3. I now have one thick rod, lots of screws and a metal ‘cage’, which is nothing more than a big wedge shaped lump of metal^*2 inserted between two of my vertebrae (L4/5).
4. I got six units of blood in theatre and ICU and another 2 units a few days later when my blood count dropped so much that my lips turned white.
5. Being given Tramadol was the worst part of the whole experience, as I had a bad reaction to it.
6. Not going to the toilet for 10 days came a very close second!
7. This was closely followed by not being able to get back into bed as my feet didn’t touch the floor (and that was with the bed on its lowest setting!).
8. I did not get out of bed for 5 days because I had a chest drain in all that time.
9. Having my chest drain out was horrible but only because they stitched it in too tight – it became infected later for the same reason – I think the apprentice did it!
10. I was hospitalized for nearly 3 weeks – I was the ‘old lady’ of the ward.
11. When I came home I had a walking frame – just like an old lady.
12. The first few days after surgery I loved my PCA pump and the morphine it gave me. It didn’t make me hallucinate which was a shame – I would have liked to have seen some weird sh*t.
13. The pain was never too bad as long as I took lots of pain pills and didn’t try to move too fast – I don’t include the time I was on tramadol when the pain was vile.
14. When I got home I was not allowed a shower for 3 weeks because of my chest drain infection.
15. I was not allowed to bend, twist, stretch, or lift anything at all or do any kind of resistance exercises for 4 months until I got the all clear. (Not that I felt like it for most of the time anyway). I did not have to wear a brace during this time.
16. I had 2 ribs removed along with the discs in my lumbar spine. My ribs were ground up and put into the spaces where my discs used to be, in the hopes that it will get hard and fuse everything all together. My surgeon says you can’t really tell if its worked unless he opens me up again just to have a look ^*3
17. I ‘grew’ 2” in height. I actually shrank when they took my discs out and then they stretched me out again on my very own internal rack.
18. My scar runs from near my belly button round to my shoulder blade in a big spiral. It is awesome and I love it as it represents what I have been through and what my future holds (i.e. all that good stuff…).
19. My curvature used to be 75 degree lumbar curve with a 62 degree thoracic curve. Those angles are now down to 33 and 30 – amazing!
20. I have had to buy a whole new wardrobe as I am a very different shape now (YAY for both the new clothes and the new shape!)
21. Would I do it again? Oh yes, yes yes yes !!!
    

^*1This is plainly not true. He actually stopped where he did as he wanted the best correction whilst still preserving as many flexible levels as he could. Quite apart from this, he told me he stopped because it was “too dangerous to continue” – I have no idea what this means and was afraid to ask…
^*2Apparently it is 1½ inches high – that is a lot when you consider it’s between two vertebrae. It may actually account for a lot of my gained height too!
^*3I don’t think I fancy this!

7 months post op – 7 months, 7 months, gosh, is it really??!!

There are days when I wake up and think that it seems like years since I had the operation and then other times when it seems like yesterday. Of course, that’s not really true ‘cos when it really was yesterday, I was all wired up to stuff that went bleep and had tubes and wires in (almost) every orifice plus a few more that they had created especially for the purpose! Anyway, all I really mean is that there are days when I feel great and other days when I realise that I have actually had major spinal surgery. Originally I was told to expect recovery in 6-12 months and now I see what they mean – not that you don’t feel pretty good pretty early on (especially given what you’ve been though), but I know that I am still very aware of my scar and my body is still reminding me that it’s been sliced open and stitched up^*1.

Anyway, I’m going for the truthful update today and will tell the bad stuff first (not that anything is that bad but I want Ly to know what’s coming!). Here we go: My phantom ribs still get sore from time to time and often feel tight but they are definitely better than they were. At the moment they are an inconvenience, and if I didn’t do so much I’m sure they would be fine. I admit it, I am a bad girl, but hey, life is for living right? What else? Umm, well, when I get tired then my numb leg doesn’t want to work too well but then I always used to get days when my legs didn’t want to go out and play so I think I’m still just adjusting to the new feel of it. Oh, did I say feel? I meant lack of feel of course! Speaking of lack of feel, the area around my scar is still numb but does it matter? Nah! Not really!

The only other weird thing is that I often wake up^*2 and one of my arms has gone to sleep. Now I know that you’re all going to tell me that I shouldn’t lie on it, but it’s the one on top that does it. I often sleep on my right side (can’t sleep on my left, ribs complain) and my left hand goes to sleep. Go figure! I have no idea what causes it but it is only since the op. When I wake I just have to flex my hand a bit and it all comes back to life. So, strange but true…

Apart from that, it’s all great. I am doing everything I should do and lots of stuff I shouldn’t. My back still hurts, (although most of my scoliosis related pain has gone) but it probably wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for me doing the stuff I shouldn’t! I mean, who on earth would travel to the Czech Republic and after less than a week at home head off for China – only a mad woman right? ^*3

Other things to update on are the nerve pain and the stomach reflux. Well Ly, my stomach problems have all but gone – yippee! At present I have mild and occasional attacks getting less and less frequent with time. (Just hang in there girl!). The nerve pain has improved enough to try me on a reduced dose – so that’s still a case of watch this space.

Anyway, to finish off with the update, I have to say that I feel fit. I mean really fit, you know, like well, a fit person. I feel healthy and well. I put much of this down to my breathing which has improved vastly since the op. Funnily enough, it went downhill so gradually that I hadn’t realised how much of an impact having one of my lungs all squashed had on me. But now I do….Anyway (I do like that word), next back update will be early October. Eight months, oh my ears and whiskers….

^*1 I am very glad to report this second fact as otherwise life could have got very messy.
^*2 I am glad of this too.
^*2 Er, um, that would be me then?.

New links

Just thought I'd mention some new links...

I fnally got round to adding Brandi's blog to the links of scoliosis bloggers. She has a very funky new site...

Well, talk about eclectic (were we doing that or was I just imagining it?) - I came across something whilst genuinely looking for a knitting pattern. Its Stitchy McYarnpants amazing Museum of Kitschy Stitches (A Gallery of Notorious Knits). You just have to visit this site for its serious reflections on knitting pattern photos of the past. Oh, did I say serious? That's not truthful at all....it's more like this really...

I’m back, I’m back (as a matter of fact…..)*

Well, I am back from my Turkish bath of a trip. Actually, where I went was nowhere near Turkey, although it may have been one of the more normal things that I ate during my visit. At a meal out organised by our hosts, goose feet^*1 were served on the menu, as was crocodile stew and snake and scorpion soup. There were many other things too, many of which were untranslatable and that may have been just as well! Still a good time was had by all (I think) and that even included when the BMB was forced to get up and sing. J, don’t worry, even when he did his Tom Jones impression no-one threw knickers!

Anyway to those of you who are interested in what it is like travelling for nearly 24 hours when you had major spinal surgery just a few months ago I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I really don’t recommend it! I was very disappointed too that my metal work did not, on its own, set off the metal detectors. When you’re travelling through the airport in a wheelchair, those arch thingies are pretty much bound to start bleeping – I’d be more worried if they didn’t! Anyway, my friend got one of those hand held things waved over her and that was sensitive enough to pick up her bra strap. There I was going “Ooo. Ooo. Me next. Me next!!!” but they just let me go through. What a swizz eh? I guess I will have to try and persuade hubby to take me on lots of foreign holidays then maybe I’ll be able to report for sure…

So, here I am, back! I shall now be updating the blog on a halfway regular basis again – I’m now at 7 months too, so I shall be doing an update on that in the next few days. It does assume that I can get to the keyboard tho’ since it seems to be the latest residence of the cat. This is the same cat that when I came home, stuck his nose in the air and stalked out of the room very pointedly, only to rush back in after about 30 seconds and launch himself at me. I don’t think he’s learnt yet that 30 seconds doesn’t quite class as sulking…

^*Please don’t try and guess where this is from. I’m almost ashamed to admit I know it myself!
^*1I now know that under the skin of a goose foot is nothing but bone - I never did quite discover which bit we were supposed to be eating.