Read All About It... Long legs, pink wheels and lady-like sneezes

Firstly apologies for my somewhat sporadic updates of late, I shall pull my finger out and get it back on track! 

As well as this update I'm hoping to get the disc with all my pre and post operation X-rays and MRIs from the doctor later this week so I can get those posted on the blog! I may have to give it a parental guidance warning as its not for the faint hearted but definitely worth a look!!

Thinking about it I probably should have tried to blame my troublesome blood pressure for the lack of updates as for the last week or so it's certainly been bit sketchy!Basically because I'm pretty tall there's a lot of leg for my blood to go and sit in when I get up, so for a good while I've been given a drug called Ephedrine which gives the old blood pressure a 'wee' boost for half an hour or so when I'm getting out of bed ....there'd been talk of weaning me off it but that went out of the window and they decided cold turkey was the route to go down! 

Gladly, I can now say it has worked, but there have been a good few slow starts to days recently, one day was a complete write off when Jen and I were supposed to be going to see Batman, instead it was back to bed early and a Chinese! ....other days have seen me go a little pale in morning gym sessions and sent back upstairs pronto, and my record low blood pressure (while still conscious) was 63 over 27, most people would usually be 120-140 over 80 - 90, so yep I wasn't feeling at my perkiest that day! ...but touch wood its levelled out now and mornings are less of a lottery, which is just in the nick of time really! 

This is because, all being well, I'm having a day out in London next weekend as five patients along with five staff have got tickets to the Paralympics! ....the unit got five complimentary tickets, so names went into a hat and thankfully mine was one of those which came out! ...also the other four tickets went to a good bunch so it promises to be a good day....but also a long day! 

The train leaves Lime Street at 06:55 and we won't be back in Southport until after 10 pm, which doesn't sound too bad I know, but I get knackered after being up for five hours these days so I may well be asleep most of the day! ....the most worrying part for me is the trip from Southport to Liverpool, as the unit has a couple of adapted vans which are going to be used to take us. These vans can be booked out by patients and we did just that on Saturday night as Jenna and I were going out for a meal with our parents and we thought it would beat getting a taxi. It turns out it didn't! ...despite looking taller than the taxis we've been using, the headroom was somehow even worse! and when we made it all of three miles to Birkdale Village it felt a little like I'd just come out of surgery again because of the stupid positions I'd been holding my neck in!

Also, the fact the van seemed not to have any suspension, combined with how tense I was at the prospect of Jenna's first van driving experience being with me as the cargo probably didn't help either! Credit were its due though, she did a great job although I think she was even more tense than me, as her dad's efforts at helping to get me in resulted in some rather strong words!! The meal was really good though and I think we'd all thoroughly recommend Gastro Bar and Grill to anyone who's in the area. 

My only complaint was my posh burger was too big! ....this inability to finish a burger combined with my less than manly sneezes and my very questionable wheelchair is getting me a little worried now, I'm not sure what else the spine influences! ....Anyway back to the point Southport to Liverpool in that thing may well finish me off, I'm praying the other van is a bit better otherwise it may well be enough to ruin the whole day!

....oh and as for the update regarding the guy who jumped out of the window, apparently he hasn't told anyone why he was fleeing which gives us plenty of scope for gossip! ....also it seems his substance of preference was plain old vodka, apparently a bottle a day! He's been forced to stop otherwise they were going to throw him out, the final straw being when he turned up to gym at 2 pm the other day ruined!

 ...in other news I lost my wallet (not related to the above!) ....somehow between the hospital and McDonald's we dropped it! And there was no sign of it when we retraced our steps. ....I think Beth  initially thought it was some elaborate routine Jen and I had concocted to escape paying for the mc flurrys! She was only convinced when I rang up to cancel my cards as that would be some lengths to go to for a free maccies! ....I'm also conscious here that McDonalds seems to make it onto every blog! we are not obsessed with it and we do not go every day, once a fortnight at most, it just seems to be noteworthy every time! ....the wallet did have £40 in I'd borrowed from my mum so I'm hoping she'll take pity on me!

 

....oh and I think this probably should have come up before now but.... I've been given a provisional 'release' date of the 12th December which is very encouraging, gives me something to aim for, and will be nice to be home for Christmas....hopefully!!

Love to all
Mark x