Progress in green

I had a nervewrackingly exciting day yesterday as I visited Barnstaple hospital to dicover whether I still possessed a working leg under the cast put on in Derby 2 weeks ago.

It was the first opportunity to see my leg since the accident and it really wasn't a pretty sight. I did consider taking a photo with my mobile and posting on the blog, but it would only have put you off your dinner! The whole leg is an interesting variety of colours, ranging from deep red, through black, blue and a rather nasty green / yellow. The wound from the operation is quite impressive as it stretches in a slightly wavy line from below my ankle bone to half way up my calf. The good news was that the swelling has reduced enormously and there is only a little left around my ankle. Also as both legs seem just about the same size so far, I don't appear to have lost much muscle yet.

The nervewracking bit came when the consultant came to examine it. If the bone was knitting incorrectly he would have to rebreak the leg and start again. If the wound wasn't healing well, then I wouldn't be allowed a new cast straight away and so wouldn't be fitted with what I craved - a new weight bearing cast so I can start putting my foot to the floor. But all was satisfactory and the nurses fashioned me a new, walking cast. It is lovely! Particularly so as they asked me what colour I'd like it in - purple, pink, yellow or green! That threw me as I was expecting a dull old white one that people used to sign their names on. The first three colours were garish in the extreme so I plumped for green.

Here it is...
Pretty isn't it? Well prettier at least than what lies beneath!

So - a huge step forward as I can start weight bearing again. I am a little confused by what the consultant said though. He said for the next 2 weeks I can bear up to 20% of my weight on it and then for the following 2 weeks I can increase that to 75%. How do I know how much that is in practical terms? Does it mean just using it for balance to begin with? Is it a heavy limp? Can I dance the Tango? Who knows. He was very strict about me being careful though. He said that how I treat my leg in the next month will make the difference between a perfectly useable leg in the future or a problem one. I have decided to seek advice from the nurse here in Bradworthy as to what I can actually do with it.

Bonny is fine and has a new best friend who takes her for long morning walks. Unfortunately she is only visiting the area to look after a sick friend so Bonny may not have her for long. My boat is also fine, thanks to Jan and Graham, my wonderful friends from 'Huff n Puff' who are making sure the batteries are fine and running the engine for me to warm the boat up and stave off any dampness. Graham also refilled my greaser for the stern gland which is a mucky job but helps stop leaks from the propeller shaft. Thank you very much!!

Boredom descends

I am very grateful for the care and kindness I am receiving from everyone here in Bradworthy but I am also starting to bounce off the walls! Bonny and I have been used to such an active life, where we really only sit down once the day is over. Now, we are sitting down for 95% of the day and it is driving us both slowly round the twist!

Bonny's day starts with a frustrating wait for her morning walk. Normally I would take her at around 7.30 but the kind lady who takes her for me doesn't usually come until around 9.30. She is back within 30 minutes and then Bonny faces hours and hours of nothing very much happening until I can get someone else to wait her sometime in the afternoon. So from 3 walks totalling over 2 hours, she now gets less than an hour. And since her escape she can't mooch around the garden without her lead on. As if that wasn't bad enough, we have had unbelievable rain in the last 24 hours, flooding most of the village.

For myself, I didn't realise how much I usually fit into my day and how much I enjoyed being my own mistress! Now I am at the mercy of others and condemned to a sofa existence until I get a walking cast which thankfully will be next Tuesday afternoon at Barnstaple Hospital. Still, it is all about lessons in life and these are important lessons for me - cultivating patience, appreciating the kindness of others and giving up some of my autonomy are all good practice for when I am a crumbly!

At least the rain has stopped for a bit. My lovely hostess has said that we might manage a turn around the village in the wheelchair later for a change of scene. That would be lovely, especially as Bonny and I had been due to go out for a visit with a friend today, but due to the flooding she has had to cancel our visit. And as my other friend Jan says 'This too will pass'.

Bonny kicking back

Since I have been in Devon Bonny has refused to give me the time of day. She lies as far as she can away from me. She refuses to come to me when I call - even for a treat and is generally being a little madam! Yesterday morning she tested the Bonny proof fence and was out in around two minutes! She then took herself on a tour of the village. Fortunately, being early on a Sunday morning, the roads were quiet so she didn't get squashed. My remarkable friend Shirleyann, despite being thick with cold, mobilized the locals and got her cornered and caught in only an hour or so - amazing!

I have been so worried about her and it came to a head this morning. I have caught a cold too and that combined with a broken leg has brought me really low. I decided I couldn't cope with Bonny any more and would have to give her to one of my friends down here to look after. I was snotty with tears at the prospect when my boater friend Jan phoned to see how I was doing. She then proceeded to talk a lot of sense into me. She pointed out that giving Bonny to yet more strangers with yet a new routine wouldn't help, even if they do have a lovely big garden to run around in. What she needs is to adjust to this new routine and I need to stop feeling so guilty that I can't give her what she wants. After all she has shelter, warmth, food and me here. She is getting two walks a day even if they are not at her accustomed times of day and she will adjust given time.

She is just punishing me by ignoring me, much like some dogs do after coming out of kennels. I have been guilty of spoiling her in the past by giving her what she wants when she wants it. I just hadn't seen it before and now I have, I am mortified! So a new regime of tough love is coming in. And if she chooses not to have cuddles etc - well that is her loss and my task is to stop feeling so guilty and practice ignoring her a little more.

Meanwhile, I am continuing to discover what I can and can't do in this new reality. I made myself a cup of tea and managed a shower for the first time which is great. However I have to be careful as, if I don't have my leg elevated for more than 10 minutes or so, it swells and becomes painful. I am having to learn to sit down and stay still and it is really hard! I'm sure things will get better very soon, but today I am stuggling not to sink into a morass of self pity. Thank goodness for sensible friends!

Disaster Part 2

So where was I… landing on the roof of the hospital with one of the best looking doctors I have ever seen!

I was swiftly scanned and they discovered I had broken both my tib and fib bones in opposite directions just above my ankle, which is supposed to be impossible! It was so interesting to them that Mr Milner, the top consultant took my case and the next day, after a dreadful night of pain, he put me back together again with plates and pins and an audience of interested doctors. I too watched with interest as instead of a general, they gave me a spinal block which meant I was conscious but pleasantly woozy and could see what they were doing on a small screen.

That night after the anaesthetic wore off was the most painful of my life. I remember at one point clinging hold of a nurse and refusing to let him go until they gave me more morphine! I was beside myself with pain and shock but of course the night finally passed and things started to improve in the morning.

I have to say that, despite what people may say about the NHS, I found every member of staff to be professional, courteous and kind. They were dreadfully understaffed at night and yet not once did they become impatient or neglectful. The hospital itself was spotless and the beds arranged in bays of four so I wasn’t exposed to loads of people. My fellow patients were lovely and even the porters had a sense of humour!

On Thursday I had problems of a different sort. I broke my tooth in the morning and, since the hospital didn’t have a dentist, had to resort to a bit of self surgery with the aid of a pair of tweezers to extract the broken bit. Then I had a problem of another sort that I won’t go into details about – suffice to say I spent two and a half hours on the toilet!

On Friday I was ready to be discharged with a cast on my leg and a pharmacy full of medication. One problem – where was I to go? I am not allowed to put any weight at all on my leg for 2 weeks. Then I will get a new, walking cast and can start to put weight on it. It will then take 4 weeks before that cast is removed and probably a further 2 weeks after that before I can drive. At present there is no way I could even enter my boat, let alone live on it.

Enter my friends and family. It is only when something like this happens I realise how lucky I am to have the sorts of friends I have! Jan and Graham took Bonny on as soon as I went to hospital and looked after her all week. They walked and sheltered and fed her. Their dog Bernie provided the comfort. The first night, she was in her bed whining in distress. Before Jan or Graham could go to her, Bernie the Westie left his own bed, went to hers and curled up with her, with his head on her side. She leant against him and slept the night away.

Other moorers took her out for walks and generally spoilt her – thank you all so much – I was so worried about her and it was such a comfort to know she was safe and being cared for.

Then Roger and Shirleyann Andrews said they would have me back in Devon. These are the friends who recently took my boat out while I stayed in their house. Not only have they taken me and Bonny in, Shirleyann drove all the way up from Devon, stayed the night on my boat and collected all the bags Jan had packed for me and Bonny. She then drove to the hospital, picked me up, drove me back to Fradley where I was reunited with my precious Bon and then drove us both all the way back to Devon. What a friend!! Not only that but there are people lining up down here to take Bonny on walks and, when I am feeling a bit better, to take me out on treats. Meanwhile others on the mooring have offered to keep an eye on the boat and prepare it for winter if necessary.

As if that wasn’t enough, Roger has fenced in his garden today just so I can let Bonny out safely!!

I am overcome with such kindness. I never realised how many good friends I have and I haven’t even mentioned my family who have been equally supportive. There was I moaning on in my blog about needing my space and wanting to be alone and this has proved to me that, rather than protecting my space, I should be thanking the good God above that I haven’t chased my friends away with such selfishness and that the friends I have are so incredibly generous and kind!

I’ll stop now but I will try to remember to tell you about a hilarious misunderstanding that took place in the hospital next time.

Disaster!

Sorry about the lack of communication recently but I have a really good excuse – I’ve been in hospital for the last 5 days!

I had been out at Hopwas as you know and returned on Monday with no problems. I got to my home mooring and was just pulling the boat in with the centre rope when I slipped, heard a crack, looked down and saw my foot was facing the wrong way and dangling in a really weird way. I sat down rather quickly and got my boot off before the pain started. There I was with the rope in one hand, my leg in the other, Bonny stuck on the boat roof and me shouting ‘help, help’ and praying for someone to come along.

Fortunately, my mate Julie did, closely followed by my friend Jan and between them they got an ambulance and sorted Bonny out. I won’t go into the rather funny story of the arrival of the paramedics on this occasion but suffice to say they quickly worked out a helicopter was required to extract me. Oh honourable mention goes to Henry from the mooring as well as he stood in the rain for ages in case they needed help. Thank you all who helped very much.

So off in a helicopter to the Royal Derby Hospital. Normally I would have loved my first ride in a chopper but on this occasion I was terrified – strapped down on a stretcher without being able to see what’s happening really made me feel helpless. Coupled with that was the fact that I had watched the Towering Inferno the day before where the helicopter had crashed and burst into flames!

I’ll write about what happened next later – need a bit of a rest now.

Hopwas

I managed to stay on the mooring for over a week after our return from Devon before getting itchy feet. Last Thursday we slipped our mooring and drifted off down the Coventry Canal.

We stopped at Hopwas. This is a little gem of a place. The village is well blessed with pubs by the canal, one being ‘The Tame Otter’. This is not a cheap place to visit but the food is excellent and the surroundings very convivial. But what Bonny and I really love about this area is the forested hill between the village and our preferred mooring point by the fields. It is actually part of the Willington army firing range, with a myriad of paths, hollows and dead ends and it is also a paradise for squirrels! There are lights and signs to warn when firing is actually happening but I have never seen them activated.

It is quite an ancient woodland…

There are no roads here and so Bonny gets to run wild in the woods and I get to worry whether I will ever see her again as the squirrels lead her ever deeper into the woods in a relay race! But so far she has managed to find me again and her joy is a wonder to behold. When we return from our walk she collapses for a while…

or watches for any stray wildlife passing the boat…

The River Tame passes by our mooring and has topped its banks in the recent rain, flooding the fields – again. Fortunately the harvest is over.

I have also come away to do some thinking. It is not pleasant on the mooring at present, for reasons I have mentioned in the past. I am also feeling that I need to make some decisions about my immediate future. I am still leaning towards working through the spring and summer and having autumn and winter off. It occurred to me that I could perhaps find some work somewhere on the canal network – for a hire firm or boatyard or marina and take my boat up to wherever that work was. It would give me a break from the domestics on the mooring and I would have greater scope to find work. I might even give my cv to CaRT (formally BW) as I wouldn’t mind being a seasonal lock keeper or any other job on the canal for that matter. Whether they would employ a 50 something female is another matter!

If the situation on the mooring gets any worse I would reluctantly consider leaving the area altogether and finding somewhere else to moor. I’m not there yet, although just before I came away Mr Angry’s partner’s dog jumped all over Bonny on two occasions which upset me. It’s not an aggressive dog but very solid and seems intent on dominating Bonny by squashing her. Bonny, not being at all dominant just lies there being squashed but it scares her. On both these occasions I had to lift Bon up until the woman came and fetched the dog – with no apologies either time. I can cope with being bullied but I won’t put up with Bonny suffering the same!

Still, it all seems unimportant once we are cruising, so perhaps I just need to do a lot of that!

Back where we belong

Bonny and I returned to our mooring last Saturday after a fantastic 15 days in Devon. I was rather worried that we had been so spoilt by being in a house that it would make us a little dissatisfied with the boat.
When I first arrived back, the canal was heaving with boats and it took me over an hour to ferry all the contents of my car to Don’t Panic, crossing the lock, I think, 6 times. I was very tired after that and the long drive and so I looked on my ‘bijoux and compact space’ with a rather jaundiced eye. However, the next morning I got up to the birds singing and the sound of a Lister working boat engine chugging by and suddenly all was right with the world.
Bonny doesn’t seem to be missing Devon either as she is happy rooting around in the hedges of our mooring. Mind you, dogs seem to be able to live entirely in the present moment, so missing something doesn’t seem to enter into their experience. She has been well behaved so far and so we have risked some off lead walks. We had a lovely one this morning as we arose to the first frost of the autumn. The sun was just rising and mist was hanging over the canal. I wish I had taken my camera, it was so beautiful. Bonny of course was less interested in the aesthetics than in trying to chase any number of squirrels up trees!
So, I have had my big cruise and my trip to Devon, so now it is about time to decide what to do with the rest of my life – or at least how to finance it. Having done my sums, I think I could eke out my savings until I receive my first pension by working either a winter job or a summer one. Then I would still be able to go on long cruises. The question is do I go and work in a shop when they take on extra staff over the 4 month Christmas period or do I take a summer job from say April to September where there will be more choice of the type of work and cruise in the winter?
There are advantages to winter cruising although obviously the weather can be limiting. Also it means that I don’t have to get up in the dark and come back in the dark and still have a dog to walk, water to fetch, a fire to light etc etc. In the summer, things are generally easier and I would have time to do my chores as well as work. Then again, cruising in the summer can be lovely with sunshine and warmth (except when we don’t get a summer like this year!) Then there is Bon to consider. She is used to being left on the boat, but not all day. I would think I have more chance of finding some sort of outside job in the summer months where perhaps she could come too.
Well, I have various dates in my diary for enjoyable things to do in October so I’ll take some more time to think about it!