Nick learns cars are not blankets

Sorry I haven't updated you in a few days, things got busy here. Sadly the 24/7 care I had planned for Nick had to be given by me, someone who needs large amounts of care themselves, because both my carers became too ill to work and we kind of forgot about the existence of other people. Luckily with the help of my parents and a visitor or two, we have arrived out the other side as intact as we were before, but with a lot of mess for my carers to fix when they were able to work! Nick continues to progress well, having taken 3 steps today unaided which is pretty incredible given his injuries. In fact, we discovered by reading his discharge summary fully that in addition to the complex fractures of his pelvis, he also has a fractured sacrum which was not mentioned to either of us, as far as we can remember, anyway. Delayed thanks to everyone who sent cards to the hospital, we received quite a few on the day he left so sending thank-yous got a little overshadowed by all the other adm...

Now, I love the NHS, but being one of the lowest risk patients in a high dependency ward when the there are critical levels of understaffing is really difficult. Poor Nick was having to wait over an hour for morphine which meant pain management was really difficult. Luckily, with his main carer lying in bed next to him, the wait time is pretty negligible and while pain is still high, the overall levels are decreasing and we're having fewer (but still enough!) episodes where Nick is completely incapacitated by pain. Things are slowly but surely on the up!

26 hours since Mr Resilient left recovery and he is now sleeping soundly in my bed. He's struggling hugely with pain but I've arranged 24 hour care here and being able to have his medicines, food, water, cuddles, and pretty much anything else completely on demand without having to wait for stressed out, over worked nurses to deal with it will be wildly beneficial for him. Things are far from over, but he is as well and as comfortable as possible, and being waited on hand and foot. I'm genuinely not entirely sure how he managed to convince the staff that his pain was under control enough for an hour and a half car journey (thanks mum!) but he did, and he survived! Obviously if you want to send a card now you'll need to send it to my house but I'm not putting that address on the internet (thanks Cambridge Analytica....) so you will have to message one of us somehow for that. Best wishes to you all, Janet

We found out before lunch today that there had been a cancellation and it was likely Nick would be able to have his operation this afternoon. I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to tempt fate, but Nick has now had his wrist surgery. As far as I know it was successful, in that they haven't told either of us it wasn't, but I've not been able to speak to anyone about it. It did take 3-4 times as long as expected, i will ask why when I can. Nick is...Ok. He's being a right grumpy guts right now but I guess that's to be expected after a week in hospital and a surgery. Also currently insisting he would be perfectly capable of doing a further maths a level right now, and I can't tell if that's just Nick being confident, or Nick not realising just how much medication he is on. Speaking to the doctors tomorrow about coming home as he wants out asap, understandably, but I think it would be a good idea for him to be in at least another night.

On the left here we have a fine example of a normal coloured hand. The specimen on the right is a perfect demonstration of the stages of bruising. PSA: getting run over by cars is bad, please avoid.

We finally have a date for the surgery that we may be able to have a little more faith in. Nick is scheduled for his operation for Thursday morning and will only be bumped off the list for operations saving life or limb, so fingers, toes, eyes and everything else crossed that this goes ahead and I'm not tempting fate by telling you all. Despite a really bad pain day, Nick has been up on his feet, walked himself to the bathroom and back (now closer to a 25m round trip because he has moved bed), as well as walking around a little with his physiotherapist this afternoon, and even sat up to play cards for a very little while. Have I mentioned that I think Nick may be the most resilient person in the world? Best wishes to you all, Janet