A SMALL SET BACK

The scan on Friday indicated that there is a small leak in OG’s plumbing. This is listed as a 5% chance of happening, so it’s a bit unfortunate. So….back home again for a couple of weeks and then another scan. There is a chance that the leak might self- seal, if not it may require a small repair operation.

In the meantime life moves on. Our French family are settling in and sent the following communication:

As the McDonalds slogan goes ‘We’re loving it’ even as the euro hits an all time high against the £, and we now only get about 1.239 euros for our good old £ (last year it was at about 1.50 euros to the £) and it hasn’t stopped raining for the whole of March. Although we did have a fabulous February so we can’t complain and we are now starting to get sunnier, warm days rather than wet and cool ones.

We have been to, seen lots and accomplished many things in such a short space of time, and we now know this part of the country intimately. It really feels like home. Even our rented, boxy bungalow with paper-thin walls is a safe little haven that we have come to know and like. It is on a small estate of similar bungalows all filled with many races and creeds, we have French neighbours on one side, Germans on the other and a Thai gentleman opposite.

The little people are all settling into their respective schools well and have adapted to their new routines and learning techniques well. Alex comes home everyday and bores us with the Spanish he has learnt. He is in a small class of about 15 pupils, they are treated much more like adults and he really seems to be thriving on it. We bought him a bike a few weeks ago and he uses it to go to schL. It gives him a little bit of independence, which hopefully he will benefit from.

Finty is the star of the class and one of the French mothers who was talking to her class teacher said that she has never met a child quite like her because she has settled in so quickly and so well. She even said that she was a very bright child and helps the French children with their maths when she has finished hers. She continues to love it here and her best friend is still Clements, who lives a few doors away in a slightly smaller boxy bungalow. They are inseparable and are always scheming how to get to go round each other’s houses (when they have finished their homework of course)!

Bastie has moved on from the trees, the whale and the drains and has progressed onto real live human beings. He has made friends with Toune, Valentine & Baryon. They are his regular friends now but Toune seems to lead him into mischief. He still has his moments when he says he doesn’t like school, doesn’t like school dinners and doesn’t want to go but when he gets there he seems fine and comes home having loved his school dinner, enjoyed his day and saying a few French words.

They seem to have a very varied school dinner menu with lots of fish dishes. They even had LOMBSTER (as Bastie called it) the other week. He is slowly learning a few French words and is getting more comfortable with saying them instead of the English equivalent. Finty, by the way, couldn’t think what the shelter at school was called in English but knew what it was in French, now that’s progress.

For the last month I have been having French lessons. I have been going every morning from 9-12.30 into the centre of Toulouse to my beginner’s French class. Seth drops me off at the station in Colomiers where I catch the train to the outskirts of Toulouse, I then hop on the metro for 4 stops, which gets me into the heart of the Capitole.

It is incredible really how easy and cheap the journey is, it takes about 20 minutes and it costs me 11 euros for the full week. That self same trip in the UK would probably cost me at least £11 per day. Anyway, I have now finished my beginners French and it was hard, really hard learning all about conjugations, verbs, and liaisons. I still can’t speak French though apart from ‘je ne comprend pas’, which means ‘I don’t understand’, this seems to get me out of most situations or will force the French person to speak English, which most of them do, a little.

I was talking to Clements mum about how I wasn’t sure if it was the best way to learn French for me because it was so focused on the verbs and the spelling of them and the sentence structure, and we didn’t do enough practical talking exercises. That’s really what I wanted to learn, more so than the written word. She was saying that they are so hung up on academia in France that this is they way the teach it unfortunately.

This bears out what we read about the French and their education etc. which school or University you went to is so important to the French that even as a 40’s something person this appears at the top of your CV, even above all of your years and years of work experience. And we think the English are snobs. If the truth be known this is why I haven’t sent an update for a while as I have been so totally consumed with my French lessons and homework. Seth has been very patient with me and taken up the slack with my shortcomings for the whole of March.

We popped back to England just before the Easter weekend to say high to the folks back home (makes it sound like we travelled back from Australia)! and especially to see Davy who was going into hospital for a major operation. He has since had the operation and is coming out the other side with a few little hiccups along the way We have been getting regular phone calls, texts and emails from kind friends and family with updates and progress reports, for which we are really appreciative of and thank you very much.

The French seem to have an awful lot of stray dogs and the merde is something else, you have to watch every step you take. Talking of merde the public toilets are pretty disgusting here too.

Seth is still his usual jolly self who stumbles into situations where fools fear to tread, not the dog shit obviously. He first of all checks to find out if the person he wants to speak to speaks English and then when he discovers they don’t he continues asking questions in English (with a very heavy French accent of course) that you just know the French person hasn’t understand and then he is surprised when they respond in French and he can’t understand them. He just carries on though speaking with a French accent and by the end of it he has made himself understood and got what he wanted. He is a real survivor and to Seth ‘nothing is impossible’ or is it ‘impossible is nothing’?

We are going to watch a well-deserved film now ‘Blood Diamonds’ and will catch up with you all a lot sooner next time. We would love to hear from you.
Love and miss you all
A bientotxxx

WEEKEND LEAVE

It was such a relief to come home for the weekend, although a little scary. The 75- mile drive was particularly trying. OG has a scar from his groin to above his naval and two drainage tubes so I was conscious of every bump in the road and drove at a very sedate and elderly 40 miles an hour even on the motorways. In future I will be more tolerant of old fogies driving at the speed of a tortoise.

As predicted, his appetite picked up immediately and each day that goes by sees him gaining more strength and wrestling control back from me. He even managed a short trip to the office yesterday and is starting to ask questions that make my poor colleagues sweat and stammer. Bring back the “good old days” I say!

Tomorrow we move to the next phase which is to have another scan to re-check that the plumbing is still working and then have the last of the drainage tubes removed. There will then be the usual follow-ups and maybe other treatments, but that will all be revealed in the fullness of time.

I was going to write “when I started this blog we had no idea what a boon it would be to help keep all our family, friends and colleagues up to speed with OG’s progress”, but as I was writing I had feelings of déjà vu. Hadn’t I written this before? The bitch of it is that this now happens frequently. I start recounting an interesting tale only to see my target audience lose the will to live. I say, “have I told you this before” and I can tell from the reaction that not only is this a repeat, but is probably, at best, a repeat of a repeat and may even be a repeat of a repeat of a repeat!

BLIPS AND THINGS

I have had trouble getting onto internet at this hotel. Next year they tell me they will have free wireless access, but at the moment it's a nightmare. My laptop "dongle" can't pick up a signal, the TV access won't allow me onto blogger.com, the USB port in the room costs £15 a day, which I refuse to pay, and the machine in reception, which I am using now, costs £1 for 10 minutes and was not working yesterday. So I have to type very, very fast to get good value for money. Yesterday I struggled to post a blog using my BlackBerry but that didn't seem to work either.

The news is that we have been have been told OG may be able to come home for the weekend provided his Xray today doesn't show up any "leaks" in his new plumbing. Unfortunately, he has continued to experience severe "blips" (translation for DogLover - episodes when his blood pressure drops and he feels so bad that he thinks he is dying and continually bangs on to me about it until I want to kill him myself. I never signed up to be a nurse!).

I am terrified of taking him on the 75 mile journey home because he is so frail and when we do get home there is no district nurse c0ver for the weekend which makes me feel very insecure.

BUT, once there I may be able to pursuade him to take some food. The trouble in the hospital (and I'[m not moaning, only making an observation) is that the heavily accented girl comes around to take his lunch order at 1000 when is is not feeling hungy. Because he is slightly deaf he can't make out what she is saying and feels like puke anyway so he says he doesn't want anything. She sighs and goes away. I think she takes it as a personal insult or maybe she is on a bonus related target. Anyway, the end result is that he is eating very, very little. At home we can be more spontaneous and maybe I can pursuade him to have a little titbit now and then.

Next week he will come back to the hospital again for a few days to be "finished off" as it were. All the drains will come out and final checks made to ensure all is working well. Then we will have to return to the clinic once a week for 6 weeks for more of the above. Fingers crossed this will all work. And fingers doubly crossed that the cancer hasn't spread. We are still waiting for that news.

Apart from the fact that he feels so awful all the time they are extremely pleased with his progress and had told him right from the beginning that he would have good days and bad days for a while, especially when he got home. Help!

TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY

In anticipation of my prolonged stay in a hotel I came well prepared with my computer set up to access my email, a direct link to the office and the facility to keep me current with other bloggers.

Well, we all know about the best laid plans. Firstly the telephone signal was't strong enough for my "dongle". My alternative internet access is either £15 a day, which I refuse to pay, or £1 to buy 10 minutes on the machine in reception which is now broken.

So here I am struggling with my blackberry.

Enough of me. The update on OG is the plan for him to come home for the weekend his s blip yesterday. He was looking forward to my regular visit and was feeling so much better. He had his first shower and was taking his ablutions whe he felt unwell. When I arrived he was in bed looking very grey, completely out of it, the bed was tipped back with his feet elevated and he was having an ECG.

I asked if he had taken his Tramadol. The answer was that he had taken 1 instead of 2. I suggested they give him another one and was told that as he had asked for only 1 they were not allowed to give him more until the next drug round at lunchtime!

And guess what, two tablets at lunch time did the trick. It was like a miracle had happened - again! Is it me!

Apart from the pill saga the hospital is very impressive. I had wondered if the older part of the hospital was kept to the same standard and apparently it is. So the question is - if it can be done here in this sprawling 70acre building, why can't it be done in every hospital.
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

LIFE IN THE VAST LANE (DAY 7)

Why life in the vast lane? (I bet you all thought it was a typo!) The reason for the title is that everything about Addenbrookes is vast. Vast hospital site and vast aspirations. I heard a nurse talking about robotic surgery to a patient who is to have it done today. She said you would imagine it would involve micro instruments and procedures but she said that half of the operating theatre is taken us with this vast machine. They are at the cutting edge of this technology.

They are currently developing another 90 acres to be split between Addenbrookes Hospital (9 acres), Papworth Heart Hospital (10 acres) with the rest for a Research and Development facility.

Even the operation that OG had was vast in asmuchas they only do about four a year! They have taken bits out and refashioned bits of his intestines to replace them! As the nurse said "Bionic Man" technology.

The ward that OG is on is in a new building and is spotless. The nurses clean their hands every time they come into his bay and never touch him without first putting on gloves. When they flush his tubes through they first clean their hands, put on gloves, unpack the sterile packs, throw the gloves away and unpack another pair of sterile gloves that have been folded in such a way that the nurse only touches the inside of the glove! Even then they will not touch OG himself. It's amazing the attention to detail.

They are also conducting experiments into research that indicates taking pro-biotic drinks and eating chewing gum helps keep hospital acquired infections at bay and keeps the gut healthy.

He has a dedicated staff nurse and nurse attending him and is still on two hourly observations. The attention to details is outstanding. So, yes, it truly is life in the vast lane!

And how his he? Getting grumpy again, which must be good. He is still in a great deal of pain, and can't manage to eat much, but each day seems to bring new progress. All his drips and tubes are gradually being taken away and he even managed a few steps yesterday.

I am beginning to understand why they say it can take 6/12 months to recover from this operation.

SO FAR SO GOOD

Now the days tick away, some anxious times, some relief. The day after the operation, Wednesday, was anxious. OG started feeling very aggitated. As the hours went by I could see him getting worse. Everyone put it down to the trauma of the operation, but I know him so well I could see this was something different. About lunch time he got really bad and started sweating and continuously rubbing his hand over his head.

We called the nurse who called the sister who called the "pain person". They all stood around watching him get more and more aggitated. They reminded him that he had had major, major surgery, one nurse even called it "bionic man" surgery, and he should expect to feel unwell. Was he in pain "no", can you discribe how you feel, "I can't put words to it, I have never experienced anything like this before" "I think it's a panic attack" "no, I've had panic attacks and they are nothing like this".

I suddenly had an inspiration and asked "has he been given any Tramadol?", "no, why?", "well he has been taking it for pain for a few months and if he hasn't been given any he may well be in withdrawal, particularly as he has an addictive personality. Whew, they bought the tablet and hey presto, it worked.

New staff on yesterday decided that he didn't need the tablet any more and the same thing happened again! Hey ho! Give him the bloody tablets and he'll deal with getting off of them when he is over this.

Apart from that things are going very well apart from my poor grandson going down with flu. Poor lad, after taking three days holiday to look after me he ended up in bed and I daren't go near him in case I spread it to the hospital. Sods law!

I have had the company of my daughters and my friend Kerry though which has been wonderful and a boost for OG. Today my granddaughter is visiting and tomorrow Kerry has invited me to Sunday Lunch so we have set up a little routine that makes the days seem more normal.

Thanks to everyone that has been so supportive and your prayers and good thoughts are working miracles here because apart from the little setback with the tablets OG is amazing everyone with his speed of recovery and determination, but I could have told them this would happen anyway.

Love to all

A CAUTIOUS SIGH OF RELIEF

Today is that day that we have both longed for and dreaded. The operation. After a long stressful day the surgeon rang me at 1500 to say that the operation had been successful and that my dearly beloved had come through it well. There were no visible signs that the cancer had spread but they have sent samples off for analysis and will have the results through in the next 2 to 3 weeks. More waiting, but this is one milestone over.

There had been doubt whether a complete bladder reconstruction was possible and, as it turned out, it was. As Davy had said to our GP "how can I jump into bed with a 25 year old wearing a pee bag" to which he replied "and what does Ann say about this?" So, God willing, his pulling days are not yet over! But what is it they say - the spirit is willing, but the body is weak?!

I am now waiting for word that he has been moved to the Intensive Care Unit so that I can visit him. To be frank, I'm quite scare still because I know he will be so poorly, but, as I say, it's one milestone over.

My wonderful grandson stayed with me all day and we were joined for lunch by his (and my) friend Wayne. They helped to make the day bearable. Thanks guys I am eternally grateful to you. Love you lots and lots.

To all our friends that I would usually email, please forgive me for not being able to - my dongle didn't work! To address the problem was not top of my list of priorities and I'm sure you will understand.