WOW. So its nearly all over? Well, the hospital phase anyway. I was wheeled back to my little room by a cute Dr with one of those silly little blue cloth hats. "Nice hat" ... "Thanks, Do you want one?" ... "I'm alright thanks" :) It was soooooo good to be able to SEE. I wasnt perminantly horizontal and my view streched further than the hospital ceiling. When I got to my room, I saw there was a little telly on the table across the room. sweeeeeeeet. Mum turned it on but it turned out there was no controller. So I'm only alowed to watch one channel? (since I cant yet stand up) oh well, I'll just watch telly when Im home. OMG...home.
I really couldnt wait and the Dr said if everything looked good after the physiotherapists saw me then I could go home the next day!
Sam (smiley asian Dr) came to check my frame and screws. Awwwhhh, he is so LITTLE. He looked fairly tall when I was lying flat but now I was sat up and had some perspective, I saw he was the same hight as my mum. Bless - I 'hearted' him :P
Next came a friendly Mexican man in a green sweater. He had a catalogue in one hand and an extended grabbing aid thinggy. He was talking quite alot but his accent was pretty heavy so most of the time I just nodded. (The next week, all these disabled aids arived at my house including a grey plastic stool..why on earth did I need that? haha)
The Physio girls came to have a look at me after a bit - they were quite young and very friendly. The tall one said to me: "Do you want to have a go at standing up?" YEAH i dooo. So I slowly moved so my feet were dangeling off the bed. So far so good. The cold floor felt so nice on my toes and they made contact. I was up on my feet in no time...and little dizzy but fairly steady. I took a few steps around the room with the Physio at my side. She told me to have a go at sitting down on the chair and that was it for the day.
I WAS FREE (almost)
I stayed there for the night. It was lovely not having to lie so flat but the best way with the halo was to sleep sitting upright. If I reclined too much then the weight of my skull felt like it was pulling on the front pins.
I didnt sleep much that night but it was ok. I was pretty content listening to my iPod.
The next day my parents got to the hospital at about 10:30am and I had another go at walking around. I decided to use the loo..the REAL loo. It was SO nice to not need the nurse. I felt like I had some of my dignity back.
I then saw myself in the mirror for the first time. YIKES. I really did look a bit Frankinsteinish but I wasnt as bothered by it as I thought I would be.
The rest of the day went pretty slowly as I waited for the go-ahead to leave the hospital.
I had another sesh with the Physio...all went well. I tried the stairs and felt so confident that I absent mindedly started going up the next flight when the physio said that I really needn't. Coming back down was a little bit trickyer, as I couldnt look down to see where I was putting my feet - but over all, good progress made.
My consultant came in a bit later when I was back on the bed and saw the dramatic clump of hair next to me on my bed. "Souvenir?". When I first found it I nearly had a heart attack. Was I loosing my hair from stress? From hitting my head so hard? Then I realised that it was just from the bits they shaved behind my ears for the pin sites. My hair is pretty long so it looked like loads.
Anyway, Granger, my consultant who would check up on me in Worcester just told me about the halo and talked some things through with me.
Just before I left, a stroppy Dr. who helped fit the halo (the one that slipped with the scalpel) asked if I had any questions.
"Urm, yeh. My neck feels really squashed when Im standing up. It goes all fat. And is it normal to feel sick all the time?" to which the answer was fairly unhelpful and moody. Something along the lines of: "You're neck is aligned and shouldnt feel different. You now have a better posture (which wasnt true) and there is no reason to feel sick - its all in your head."
...riiiight - thanks.
We were given some supplies for cleaning the pin sites and in the evening, I was FINALY alowed to come home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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