Black Friday, but no disasters yet - fingers crossed!
So I did take 2 Nytol tablets last night, but I awoke after just an hour or so's sleep, thinking it must be 5 or 6 in the morning. I was mortified when I realised I still had the whole night to go.
It seems the tablets give me a relatively deep, but short, sleep - they haven't stopped me from waking every hour or two. Another thing - why does my leg begin to hurt when I'm in bed? I had no pain at all prior to going to sleep. Note to self - ask the surgeon next Thursday.
I must also ask if he has a copy of my post op X-ray - I'd like to see what it looks like. I should also try and remember to get a letter that I can carry on my travels through airports to explain why I'll always be beeping the security machines in future.
That's about it for today. I spent most of this morning - after the Test Match from Perth was finished - writing Christmas cards, so I'll head out this afternoon and post them when Jo's away to Costco.
Think I'll manage out for a beer tonight with the Friday night boys - it'll be the first time I've been able to join them since mid/early October.
Got an invite to go to Pittodrie tomorrow afternoon as well - I think I can manage that now too, but I'll need to hurry back for our Xmas Dinner at the Tor-na-Coille - it looks like we're up to 24 now.
Ian R. Stewart Family Blog
Friday, 13 December 2013
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Broch trip
It's Thursday afternoon and we've just arrived back home after our trip to Fraserburgh. We got to my work just after 10 am and left again just after 1:30 pm, stopping for a late-ish lunch on the way back at the new Formartine's (http://www.formartines.com/) cafeteria/shop/visitor centre at the entrance to the Haddo estate between Oldmeldrum and Methlick - and very nice it was too. We even brought a doggy bag home, so that's tonight's tea sorted.
Now for the (lack of) sleep report. In short, even the Nytol didn't work last night. In fact, I was so bad that Jo gave up on me about 4 am and came downstairs to watch TV and lie on the settee. Partly on the suggestion of the pharmacist, we had bought the 2-a-night pills, rather than the stronger 1-a-night, and I only took one of them to start with - but, by midnight I was already up and rolling around, so I took another one, but even it didn't seem to have much effect until after 3 am. We'll try again tonight - but I'll definitely be taking 2 pills this time.
My leg was sore during the night and we wondered if I'd done a bit much yesterday, with 2 separate walks, plus the usual round of exercises and also 3 short stints on the exercise bike. Today, I'm easing off a bit - I still need to stretch and exercise a little, but I'm not going to push too hard - and we may ease off a little on the leg massage as well.
My exercise regime is now geared towards strength and balance, and Jo managed to acquire proper sand-filled ankle weights at Tesco on Tuesday:
Much easier to use than our mocked up efforts.
It will be 6 weeks tomorrow that I had the operation, which means that I'll finally be able to ditch the compression stockings I've had to wear - that'll be a relief. When I went in to hospital, I promised Lucy that I would do a blog every single day with an update on my progress. Looking back, I didn't quite manage every single day, but 38 postings in the last 40 days is a pretty good effort I feel. Of course, I'm far from finished yet, but there may be a bit of a tailing off in blog postings now, back to more normal levels.
To close, we noticed one blemish after the windows were installed on Tuesday - one of the new kitchen doors was smeared with what looks like some of the glue the window installer used:
Barely noticeable - but we know it's there now and it's annoying - and we don't know how to remove it without damaging the door. Suggestions on a postcard please.
Now for the (lack of) sleep report. In short, even the Nytol didn't work last night. In fact, I was so bad that Jo gave up on me about 4 am and came downstairs to watch TV and lie on the settee. Partly on the suggestion of the pharmacist, we had bought the 2-a-night pills, rather than the stronger 1-a-night, and I only took one of them to start with - but, by midnight I was already up and rolling around, so I took another one, but even it didn't seem to have much effect until after 3 am. We'll try again tonight - but I'll definitely be taking 2 pills this time.
My leg was sore during the night and we wondered if I'd done a bit much yesterday, with 2 separate walks, plus the usual round of exercises and also 3 short stints on the exercise bike. Today, I'm easing off a bit - I still need to stretch and exercise a little, but I'm not going to push too hard - and we may ease off a little on the leg massage as well.
My exercise regime is now geared towards strength and balance, and Jo managed to acquire proper sand-filled ankle weights at Tesco on Tuesday:
Much easier to use than our mocked up efforts.
It will be 6 weeks tomorrow that I had the operation, which means that I'll finally be able to ditch the compression stockings I've had to wear - that'll be a relief. When I went in to hospital, I promised Lucy that I would do a blog every single day with an update on my progress. Looking back, I didn't quite manage every single day, but 38 postings in the last 40 days is a pretty good effort I feel. Of course, I'm far from finished yet, but there may be a bit of a tailing off in blog postings now, back to more normal levels.
To close, we noticed one blemish after the windows were installed on Tuesday - one of the new kitchen doors was smeared with what looks like some of the glue the window installer used:
Barely noticeable - but we know it's there now and it's annoying - and we don't know how to remove it without damaging the door. Suggestions on a postcard please.
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Wednesday's news
Let's start with the usual moan about lack of sleep - yup, it was another bad night last night. Enough is enough, we decided, so we went out this afternoon and bought some Nytol (http://nytol.co.uk/) for tonight. I've never in my life felt the need to use sleeping aids in the past, but after 5 or 6 consecutive nights of very little sleep, I've had to resort to desperate measures. Look out for tomorrow's exciting sleep report.
What else has happened today? Lunch at Tease while Jo went swimming - I met up with Colin Kilgour, John McWhinnie and Ian Sharp after they had finished their regular Wednesday cycle run. They have been doing this for a month or so now - today they caught the bus to Culter and cycled back along the Deeside Way to Banchory. Wish I was fit enough to join them - not yet, but the good news is that I jumped on the exercise bike this morning and got my knee going immediately, with little hesitation or preparation - another small sign of progress.
Kelly FaceTimed again this morning/evening and Chris demonstrated Miller's latest trick - holding his bottle himself - with all fours! (Miller, that is, not Chris).
Tomorrow, it's the long drive up to Fraserburgh for a key meeting with the Union. Jo's driving - in her car. I have to confess, however, that I stepped in to my car this afternoon when Jo was out, just to see if I could manipulate the pedals OK - and I could, so my next trick was to let the car slide down the driveway, then reverse it back up - no problem. Next stage will be to take it in to the Tor-na-Coille Hotel car park and drive around a bit.
Jo's been toying with buying this console for the hall over the last week or two:
What do you think? Should she buy it? Available for Christmas.
On Saturday night, it's our annual Xmas dinner with our golfy group and wives - and we're returning to the Tor-na-Coille Hotel for the first time in many years - the scene of former crimes. Just dinner - no dancing, no party.
What else has happened today? Lunch at Tease while Jo went swimming - I met up with Colin Kilgour, John McWhinnie and Ian Sharp after they had finished their regular Wednesday cycle run. They have been doing this for a month or so now - today they caught the bus to Culter and cycled back along the Deeside Way to Banchory. Wish I was fit enough to join them - not yet, but the good news is that I jumped on the exercise bike this morning and got my knee going immediately, with little hesitation or preparation - another small sign of progress.
Kelly FaceTimed again this morning/evening and Chris demonstrated Miller's latest trick - holding his bottle himself - with all fours! (Miller, that is, not Chris).
Tomorrow, it's the long drive up to Fraserburgh for a key meeting with the Union. Jo's driving - in her car. I have to confess, however, that I stepped in to my car this afternoon when Jo was out, just to see if I could manipulate the pedals OK - and I could, so my next trick was to let the car slide down the driveway, then reverse it back up - no problem. Next stage will be to take it in to the Tor-na-Coille Hotel car park and drive around a bit.
Jo's been toying with buying this console for the hall over the last week or two:
What do you think? Should she buy it? Available for Christmas.
On Saturday night, it's our annual Xmas dinner with our golfy group and wives - and we're returning to the Tor-na-Coille Hotel for the first time in many years - the scene of former crimes. Just dinner - no dancing, no party.
Tuesday, 10 December 2013
Tuesday week 6
I thought last night was a little better - but Jo didn't agree. We stayed up fairly late - for us - watching some of our TV recordings (Borgen, The Blacklist) and settled down about 11:30 pm. By 12:15 am, I was up again - no pain, just awake. I took a couple of Paracetamol (it was time to) and decided to read a few chapters of my book before putting the bedside light out some time between 1:30 and 2:00 am. My next awareness was just after 5 am, so it seems I had 3 hours + of sleep.
I lay awake until precisely 6:30 am when I thought it was a decent time to get up. Jo's first comment was that it had been a bad night for me again, but that hadn't been my perception - it had been the least troublesome night I'd had for several nights - not great, but a slight improvement.
Anyway, after the usual 3 hour routine of meds, breakfast, exercise, shower, massage and ice treatment, I headed down to the village where I'd arranged to have a coffee with Dan Corbett and Archie Cook. On my way back, I took a photo of the latest hole in the ground to appear at the former Tor-na-Coille Garage, which has now been lying vacant for over 2 years. Gleaner Oils are having to clean up the site before they can complete the sale to a local builder, who plans to erect houses there. It looks like they are having problems with the underground tanks and/or seepage in to the ground. Will they ever complete this - or even tidy up the site a little?:
Back home, here's the new front of the house, from the outside:
The old windows in the kitchen and study were removed this morning, leaving a rather nice panoramic view from our kitchen:
It's now finished, however:
That's about it for today. Jo's away to Inverurie now to pick up Luca, so it's just me and the window installer here now.
I lay awake until precisely 6:30 am when I thought it was a decent time to get up. Jo's first comment was that it had been a bad night for me again, but that hadn't been my perception - it had been the least troublesome night I'd had for several nights - not great, but a slight improvement.
Anyway, after the usual 3 hour routine of meds, breakfast, exercise, shower, massage and ice treatment, I headed down to the village where I'd arranged to have a coffee with Dan Corbett and Archie Cook. On my way back, I took a photo of the latest hole in the ground to appear at the former Tor-na-Coille Garage, which has now been lying vacant for over 2 years. Gleaner Oils are having to clean up the site before they can complete the sale to a local builder, who plans to erect houses there. It looks like they are having problems with the underground tanks and/or seepage in to the ground. Will they ever complete this - or even tidy up the site a little?:
Back home, here's the new front of the house, from the outside:
The old windows in the kitchen and study were removed this morning, leaving a rather nice panoramic view from our kitchen:
It's now finished, however:
That's about it for today. Jo's away to Inverurie now to pick up Luca, so it's just me and the window installer here now.
Monday, 9 December 2013
Monday week 6
I'm in to my 6th week now since the knee op, so, officially, the (compression) tights come off on Friday. My follow-up appointment with the surgeon is next week - the day before the invasion from America and Australia.
Regrettably, last night was another sleepless one for me - how many of these can I have before I collapse completely? I'm beginning to hate my bed - it's full of bad memories just now. I doze for an absolute maximum of one hour at a time, but then I'm awake for at least the amount of time that I've been asleep, before dozing off again. Last night, it was sharp pains in my leg that kept me awake, but I was damned if I was going to revert to Tramadol again.
I long for the alarm clock to display 6:30 am - I feel that's not an unreasonable time for me to sit up. Any earlier and it's not fair to Jo. Today we had to be up anyway as the new doors and windows were being fitted. Surprisingly, it was a one man show, but soon he was laying out all his materials in the driveway for his first day's work here:
He's finished for today now - he's done the 3 doors:
Tomorrow, it's the windows in the kitchen and the downstairs study, where the exercise bike is now located. Talking of which, how would you like to see another video showing how my knee is improving? It's a bit of a rusty start, but once I get going, the movement is relatively seamless, I think. My main problem is that after almost 6 weeks of doing very little other than lying on my back, I am as weak as a kitten and 30 seconds on the bike and I'm knackered! Hopefully, I can improve on this as time goes on. Here's the video:
We managed to connect with Kelly (and Miller) this morning on FaceTime. Miller's favourite cuddly toy is one Aunt Mary sent him:
Sorry - it's upside down again! Kelly sent it to me via i-Message and no matter what I do, I can't get it to appear the right way up in Blogger.
Today, Kieran and Julie posted the family photo that was taken at the wedding on FaceBook. It took absolutely ages to get everyone to turn up and pose and yet the finished article shows Luca sticking his tongue out!:
To close, yesterday we finally got round to booking some of our flights for our USA holiday next year. We plan to descend on the Lesinas at the end of July - the very day that Lucy's friend Lorna and her family leave Oregon after 2 weeks. Jo and I are flying in to New York and planning to spend 5 days just south of there in Galloway, New Jersey - near where Uncle Alex lived - before flying over to the West Coast. We'll hire a car and visit nearby Philadelphia, and, of course, we'll visit the famous Boardwalk in Atlantic City - we've been watching a lot of Boardwalk Empire on Sky - tales of evil deeds in Prohibition America! Here's an image of the resort:
That was very easy for us to book as it's a Marriott resort and we acquired additional points with them this year. We were also able to book just 5 nights here at the lowest rates, avoiding Friday/Saturday night premiums. We don't have the same flexibility, nor the ease of booking at other non-Marriott resorts, and we've left it a bit late this year to book another holiday with the Lesinas, but Scott and Lucy will have to use up a good bit of their holiday entitlement when Lorna and her family are over there with them anyway. In light of this, I have just put in a request for a week locally at any resort in Oregon when we're there and we'll see what happens. If we get something relatively close, hopefully Scott and Lucy will manage to duck and dive a bit between the resort and work.
Regrettably, last night was another sleepless one for me - how many of these can I have before I collapse completely? I'm beginning to hate my bed - it's full of bad memories just now. I doze for an absolute maximum of one hour at a time, but then I'm awake for at least the amount of time that I've been asleep, before dozing off again. Last night, it was sharp pains in my leg that kept me awake, but I was damned if I was going to revert to Tramadol again.
I long for the alarm clock to display 6:30 am - I feel that's not an unreasonable time for me to sit up. Any earlier and it's not fair to Jo. Today we had to be up anyway as the new doors and windows were being fitted. Surprisingly, it was a one man show, but soon he was laying out all his materials in the driveway for his first day's work here:
He's finished for today now - he's done the 3 doors:
 |
| Front door (from inside) - brown externally. Same 3 pane layout as before. |
 |
| Door to garage from utility room. |
 |
| Back door from utility room |
We managed to connect with Kelly (and Miller) this morning on FaceTime. Miller's favourite cuddly toy is one Aunt Mary sent him:
Sorry - it's upside down again! Kelly sent it to me via i-Message and no matter what I do, I can't get it to appear the right way up in Blogger.
Today, Kieran and Julie posted the family photo that was taken at the wedding on FaceBook. It took absolutely ages to get everyone to turn up and pose and yet the finished article shows Luca sticking his tongue out!:
To close, yesterday we finally got round to booking some of our flights for our USA holiday next year. We plan to descend on the Lesinas at the end of July - the very day that Lucy's friend Lorna and her family leave Oregon after 2 weeks. Jo and I are flying in to New York and planning to spend 5 days just south of there in Galloway, New Jersey - near where Uncle Alex lived - before flying over to the West Coast. We'll hire a car and visit nearby Philadelphia, and, of course, we'll visit the famous Boardwalk in Atlantic City - we've been watching a lot of Boardwalk Empire on Sky - tales of evil deeds in Prohibition America! Here's an image of the resort:
That was very easy for us to book as it's a Marriott resort and we acquired additional points with them this year. We were also able to book just 5 nights here at the lowest rates, avoiding Friday/Saturday night premiums. We don't have the same flexibility, nor the ease of booking at other non-Marriott resorts, and we've left it a bit late this year to book another holiday with the Lesinas, but Scott and Lucy will have to use up a good bit of their holiday entitlement when Lorna and her family are over there with them anyway. In light of this, I have just put in a request for a week locally at any resort in Oregon when we're there and we'll see what happens. If we get something relatively close, hopefully Scott and Lucy will manage to duck and dive a bit between the resort and work.
Sunday, 8 December 2013
Sunday morning catch-up
Well, it's not been a great couple of days for me. I picked up a slight bug and haven't been eating but, more importantly haven't been sleeping at all. I dread going to bed at night, knowing I'll just toss and turn all night long. Last night, we were in bed fairly early - 9pm to be exact - but within an hour I was up again. I went downstairs and watched Match of the Day, and thought I would take a Lemsip to see if that helped (I'm told not to take these as they don't mix with my other meds), but still couldn't sleep when I returned to bed about 11:30 pm.
I got up again after midnight and again went downstairs and watched some sport on TV - this time the Test Match from Adelaide. At 2 am, I returned once more to bed and, feeling slightly desperate, took a Tramadol - I had been weaning myself off these and hadn't had one for 3 days. I did eventually get a few hours sleep, thank goodness, and feel marginally more human this morning - I'm ready to go a walk and get the papers now, after not having walked at all the last couple of days.
Now here's the question going through my head - did I finally get a few hours' sleep this morning because the bug I had is now going, or was it the Tramadol? Perhaps my inability to sleep over the last few days has been withdrawal symptoms? In either case, I really don't want to take any more opiates and hope I don't get desperate enough to slip back again.
Yesterday, I managed to help Jo a little bit in loading the back of my car and taking some of the junk that has been filling our garage up to the tip - all without using my walking stick, so things are improving.
We missed Kelly's Face Time call last night - pity. She did send us a photo of Miller at a wedding:
Cute, eh?
Tomorrow, our new windows and doors get fitted, so it's going to be noisy and busy round here.
I got up again after midnight and again went downstairs and watched some sport on TV - this time the Test Match from Adelaide. At 2 am, I returned once more to bed and, feeling slightly desperate, took a Tramadol - I had been weaning myself off these and hadn't had one for 3 days. I did eventually get a few hours sleep, thank goodness, and feel marginally more human this morning - I'm ready to go a walk and get the papers now, after not having walked at all the last couple of days.
Now here's the question going through my head - did I finally get a few hours' sleep this morning because the bug I had is now going, or was it the Tramadol? Perhaps my inability to sleep over the last few days has been withdrawal symptoms? In either case, I really don't want to take any more opiates and hope I don't get desperate enough to slip back again.
Yesterday, I managed to help Jo a little bit in loading the back of my car and taking some of the junk that has been filling our garage up to the tip - all without using my walking stick, so things are improving.
We missed Kelly's Face Time call last night - pity. She did send us a photo of Miller at a wedding:
Cute, eh?
Tomorrow, our new windows and doors get fitted, so it's going to be noisy and busy round here.
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