Sunday story

Full dose of meds first thing this morning, then breakfast and exercises, followed by massages, including some new ones around the collar bone and groin, designed to help drain my lymphatic system to help the excess fluid on my knee to move on - as instructed by Lucy to Jo.

While all this was going on, I was able to watch the final round of the Australian Open golf from Sydney. The Sunday Times had to be collected so I wandered down the village again and came back past the golf club, where a few of my pals were playing.

I got back to the house just in time. No sooner had I sat down then Luca appeared. Gary was doing a cross country 10K at Strachan and so he dropped Luca off, then headed for race registration. Ross was next to show his face - he'd come round to see the Thistle - Aberdeen match (we lost).

So it's been all go. Prompted by Gary, I did manage a few minutes downstairs with the exercise bike. I was (just) able to complete 4 or 5 very slow revolutions this time, so I guess that has to go down as mild progress. Hopefully better again tomorrow.

No major plans for this week - I will go in to the office once, but not sure when yet - will need to find out when Jo's available. I do have physio on Thursday morning and I've also got a dinner with the bank at the Marcliffe on Thursday evening.

That's all for today. Must try and get some photos on the next post, to help liven up this dry prose.

Saturday drugs

Took a full complement of 2 Tramadol and 2 Paracetamol before bed last night and first thing this morning. Since then, just 2 Paracetamol - apart from a pint and a half of real ale in the Stag this evening - my first since before going to Tenerife. Jo was going out tonight so I decided it was perhaps an opportunity to pop down the pub and try a quick pint, whilst watching the football with Colin.

I've been mixing up my exercises again today, and I had another go on the exercise bike. I still can't quite do it, but it was a bit closer than yesterday's attempt. If I took my bum off the saddle and kept my right foot out of the stirrups and allowed it to twist a little, then I could get a few revolutions. That was more than enough anyway, as the effort knackered me after several weeks of doing nothing but sit around all day. Hopefully in another couple of days I'll be able to use it a bit better.

So that's twice I've walked up to the village and back today - progress?

That's about it for now. Thistle - Aberdeen cup tie on the box tomorrow lunchtime. Gary is planning to come round after his race in Strachan, and Ross may come round and watch it as well - if he behaves himself tonight!

Friday home alone

Yes - Jo's out for an extended lunch with pals, so I'm home alone just now - but I can cope, although I don't think Jo believes I can.

I was awake fairly sharp this morning - I needed some meds. I only took one Tramadol at bedtime last night (plus 2 Paracetamol), so I took 2 this morning. They say they should kick in in half an hour and that's the best time to do the exercises, but I've found it to be nearer an hour before I am pain-free.

I haven't been taking meds during the daytime for a while - only mornings and evenings - but today I decided to take Paracetamol at lunchtime today to see what difference - if any - that made.

Right now, my knee feels stiff and swollen. We picked up the exercise bike from Jack and Frances Simpson yesterday and I had hoped to give it a go today, but I failed again. Scott gave me instruction on how to do it, and I tried his technique, but still couldn't do it. It's fear factor, I'm sure, but when it gets near the top of the cycle, I can feel a sharp increase in pain and I'm scared to go further. I'll just need to keep working on the knee and get some more bend, then try again.

The bike is downstairs in the study - what used to be Ross' room:

Oh well, back to work then.

Thursday lie-in

It was 7:30 am when I finally gave in to the urges of my bladder, but I then went back to bed and it was nearer 9 am by the time Jo awakened - I think she needed the rest. So, we've been running late all day since then.

I've cut down a bit on the meds again and I'll see how I cope this time. I don't want to skimp the exercises, but nor do I want to carry on taking Tramadol for ever more and if I can cope with just Paracetamol, that'll at least be a step forward.

I've been mixing up the UK and US exercise regimes again, but I wish there was an easy way of measuring my progress. My next physio appointment is next Thursday 5th December.

We walked along to the village to get my paper about lunchtime and decided to pop in to the Burnett Arms for a bacon buttie and a cup of tea for lunch. Jo popped in to the butcher's afterwards and I walked on, letting Jo catch up with me eventually. It gave her a chance for a critical view of my walking style - she reckons my right leg is now straighter than my left!

Later on today, we're driving over to Jack Simpson's. I made an appeal for anyone with an unwanted static/exercise bike and Jack was the first of many to respond. They reckon it's the least wanted item round most people's homes - everyone thinks what a great idea they will be, but they soon tire of them. Anyway, I only want it for a short while, although Jo reckons she will want to use it - we'll see.

Tonight is the grand switching on of Banchory's Christmas Lights - whoo, whoo! Think we'll pass on the ceremony.

Wednesday at home

It's 6 pm on Wednesday and what have I done today? Not a lot, I'm pleased to say.

I slept in a little and then went through the usual morning routine. I was due to go in to Aberdeen for a lunch at the bank, but I cancelled this first thing. I did go out briefly - meeting the boys who had been out cycling for a coffee at Tease. At least it gave me some walking exercise.

I noticed when I was out that the diggers are back at the garage next door - looks like they're having to dig out more trenches to decontaminate the site.

Indoors, I have been mixing up the UK and US recommended exercise routines. There's no immediate feedback of course, so it's really hard to judge the progress.

Tuesday knee news

I was looking forward to a nice lazy day today, after yesterday at the office and gym. It started well - we didn't get up until 7:30 am and by the time we did the usual round of exercises and treatments etc, it was mid-morning. I thought I would walk along to the shops and get my paper but Jo had to go to the supermarket and get some fuel, so I just stayed at home and did some work.

So far so good. I received a couple of very helpful exercise tips from Scott and we decided to try out one of them. They were similar to those given to me by the Banchory physios, but with one major difference - Scott recommended minimum periods for bending and straightening of 15 minutes, compared to just a few by the locals. Additionally, Scott was recommending the exercises be done under more stress - using weights for example.

After lunch, we tried one of Scott's leg straightening exercises, using cans of food as weights. I then moved through to the front room to listen to the radio and read my paper, whilst Jo drove to Inverurie to pick Luca up. I fell asleep for about an hour and a half. When I awoke, my knee was throbbing and my body temperature had dropped dramatically and I had no feeling in the end of my fingers.

I popped some more pills and have now started to heat up again. Just when you think things are getting a bit better .......

We're keen to carry on with Scott's recommendations, but I'll need to increase the meds again to do it.

Last night, I received a phone call from Margaret Weir, who I worked with when I was training nearly half a century ago. (Margaret gets a mention in Renshaw's Chronicles - Part IV 1965 onwards (4)). I haven't spoken to her for years. Nice to hear from her again - she's retired now.

To close, a little piece of artistry from Friday's wedding - place names:

Julie's hair is the correct colour, but I guess Kieran's Mohican/Mohawk wasn't part of the plan.

Back at work

The start of the week and it felt like it was almost back to the old routine again - with the exception of the preparation time - awake at 6:30 am, meds, breakfast, exercises, showers, massages, tights on, then off to work at 9:15 am.

I'd arranged 3 separate meetings as part of our preparation for Auto Enrolment next year (mandatory pension schemes for all workers). In the end, only one of the meetings was worth attending - the last one was a complete farce, which left me fizzing, wishing I'd stayed at home. I suspect one of those making the presentation to us may now lose their job, such was the incompetence.

Anyway, Jo picked me up again at 2 pm and we both headed down to Bannatyne's, where I intended to try out the static bikes. Regrettably, I failed miserably - my leg isn't yet ready to do a complete revolution, no matter how much we tried to adjust the saddle height etc. Disappointed, we headed down to the pool instead, where I spent most of the time walking up and down in the water, whilst Jo ploughed up and down the lengths.

By the time we got home, it was after 5 pm - it felt like a full day's work. The car journey wasn't too pleasant either - not Jo's fault, just too long at rush hour. By coincidence, I'd picked up some of the papers that I was given on discharge from hospital and noticed that one of the instructions was no long car journeys. I know why now.

Kelly and I missed each other on FaceTime again today, so we've scheduled a call tomorrow morning, when we've got nothing else planned.

Wedding weekend

We made it down to Airdrie OK on Friday - an hour before the 2pm start - just enough time to check in and change. With hindsight, however, it hadn't been a great idea to do the trip in one, as my leg was sore and stiff after sitting in a bent position for the duration.

Anyway - the wedding itself - Julie had purple hair but was otherwise a fairly conventional bride, and Kieran was also dressed in a traditional kilt outfit, but surprised a few with his pretty outrageous Mohican - probably one of the longest and tallest I've ever seen.

Luca was on best behaviour and was an exemplary pageboy. He posed for me afterwards sitting on the stairs:

The ceremony itself didn't take long and soon we gathered in the lounge for drinks and sandwiches:

The professional photographers spent the next few hours getting the wedding party to pose endlessly in different places. We finally managed to find out that the meal wouldn't start until after 5 pm, so this gave me a chance to retire to our room to get my leg up and stretch the knee a bit.

The dinner tables had island themes - we were Barra and were seated next to Barry & Helen, John and his daughter and son, and Dawn's friend Rona and her partner Ian Miller (whose son Lee is a professional footballer - ex Aberdeen). Kieran and Julie were clapped in and posed in front of the cake - all Dawn's work:

The top table was right behind us - here's a few shots:

Jordon, best man, Dawn & father of the bride

Mother of the bride and Michael

Michael and bridesmaids - Julie's sisters

The speeches were all done before the meal and then the floor was cleared for the dancing. There had been little bubble makers on each of the tables and Luca had made a friend, and the two of them spent half the evening running around together blowing bubbles everywhere:

Soon it was time for dancing - for most. Here's a fine rear view of that wonderful Mohican:

Later in evening, in between visits to my room to pop some more pills, we took a couple of posed photos of Gary and Carole, plus Jo and I:

After breakfast on Saturday morning, we headed over to Dawn's for a cup of tea, and were joined by Barry and Helen - and Luca, who we were taking back to Banchory, whilst Gary and Carole went horse-hunting locally:

When we did finally get back home to Banchory on Saturday afternoon, I had to go to bed to rest and stretch my leg, which felt like it had regressed by several days after the two car journeys. Luca came up to see that I was all right and then brought up a photo of himself to put beside my bed "in case I was missing him"!

Luca went back downstairs and then brought me back a pack of grapes. His next trip was a "special" glass of water (tonic juice actually) to go with my cup of tea, and his final bedside gift for me was something to remind me of Jo - a metal lady in a long dress, which doubled up as a bell ring - Luca said just to ring it if I needed anything. Here they all are:

Last night was not a good night - I didn't sleep at all well, and this was despite taking more drugs on Friday and Saturday than I'd taken for a few days.

I've had 2 exercise bouts today and one round of massages, plus I managed to walk along to the High St. to buy my paper - and all the way back, via the golf club, all without a break. So far so good. Bath tonight, plus some more of Jo's torture treatments, then tomorrow I'm going in to the office for a few hours for meetings.

Thursday physio

It was back to Banchory today for more torture with the local PT. She showed us a new - and very painful - stretching exercise, which Jo is going to enjoy inflicting on me.

Generally, however, she is happy that I am now back on track and she doesn't need to see me at all next week - but I must keep up the discipline of the exercises.

I walked from there - with two sticks - to Tease, where I met up with Colin Kilgour, Richard Simcox and John McWhinnie for a coffee. What have we come to? The bar across the road is open and here we are sitting in a coffee shop, like old crones.

I walked home from there and we had lunch, did my exercises and then Raymond and Myra Orr arrived, so that was the afternoon gone. It's dark again - nearly 6 pm - and this is me just catching up with my daily knee blog.

Tomorrow, of course, we head south for Kieran and Julie's wedding. I'll be the sober one then.

Wednesday - back to work!

Slept not too bad. Sat up at 7 am and took my meds, then Jo brought my usual breakfast, after which I did my exercises and then showered. Then it was time for massage and further knee stretches. Jo oils my scar daily and also massages my hamstrings, part of which are stiff and gnarled. She then exerts pressure on my shin and thigh to try to get my knee to straighten out - she takes it to the point where I can't take any more pain and then three 10 second holds.

After that, it's time to put the compression stockings on, then the frozen peas are applied to my leg.

All of this takes 2-3 hours every morning.

We set off to Aberdeen for my physio appointment at Albyn at 10 am. He seemed reasonably happy with my progress so far, and he showed Jo how to do some more massage on the fluid on the front of my knee. I had to tell him we would only be coming back in to Aberdeen if we couldn't get sufficient appointments with the Banchory physio.

It made sense then to pop in to the office at Bridge of Don, where we picked up Jo's new laptop and I said hello again to a few of the staff. We didn't hang around however and soon we were back on the road to Banchory. Lunch then a snooze and before you know where you are it's 4 pm already - and I haven't done any exercises since the early morning ones. Must crack on.

Tuesday addendum

The downside of my early morning physio appointment was that I missed our usual FaceTime call with Kelly, but she sent me the photo she took as she called us:

Tuesday Physio

Early morning blog post today. Just back from physio. Fearing the worst after last week's telling off, I was pleased to get a little pat on the back today. She measured my knee bend, which had only been 50 ° last week when lying on the bed, and it had improved to 75 ° this week, so she seemed quite pleased at my progress.

When sitting, my knee bend is better than 75 ° - or so it seems to me anyway - but it's much harder when lying down to bring your knee up.

Her primary focus today, however, was on knee straightening. I can't get the back of my knee down on to the bed - but then again, I haven't been able to do that since I had the original injury back in 1970. She did feel I need to get more straight however and thought that my inner hamstring was way too tight, so she did some massage here - and showed Jo how to do it at home.

She also showed me a few more exercises designed to improve the straightening:

Seeing the heavy bruising still on my calf, the physio said there was still a lot to come out, and thought that I must be slow healer.

Our next session is on Thursday and she will focus on the knee bend then, but generally this morning was quite encouraging - and it was good to have Jo in there too to see what was required, and it was good too that she has been shown how she can help with some of the exercises and massage.

Tomorrow it's the physio at Albyn. It'll be interesting to compare and contrast.

So, back home now and I'll get on with some work. No more prunes today, however.

Monday Medical Matinee

It's nearly 6 pm on Monday and Lucy and Jo are on Face Time, whilst I lug in. Kelly had been on first thing this morning just after our breakfast.

Today's been a funny day. I slept reasonably well again last night and, when I awoke, I only took half my usual meds and I haven't had to top up since then.

I felt good this morning and started to do some work. One of the complications of taking meds for a while is what it does to your digestive system and I decided it was time to start on the prunes again. Dan Corbett then phoned me and asked if I fancied going for a coffee, so he came and picked me up and we went to the Douglas.

I'm not a regular coffee drinker, and the combination of this and the prunes meant I had to cut short our little chat and get home quickly. Let's just say it's been a fairly delicate afternoon.

That apart, nothing much happening. Three consecutive days of physio coming up.

Sunday

Last night I returned to "my side" of the bed. Since I came out of hospital, I had been sleeping at the nearest point to the toilet, but my constant need to turn during the night had been pulling the duvet off Jo, so we now each had individual duvets. I also needed a pillow for my bad knee to rest on when I rolled over on to my left, and this was constantly falling out of the bed when I slept on that side, so we thought we would revert to norm.

Jo thinks it worked fine - and she noticed that, for once, I wasn't bathed in sweat when I woke up. My leg was still tired and heavy however and so I took full meds first thing today, but hope to stay off them until bed time.

Otherwise, nothing much to report medically. I spent the morning watching the golf from Dubai, then had a couple of hours with the Sunday Times when Jo brought it in after church. I did finally manage, however, to complete another episode of Renshaw's Chronicles.