Denise proving her phone's camera is quicker and easier to use

She's just taken the 'On two feet' photo, while my (more expensive) phone's camera was getting confused about whether to use the flash or not :-(

Close-up of my leg

The colour used on that ankle is nothing like pale enough to match my skin :-)

Showing a leg

The leg has a funky black carbon-fibre look post. I haven't decided whether to have it filled in to give it a more realistic shape. Flesh tones are hard to copy, so it's unlikely to look totally realistic; I may opt to keep the techno look ...

On two feet ...

... for the first time with my new leg. It doesn't quite fit, so I'm waiting for some adjustments to be made. The prosthetists didn't make a mistake: my stump just changed volume between them taking the cast and me wearing it for the first time. This happens quite often, particularly as I had been exercising quite hard (for me!) in the meantime. What they do is, they make a plaster cast of my stump, and use that to make a mould for the socket to fit my stump. That socket then gets fitted to the top of the post, and the whole lot adjusted so that it all lines up properly. Once I get the remoulded socket, there'll be no stopping me!

In the hospital, we're prescribed a wee dram at night

Erm, sometimes the nurse's hand wobbles a bit :-)

Thomas in thoughtful mood

Me with my sister, Sue

It was Sue's first visit to Scotland, and she got her first taste of lovely Scottish weather as we were trapped indoors by the pouring rain.

James, Katie and Tom

We had a really nice afternoon. Tom's a good, relatively quiet baby, on today's evidence at least :-)

My new nephew: Thomas George Kenneth

With his dad, my brother James

The PPAM Aid from side-on

Close-up of the PPAM Aid from side-on. This was quite a hard picture to get. I had to put my leg up on a chair and hold the camera out to the side. I'll be getting my own limb at the end of next week, so this will soon become a thing of the past :-)

Another part of the hospital

The new Smart centre, where they make the artificial limbs, is on the right.

A walk in the sun

On the PPAM-Aid outside the gym. PPAM-Aid = Pneumatic Post Amputation Mobility Aid. It's a training device to prepare you for when you get your own limb. It envelopes the whole leg and has no knee joint so it's a bit more awkward than my own limb will be, which will fit below the knee.

Denise is always there for me

Sunshine helps on visiting day

Hospital Visiting Time

My brother Simon and my sister-in-law Debbie came to visit. Looking cool on an unusually sunny day

Astley Ainslie Hospital

The hospital specialises in, amongst tother things, fitting amputees with prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation. Lots of balance and strengthening exercise. Not a bad place to stay and the staff are fabulous.

Amputation

Attempts to save my foot failed as the bones inside were found to be infected and I had to have a below-the-knee amputation. Reconstruction may have been possible, but that would have involved 2 years in hospital with no guarantee of success. This way I'll be more mobile much sooner (a few weeks).

Home for a while

While I was in hospital the garden went nuts. The mock-orange looked like a firework going off!

Hospital tan

Compare my hand (left) with Denise's!

High capacity

This is my first posting since I had a nasty accident on my bike, back in April, in which I severly damaged my ankle. The osteopathic surgeons at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary attempted to rebuild my foot, but I also needed plastic surgery to rebuild the soft tissues. I spent two months in St Johns hospital in Livingston while the plastic surgeons tried to save my foot, and I was bed-bound for the first 3 weeks. During those three weeks I had to keep my fluid intake up and as a result I was pissing "like April showers" (to quote 10cc's Hospital Song). The nurses got fed up getting bottles for me, so they left me a good supply :-)