I’m back in the wheelchair this week after getting an infection in my stump. It started on Thursday morning with a stabbing pain in the top of my shin when I put my leg on. I’d been trying a different arrangement for my socks, in an attempt to improve the fit, but as soon as I put weight on my leg, I got the pain.
I took my leg off and re-arranged my socks back to how they’d been over the previous few weeks, and thought no more of it. I knew it was going to be a busy day, and I needed to leave the leg on as our cleaner, Linda, was coming; then I was expecting delivery of our new dishwasher (they could only say that they were coming between 12 and 4pm) and I needed to be up and about for that; and finally I was waiting for our local appliance repair guy to come and fit it.
While the repair guy was still struggling to get the cabinet door to fit on the dishwasher front (Hoover don’t give very good instructions – glad I wasn’t trying to do it!), Denise arrived home from her trip to Germany. Once we were alone, we went for a walk, and later on, went out for a pizza and to go to the pictures.
All this time my leg felt slightly uncomfortable, but when we got home, and I took the prosthetic off, it was very very tight and my leg was very sore. There was a bright red swelling on my shin, just under my kneecap (I tried to take a photo, but the redness didn’t really show up – which is why there’s no photo posted here), which was very tender to the touch.
I assumed that it would go down in a day or so, but by Sunday evening, it was still very hot and tender, and I was worried about getting an infection on the bone again, so I phoned the Astley Ainslie hospital for advice yesterday (Sunday), but they said I needed a referral from my GP to see the specialist at the hospital.
So I’ve just got back from the GP, who prescribed me a course of anti-biotics – my old friend co-amoxyclav again, which I was popping nearly all the time I was in hospital. My GP didn’t think I needed to see the specialists at the Astley Ainslie hospital, as he thought it was just an infection in the skin, which suited me: saved a trip into Edinburgh – but I’m going to be keeping a weather eye on it, and if there’s no sign of improvement in the next couple of days or, I will be back to the doctor again. It’s bad enough having lost my foot and ankle to infection, I don’t want to be losing any more of my leg.
That’s enough of that. The film we went to see was Vantage Point starring Dennis Quaid. If you’ve seen the trailers you’ll know that the premise is that the US President is assassinated while attending a rally prior to an anti-terrorism summit in Spain, and the film reveals more about what happened by seeing the event from a number of different viewpoints. This is all then pulled together, and we have the obligatory car chase – with Opel Astras, no less. I won’t reveal anything in case you want to go and see it, but honestly, I’d wait and see it on telly if I was you. Seeing it on the big screen doesn’t really add anything to the experience. It was nice to have a night out, but this wasn’t the best film I’ve seen by a long shot. I’ll bet that it’s based on a short story or something, and I’d guess that the written version is a lot better. There were a number of Hollywood stars in the cast (Forrest Whittaker, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Fox, William Hurt, and your favourite South American Dictator’s namesake and mine, Eduardo Noriega), but those parts could have been played by anyone, really.
I was able to enjoy watching all the motor-racing that was on telly this weekend, while Denise went to Edinburgh to run in the World 5k. She stayed on to watch all the cross-country stars in the World Cross Country events in Holyrood park, while I watched the MotoGP race. James Toseland, the best (only?) brit on the grid, was unlucky to come only 6th, after having been duffed up by Loris Capirossi on the last corner. You don’t get any more experienced on a GP bike than Capirossi, so at least Toseland can take comfort from being beaten by a wilier opponent. JT started 8th on the grid, which wasn’t bad considering he was suffering from bronchitis, but lost out at the start, dropping to 10th. He’d fought his way (literally – there are other bikes in the workshops with Toseland’s bike’s yellow and blue paint down the sides of their fairings) up to 5th, and was fighting them off nearly all of the rest of the race, right until the last corner; which is pretty good going considering he was ill. Dani Pedrosa didn’t do bad to win, either, considering he was riding with an injured hand. Didn’t stop him wrassling that Honda all around the circuit for 30 laps, or whatever it was. It’s also very encouraging to see me old favourite Valentino Rossi coming in second from the second row of the grid.
I took my leg off and re-arranged my socks back to how they’d been over the previous few weeks, and thought no more of it. I knew it was going to be a busy day, and I needed to leave the leg on as our cleaner, Linda, was coming; then I was expecting delivery of our new dishwasher (they could only say that they were coming between 12 and 4pm) and I needed to be up and about for that; and finally I was waiting for our local appliance repair guy to come and fit it.
While the repair guy was still struggling to get the cabinet door to fit on the dishwasher front (Hoover don’t give very good instructions – glad I wasn’t trying to do it!), Denise arrived home from her trip to Germany. Once we were alone, we went for a walk, and later on, went out for a pizza and to go to the pictures.
All this time my leg felt slightly uncomfortable, but when we got home, and I took the prosthetic off, it was very very tight and my leg was very sore. There was a bright red swelling on my shin, just under my kneecap (I tried to take a photo, but the redness didn’t really show up – which is why there’s no photo posted here), which was very tender to the touch.
I assumed that it would go down in a day or so, but by Sunday evening, it was still very hot and tender, and I was worried about getting an infection on the bone again, so I phoned the Astley Ainslie hospital for advice yesterday (Sunday), but they said I needed a referral from my GP to see the specialist at the hospital.
So I’ve just got back from the GP, who prescribed me a course of anti-biotics – my old friend co-amoxyclav again, which I was popping nearly all the time I was in hospital. My GP didn’t think I needed to see the specialists at the Astley Ainslie hospital, as he thought it was just an infection in the skin, which suited me: saved a trip into Edinburgh – but I’m going to be keeping a weather eye on it, and if there’s no sign of improvement in the next couple of days or, I will be back to the doctor again. It’s bad enough having lost my foot and ankle to infection, I don’t want to be losing any more of my leg.
That’s enough of that. The film we went to see was Vantage Point starring Dennis Quaid. If you’ve seen the trailers you’ll know that the premise is that the US President is assassinated while attending a rally prior to an anti-terrorism summit in Spain, and the film reveals more about what happened by seeing the event from a number of different viewpoints. This is all then pulled together, and we have the obligatory car chase – with Opel Astras, no less. I won’t reveal anything in case you want to go and see it, but honestly, I’d wait and see it on telly if I was you. Seeing it on the big screen doesn’t really add anything to the experience. It was nice to have a night out, but this wasn’t the best film I’ve seen by a long shot. I’ll bet that it’s based on a short story or something, and I’d guess that the written version is a lot better. There were a number of Hollywood stars in the cast (Forrest Whittaker, Sigourney Weaver, Matthew Fox, William Hurt, and your favourite South American Dictator’s namesake and mine, Eduardo Noriega), but those parts could have been played by anyone, really.
I was able to enjoy watching all the motor-racing that was on telly this weekend, while Denise went to Edinburgh to run in the World 5k. She stayed on to watch all the cross-country stars in the World Cross Country events in Holyrood park, while I watched the MotoGP race. James Toseland, the best (only?) brit on the grid, was unlucky to come only 6th, after having been duffed up by Loris Capirossi on the last corner. You don’t get any more experienced on a GP bike than Capirossi, so at least Toseland can take comfort from being beaten by a wilier opponent. JT started 8th on the grid, which wasn’t bad considering he was suffering from bronchitis, but lost out at the start, dropping to 10th. He’d fought his way (literally – there are other bikes in the workshops with Toseland’s bike’s yellow and blue paint down the sides of their fairings) up to 5th, and was fighting them off nearly all of the rest of the race, right until the last corner; which is pretty good going considering he was ill. Dani Pedrosa didn’t do bad to win, either, considering he was riding with an injured hand. Didn’t stop him wrassling that Honda all around the circuit for 30 laps, or whatever it was. It’s also very encouraging to see me old favourite Valentino Rossi coming in second from the second row of the grid.
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