Bartimaeus

Yesterday Shane and I had a wee walk in the morning around the Meadows. His bag was packed, packages he had ordered had arrived, nothing for him to do but pace. There are loads of trees in blossom but one caught my eye. There was only one trunk but looked like two different cherry trees, with pink and white blossom.

We wondered if it might be a graft. Both skin grafts and flaps have been mentioned and I had read the graft is harder to mee look neat, but it is sometimes needed. If it could look as good as this, that might be not so bad, but still could be an oddity.

Shane set off and got himself settled in to St John’s and soon let me know he was being very well treated there. Our phonecall was interrupted by the arrival of a three course meal for him including Nurse Robert’s recommendation for the best thing on the menu. I had cheese on toast.

I had plenty to occupy me at home, not least responding to the stream of well wishers. Shane also called back and we did a crossword over the phone. He sent me a photo of the grid and clues but he had the pen and paper. Then a cup of tea arrived for him. Fasting didn’t start until midnight.

Not long before midnight I made the mistake of looking up recovery time on the internet to be greeted by lots of photos of the surgery itself. Don’t do it! I only wanted post op info, not a bird’s eye view of the theatrical performance.

This morning there were lots of birds in the garden, gold finches, blackbirds, bluetits and they were very noisy, then I saw a spectacularly coloured cat slinking through the fence and realised the source of their stress. They were an interesting diversion for me, along with turning a heel for the first time, which required concentration. And of course there were all the well wishers. No time for pacing the floor at all.

I rang the ward after 3 o clock to ask how he was, to be told he was still in theatre and to ring back in half an hour. To my surprise , before I had rung back, I got a message from Shane sounding pretty compos mentis. Nurse Robert kindly informed me when I rang about visiting hours that I could arrive any time as he was in a side room. He estimated an arrival time that gave me time to do my hair. I said Shane wouldn’t recognise me if I did that so he suggested just putting a hat on. The tone was set for a friendly visit. I jammed a hat on and hurried to the station, squeaking in at the last gasp of off-peak travel tickets. Livingston is very well laid out for an easy tree lined walk from the station to the hospital, though the inside of the hospital is a lot trickier to navigate! 

I found Shane in excellent spirits. He remarked that we had stayed in hotels with less good rooms than this and praised all the staff and was delighted at how well he felt. A local anaesthetic was doing a sterling job and staff were stocking his cabinet up with tablets for when that wore off. Unsurprisingly he was slightly asymmetric with a light flecking of blood but everything improved as the time went on. For the squeamish the photo has been taken from his good side but  already I think it’s looking good and I am impressed how neat a job the plastic surgeon has made, a face lift specialist perhaps!

He had a slap up meal and only needed a small amount of help with the position of bed and table. He trusted me to work the technology and not press the eject button.

He still still had on the surgical stockings but as he was able to get up without fainting, I suspect he will be active enough to dispense with those. Meanwhile I still have my work cut out to help get his blog published and finish my own and reply to the many messages. No time to return to my exciting sock project.

I think there are more irregularities in my knitting than in his face. It’s a great relief and I am so grateful to all the staff who made it possible and all the positive thoughts sent our way.