The 16th & 17th; It just hurts so much.

The 16th of September. 

All I want is for it to be tomorrow, when I see the plastics team and the steri-strips come off my right knee. 

We wanted to get to A+E to see Colin as early as possible (within reason) to avoid the rush, but we needn't have bothered. It took us twenty minutes to find a parking space, because the car park was absolutely rammed. Inside the waiting room wasn't much better - the queue to book in took another half an hour to get to the front of, then the receptionist didn't really seem to know what I was talking about when I said Colin had told me to come for a walk in review. However, she booked me in and told me to go straight through to minors, so we headed through the door, avoiding the gazes of the other patients waiting to do the same. 

Colin happened to be on his break, but as soon as he returned, he called me in. Unfortunately, despite my whingeing, all he did was change the top dressings. I think he wanted to leave it for the plastics team to look at tomorrow, but it just hurts so much. It doesn't help that I think I'm getting a cough of some description, so my throat is tired and sore, and my breathing is worse than normal. 

I couldn't wait to get home, where I put my legs up, had some butternut squash soup, and a slice of the cinnamon marble loaf cake Mommy made yesterday. All I really want to do is curl up on my bed and go to sleep, but I can't bend my knees. It's a vicious circle. 

This afternoon, I finally finished writing about Thursday and Friday, so now I just have to get the blog post created and up. I watched the first episode of The Hot Zone, which is suitably tense and exciting and icky. Looking forward to the rest!

Hoped we might be getting a new kitty this week, but she now is probably going to an adoption centre. However, Shaki brought me the tiniest kitty in the world to pet. She in a tiny gremlin. I pray she survives.

The 17th of September. 

I woke up in so much pain this morning, I didn't want to move. Certainly didn't want to sit up or get out of bed. My back was absolutely excruciating, all over, in places I didn't even know were hurting. I don't know why it's so much worse than yesterday, but regardless, I couldn't summon the strength to stir. I phoned Mommy's mobile, and asked her to come upstairs to see if she could help. She found the knots and did her best to work on them, to help me sit up and get dressed. I was really cold, my eyes were very sensitive, my breathing was difficult, and I was still in pain, but I was able to put on clothes and get downstairs. 

I struggled to sit comfortably in the living room, and I was going to find it impossible to sit in front of the coffee machine. Another parent sent to The Deli in Boldmere. Their coffee is much nicer than Costa's. When I'd finished that, I got Mommy to rub Voltarol in to all the painful areas, then tried to sit forward to allow it to sink in, but I couldn't rest my head on my knees. Too many different areas of pain! I did find a position that worked eventually, but it was not the easiest of starts to the day. I've got an emergency chiro appointment for Thursday, where I'll see what Trine can do. I also had a delivery from Uniqlo of some loose, warm trousers. Only one of the three pairs is any good, so now I have some very toasty fleece trousers and they're much better to go out in than pyjamas. 

We were out the door straight after lunch, because I had my plastics appointment at half two, and after the parking debacle of yesterday, we didn't want to risk it. We ended up arriving just after two, so I bought a can of Lilt (I needed to drink something more interesting than water and that was the only thing that appealed) and we found where I was supposed to be. It turns out that the plastics clinic is in the same place that Mommy goes to for hand clinic, so she knew where we were going. It is very small, but I found a place to park, and watched out for someone to call my name. I noticed one nurse whose face looked familiar, and when she happened to be near me, I asked her if she had worked there about nine years ago. I thought she had looked after me in 2010 when I fell on my drive and we had to go and see the plastics team for a year to get it to heal, and I was right! I actually happened to be her next patient anyway, so that was incredibly convenient. She started to remember me once I'd started talking and we worked out what colour and style my hair was back then. 

She took all of the steri-strips off, and we finally got to see what my right knee looks like now! A bit wet, but better than we expected. She was not thrilled by what the A+E nurse in London had done, but that's fixed now. I have iodine patches on both knees, and dressings over the top - one is an appropriate size, and one is ridiculously large because the next size down is too small. Once it's healed a bit, I can hopefully have a smaller one that will not look quite so silly. I go back next week after my eye appointment, and we shall see what progress I've made.