Day 7

Friday 28th. I have had to write that down as I had lost track of where in the week I am. Wonderful sleep with just a single wake up at around 05:00 with pain developing; I took a single paracetamol - codeine pill and then slept through till 08:25. All a bit of a rush then to get ready for breakfast. The english speaking group make up was changing; at breakfast there was no sign of Mark and Kelli. I hope that Mark is OK. My blood sugar was recorded at 9.5, nearly normal for my mornings.

For breakfast I tried the odd looking long thin sausage, scrambled egg with the dark bread and pineapple with creme fraiché, before my first appointment which was with the doctor at 09:20. He was a little concerned about the swelling and told me to spend more time with the leg elevated and to tap my leg to entice the circulation to work harder.

Michael and Hazel were waiting to see the doctor as I left. Having forgotten to check what my schedule was I went back to my room but quickly realised I should have gone straight to massage for 09:30 and so I was a little late, a great shame as the massage is so relaxing and here I was all tensed up due to being late.

Back in my room elevating now at 10:30 with nothing planned till lunch at 13:00 and then Physiotherapy at 15:30. I have been working on a backlog of emails etc. this morning with a mobilisation break at 12:00. Now as it approaches 13:00, lunch calls, and I am off to the restaurant. Blood sugars high again at 9.5 so will not go for the funny long sausages again.

Over lunch I met with the latest UK patient to arrive from the Nord Clinic, John, along with Mark and Kelli, Michael and Hazel. Again interesting conversations, John works in the private care industry with brain damaged patients etc..He recounted some of the interesting issues over working through the Covid Pandemic period.

I returned to my room to rest until the physiotherapy session at 15:30. I was a bit early arriving on the ground floor, consequently I sat in the main reception area with my leg elevated watching all the comings and goings. So today’s physiotherapist was the same one as I had seen in 2018, Greta. The session was very good and she kept warning me not to do too much. She wanted me to lift my big toes but leave the other toes on the floor; I cannot, no matter how much I try, do that. The exercises she made me do were as follows:

Lying down:

• Calf supported on big yellow sausage, push down and squeeze the buttocks
• Pull leg toward me to stretch the knee joint a little, then push forward and stretch the foot out
• Lift hips off the bed and back down slowly

Standing

• Swing left leg to left side then repeat for the other leg
• Scrunch toes up and release

Sitting on the bed

• Push hands against the outside of the thighs to hold against pressure
• Repeat but inner thighs

After all that I was struggling so I didn’t do the next bit; against the wall bars, saving that for tomorrow. After being released from Physiotherapy Greta told me to check with Cryo treatment as I should be able to go straight away rather than wait and have to come back later. That worked well and I was back in my room for just after 16:00

I rested for an hour and a half, during which time I fell fast asleep, waking at 17:25, good timing for getting up and starting to prepare for dinner. Blood sugars were higher than anticipated at 9.5 so injected 11 units and ‘strode off’ to the restaurant.

The usual culprits were arriving at the restaurant along with newby John and we had a very social time where we were able to advise John of lots of key issues for his stay. The food was really good again, more fish!

Following a full hour of chatting it was proposed that we went to the ground floor restaurant for a social drink.



Some of our Scottish companions are leaving later tomorrow so this was their sendoff.


Leaving the party I returned to my room and caught up with today’s batch of emails and then enjoyed a long video chat with Catharine and Jazz. Eventually I became a bit sore in the right thigh and decided it was time to move around so leaving Catharine to take Jazz for an evening walk I prepared to go to sleep.

The right thigh is now showing some bruising above the knee:

OK so good night, catch up tomorrow...