View through the consulting room window

Dear Readers, today I had my ‘wound check’ and an additional X-Ray on my poorly leg. What a beautiful sunny day! I sat outside the front door in my wheelchair waiting for the taxi to arrive, and watching the bees circling the last of the lavender, and felt more at peace than I’ve felt for a fortnight.At the hospital, the lovely Irish nurse took out some of my stitches, and I got a first look at my leg once all the bandages were off. There’s a long incision on my knees and then a smaller one, and a couple of nicks on my ankles, plus some bruising, but honestly it’s not too bad. I’m not actually worried about scars – they tell the story of who we are, and what we’ve experienced – but it was a relief to see everything healing up. What a wonder our bodies are!

Then it was off to X-Ray. John, my husband, is a novice wheelchair driver but managed really well. It’s tricky negotiating the lifts at the Whittington as, until you have a bit of experience, you never know what side the doors are going to open on. Plus, one lift in three is pretty much permanently out of order (or maybe I’ve been unlucky).

John came in with me for the X-Ray, and then stood behind the protective screen, so he could see the photographs. He said my leg looked as if it had been patched up by an enthusiastic home DIY-er.

Then, back to the fracture clinic. Looking out of the window I could see the most extraordinary tree, with huge leaves and candelabras of white flowers. Forgive the photo quality, the window was dusty and the light was wrong.

I do believe it might be a catalpa or Indian Bean Tree, which in a decent photo looks like this:

Catalpa bignoniodes (Photo Magnus Manske, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons)

The consultant popped in and announced himself very pleased with my leg, the X-Rays show that everything is healing as it should, and he’s going to refer me for physiotherapy and will see me again in a month. I’m going to be using my crutches/wheelchair until then, as I’m still only 50% weight-bearing on my damaged leg. He suggested moving on to low-dose codeine once my current high-dose stuff has run out, but the worst of the pain in my leg seems to be easing, so hopefully I won’t need anything for much longer – I’m not going to be a martyr, but I’m not used to being on drugs long-term. Interestingly, the consultant said that I should avoid ibuprofen – part of the healing process with bones is actually inflammation, so you don’t want to dampen that response down. Who knew? You learn something new every day.

And now I’m home again. And I’m determined, once I’m mobile again, to go and find the catalpa tree, and say hello to it. I wonder how many people have been cheered by the sun coming through its leaves as they wait for news, or for a painful procedure?