Intermedullary nail (not my leg!) Photo By Kolossos – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=500627

Dear Readers, by the time you get this I shall be getting ready to head to my consultant appointment at Whittington Hospital. It’s been nearly six weeks since my fall and operation to insert a titanium rod into the lower part of my leg, and since then I’ve been hobbling about on two crutches. With any luck, the consultant will say that my leg has healed enough to start walking about without them, which will be a great relief to my husband, who has done all the cooking and carrying and bed making and household chores and shopping since my accident. I should add that he’s done it all without a single complaint, not so much as an eye-roll. I intend to cook lots of delicious meals as soon as I can stand for long enough.

In a week or so I have a visit to the physiotherapist, but I’m hoping the consultant will give me some guidelines on what I should and shouldn’t do. Then at the end of August I’m back to pilates and my lovely teacher, who will also, I’m sure, have some ideas.

And I also have a visit to the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the Royal Free for a bone density scan – this is very exciting, as osteoporosis is something that you can actually do something about. The consultant did say that I had a ‘high-energy fracture’, however, though I assume that he didn’t mean it was a result of me donning a lurex leotard and gyrating vigorously.

It’s been strange six weeks – in a way it feels a bit like the first lockdown pandemic, what with being constrained and having to find my own ways of keeping my mood up, though of course this time it was just me who was barely leaving the house. Thank goodness for the Olympics, and all manner of non-demanding television, especially in the first few weeks when the pain was difficult to control – it was hard to concentrate on reading, though it’s become easier since. I think what I’m looking forward to most is being able to walk to a coffee shop or toddle down to the bottom of the garden, to get on a bus or a train and go somewhere, to be able to tidy up after myself instead of relying on someone else to do it. To make my own tea and carry it back to the armchair (I can currently just about do the first, but not the second). Mostly though, I am so grateful to everyone who has been involved in this shenanigans, and also grateful to be born when I was, and where I was – I’m sure for many people in the world, a fracture like mine would have ended up in permanent disability, infection or even death. So if nothing else, this six weeks has taught me how lucky I am, and wonderful people can be, a necessary antidote to the news at the moment.

I’ll keep you posted! And in the meantime, here’s another few Hi-NRG blasts from the past – ‘It’s Raining Men’ by the Weather Girls (and how I love the video 🙂 ) Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (oh lord, the outrage at the time), and ‘Blue Monday’ by New Order. I can remember the excitement when ‘Blue Monday’ came out to this day, it sounded so different to a lot of what had come before. It was also great for mixing with other Hi-NRG tunes.

After that, I definitely feel like dancing!