Gilly Flower

At least that's what it looks like so far. Not mine I hasten to add, but J's. He's been suffering for some time with pins & needles sensations in his left arm and shoulder, which had begun to extend down to his leg and foot.

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Being a man of course it took a while to do anything about it (other than complain to me), but after finally persuading him to see an osteopath, (who pinpointed the cause to spurs), it still took several months, and an escalation of the pain, before he acted on the advice he was given, to have X-rays taken to determine the extent of the problem.

The result was surgery. And to have it PDQ at that.

The decision to pay certainly speeded up the procedure, and from the initial visit to Prof E to going under the knife was less than a month. Money talks obviously, although the good professor did say that unless the op was done soon J was in danger of losing all feeling in his left arm.

Anyway, he went in on Thursday, and was out again on Friday. Talk about swift. Couldn't believe it when he was up, dressed and sitting in a chair reading a fishing magazine when I visited on Friday morning. He'd been barely conscious the previous night, so after confirming all had gone well, with no complications, there had seemed to be little point hanging about doing the Florence thing.

But from still being attached to the fluids drip in the morning, and told to go home a few hours later seemed a little premature, especially for a private hospital, but that's what happened. He was bundled out clutching spare dressings & a packet of painkillers - which thankfully have not been required. Yet.

J has even been surprisingly quiescent about doing very little other than sitting in a chair & reading, or listening to the radio. I suppose I should be grateful the Olympics are on, altho' I've boycotted them personally for Human Rights reasons, and the pathetic behaviour of Channel 7 (who are broadcasting much of the action), the TV channel who refused to air the GetUp ad calling for (Oz PM) Kevin Rudd to raise the issue of Tibet while he was in Beijing. This was after accepting payment, and agreeing to screening times.

See http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/OlympicSilenceIsNotGolden&id=373

However, we're only on Day Two, and J will have to restrain his desire to do too much physically for a few weeks yet. As well as keeping up with all the neck exercises he's been given.

He probably will, because the desire to go fishing is a powerful incentive. And therein lies another story, but one that will be told later.