As I write I am surrounded by the detritus associated with recovering from a knee replacement. Crutches are propped within grasping distance, a table is wedged against the lounge with tv controls, water, mobile phone and tissues. The lounge has warm rugs and pillows of varying sizes for maximum comfort whilst watching TV, reading or snoozing. A large icepack is on constant rotation on the knee or in the freezer and the packets of various drugs are ready to portion out at the allotted time. The knee itself is doing great – very early days the MOTH was walking without help, off all painkillers and able to bend past 90 degrees and also press it flat to the floor. He was ahead in rehab and felt pleasantly smug at his quick recovery – something he had actively aimed for prior to the op by cycling and doing strength exercises for his legs. All in all we were very happy with his recovery. Until last week when things went downhill.

The culprit was not his knee but his colon! Whilst in the hospital getting his knee done he was put onto antibiotics which have triggered a rather aggressive case of C Diff (C. Difficile Colitis) which made him extremely unwell with pancolitis. Things deteriorated necessitating a trip to the Emergency Department which lasted 36 hours. The staff were amazing. The fact it was a holiday weekend made things somewhat tricky with a full waiting room and an overload of ambulances offloading people and therefore a very full ED. It was the most enlightening 36 hours I’ve had in recent history and I have a newfound appreciation for our medical staff and all that they have to put up with. They approached everything with calmness and kindness and, where possible, some humour. Our boy was severely dehydrated so the IV drip helped restore his body somewhat and once diagnosed he could finally start on the ONE antibiotic that is left to treat this condition. We couldn’t wait to get him home to his own bed once he could tolerate a tiny bit of food and all his obs had improved and boy oh boy did they need that hospital bed!

The human body is truly amazing – when it’s not happy it most certainly lets us know and also once conditions change for the better the body starts to respond pretty quickly too and we’re hoping that in 10 days he will be feeling a whole lot better. We are grateful for modern medicine and for the wonderful local doctors and nurses who work in such hard circumstances for very little compensation. It was an eye opener for both of us – seeing what they have to deal with and that somehow they can still show compassion for everyone – even those with self inflicted issues. It also made us acutely aware of the societal issues that people are experiencing and we are profoundly grateful that neither ourselves or our immediate family are going through these types of things that can so negatively impact the lives of both the individual and their partners and families.

We also felt rather aware of our mortality and how quickly things can go wrong. Despite us not feeling “old” we are supremely aware that time is not our friend and we really need to make the days and months count and to respect our body and all the amazing things it does by looking after it as much as possible. Good times with family and friends and experiencing things you’ve always dreamed of all contribute to “good health” and help us feel happy. Life is short – make it count!

Before things went to hell in a handbag, we had Easter! Sam and the boys came down and we had a nice couple of days with them despite the MOTH being couch bound a lot of the time. Sam mowed for us and the weather was beautiful so we could make full use of the pool and our neighbours trampoline and toy digger while they were away! Coops embraced painting ‘au plein air’ and made Papa a lovely birthday card. We visited a little pony “Sam” at the local farm, had a lovely walk on the beach collecting shells and Ollie had his first drive down the lane.

Easter Sunday coincided this year with the MOTH’s birthday so after the Easter Hunt in the garden we went to an afternoon shindig at one of our friend’s house with about 10 other people which made for a lovely celebratory day. Funnily enough 2 of the other people there had also had knee replacements at the same hospital in the same week so they were all hobbling around on crutches swapping stories! Their house is in the most beautiful location and we had a great afternoon with some delicious food and interesting conversations and it was a lovely reprieve from our recent incarceration at home!

The previous weekend we had celebrated his advanced knee recovery by venturing to Milton for the night to stay with our lovely friends at The Altar Bar. An hours’ drive was about the maximum he could tolerate but once we were there it was lovely to be able to chat and have a laugh with old friends all whilst enjoying the beautiful food, wine and music at the Bar and it was as good as any medicine! Even Bailey was invited and she had lots of fun with the other dogs although she was a little confused as to why she had to stay outside!! (She also found a bag of dogfood unattended in one of the sheds which she hoofed into and then paid the price) Thanks for the invite guys xx

We wanted to thank the ED for all their care over the weekend and so I popped in with two boxes of our local delicious Espresso Boy Doughnuts for them to share and they were SO chuffed. Obviously it’s their job but they go above and beyond and it was nice to have that acknowledged I think…they were quite shocked!

So a month of ups and downs and a timely reminder to make the most of every day as much as you can and plan fun things to do, to look forward to and STAY HEALTHY. So treat this as a public service announcement – if you go into hospital and start having these symptoms after taking antibiotics hopefully you will remember this little story, as despite being quite common we’d never even heard of it! Sadly you often leave hospital with something you didn’t enter it with! The upside is that as he lost 6kgs with the colitis he can now have whatever he fancies to eat as he recovers! Always a silver lining somewhere folks……….