In the words of Yazz "The Only Way Is UP"

Hello all cyber friends,

I have to thank you all for your lovely messages of encouragement and support, it is really great to feel the sense of community.

So what has happened since the last update on Friday............ seeing mum on Friday afternoon she had made a very small improvement since the day before, still looking totally exhausted but I understand we can expect too much and this will be a long road to recovery.

We had a chat about maybe getting Dj up to see her soon as it had been nearly a week since he had seen or spoken to her, only problem being is that the plan was to end the epidural at 6am Saturday morning, I could sense the fear in trepidation in mum when consultant confirmed she would then be put on pain relief by mouth. Think we all had the same sort of feelings of nervousness as we know this has to happen to enable her to get some mobility back (epidural had made one leg virtually dead and unable to support her, fairly normal for extended epidural use) but also mindful of the fact it could lead her to be in extreme pain, although the doctors state this won't be the case. I rang in the morning to see if she was up to seeing Dj and to my relief she was, we all met up there on Saturday afternoon, mum had been switched to Tramadol pain killers, still looked exhausted but again a small improvement from the Friday, still has her sodium and saline drip in and drain for the wound but no longer required the oxygen mask to be on and BP had increased to around the 100 mark again and seem to be staying there.

Dj stayed for about an hour and then Leanne, Dj and left as he was going to stay at ours to give Rab a little break. All in all a great weekend, Dj got a new Ed Hardy hoodie and finally convinced him that jeans don't need to be uncomfortable, he tried a pair on and was very happy with them so a couple of new purchases and then on to Nandos to meet Loretta, Tony and Jake to complete the Nandos extra hot challenge (soak a chip in their extra hot sauce for 10/15 mins and then eat when you finished), Dj loved this and proceed to tell us it wasn't hot at all, think he takes after his father on that one as chili used to be a staple part of his diet. also managed to have movie night with popcorn and Avatar, Arcades, Wii and home paid Pizzas before coming back on Sunday evening. Al in all Dj was pleased to see mum, relieved more than anything I guess and pleased he could see we are not hiding anything.

Mums condition for Monday, Tuesday was fairly similar, physio getting her move a little, she rates her pain as now uncomfortable and not unbearable. Still remains very tired but just taking each day one at a time with short term goals, just a case of her resting as much as possible really now.

Her surgeon came up with a crazy idea over the weekend that she would be ok to go home on Monday/Tuesday, laughable really, anyway his registrar agreed this was crazy and discharge would be discussed later in the week, now set to be review Thursday or Friday, stoma team insist she won't be going anywhere until she is happy dealing with the bag. So just a bit of a waiting game at the mo but the end to phase 1 is insight and she promises me she won't be doing anything this side of xmas once she is back at home, luckily there are enough helpers around to ensure she does stick to this.

Rab, just wanted to say a special thank you to you, you have really stepped up to the plate to take care of things at home, the fact Dj is dealing with things so well is down to you, Nan and Grandad. As I've said this is only part one and a lot of work still to be done but we are all here to help.


Update you all again towards the end of the week with more news.

Love from James & DJ

xxx