I'm back....for a guest appearance!!

Sylvia here - had quite a late night at the hospital last night, getting home after 11pm. So it was straight to bed & straight back to the hospital this morning by 8am.

First visit this morning was the surgeon Piers Glatenby on 12 mths "exchange" from the UK. Great guy & very chatty. Got the news that the feeding tube could come out at 11am. Anthony is now on a soft diet consisting of juices, yoghurt, soup, jelly, ice cream & sustagen drinks. Tried to have the 2nd chest drain removed today but no luck. Bribing did not work here & after a call to the Prof, the answer still came back a "no." Will try for tomorrow.

Then came the Anaesthetist who is now looking at administrating all pain relief orally. He now has his 5 minute morphine pump as a top up.

Then in came Tim the "in charge surgeon" whilst the Prof is away in the Riverland. Had quite along chat with him on how this next week is looking. Will know more once the 2nd drain comes out.

It is now 10.30am & I have to leave to meet Gen & Tom at an auction in Hyde Park they are looking at bidding at. I think it is one of those houses that will go for more than it's worth, so we're not holding our breath. I will now hand over the blog for Anthony to update the afternoon's events...

Hi, Anthony here. 

Wow, what a ride. For tonight I will just try and recall events from when Sylv left this morning, it seems so long ago.

The drugs do my head in, and tonight is the first time I feel able to even have a go at writing something.

Sylvia left as she said around 10:30am and I reckon David and Karen arrived to visit shortly after. I was half way through my shave when the Raffens arrived. Quick tidy up and chat...lunch arrived (soup, custard, orange juice). Given there is NO ROOM at the bed, we headed off to the luxury lounge area...I was showing off - NOT! 

Basically, I got permission by the Pain Team Anaesthetist who visited earlier to be untethered from my machines on request, so I was really mobile today for a few hours. 

Box of chest fluid in tow, we set up to savor my lunch and not upset the other ward neighbours. Some time later Glenn and Alison (Davis) wandered into the lounge after 10minutes reading my paper at my bedside. Nurse tip off. Great chats between all of us. 

Did anyone see three horses running around lost today at Mylor? Someone left the gates open!! It was very calm in hospital today for the Raffens compared to the morning by the sounds of it.

I was tiring and we called it quits so I hit the sack again to get some rest...very little sleep in hospitals, so I have no idea how we do it but it just works, when you are tired enough you seem to just sleep. 

Shut eye, open eye - there is Mum. Had a great chat, then Suz arrived, hadn't seen Suz for a couple of days thanks to the pressure of hitting deadline on some REISA Awards submissions ( I hope we win something as we are going after less core award categories... It is getting harder now that we are precluded from all our key categories because we are in the Hall of Fame).

Suz and the girls have been pretty amazing. So under the pump, emotionally drained (thanks to me), and have had their lives turned upside down...a massive thanks to all three of my girls.

Springfield's elite were seen today wandering the grounds of Flinders Medical Centre trying to find 'F Troupe', reportedly Adelaide's elite High Dependency team. Great to see the Ewer family, Popeye, Simon and Cecelia, with messages and calls from so many.

Naming people is a bad move...the blog would be more like a phone book to read but yet again, please forgive me for all the messages I have not responded to. I haven't looked at my phone at all until today. OMG. 

I will be reading these messages for days/weeks, please accept my thanks and I am not ignoring you all, it is just that I am focused on getting through all of this. I can not explain how overwhelming some of this has been. 

Some days just leave me totally mentally exhausted. I came VERY CLOSE to "losing it" mid week, but I am still here, and I have hel  it all together so far. That nose drain was tough for me, as were a number of events.

So please know I appreciate your support, and please forgive me for not responding.

Finished the day making Popeye (Phil Eley) and Sylv walk the floor with me, level 5.

That's it guys...not sure where this blog will take us but I am not proof reading this, Tanja will save me Monday and make it all good and shiny.

Love you guys,

Toopie

PS. Visiting is problematic because there is no room at all in this ward. Just give one of the girls a buzz to see what's going down, and until now I have really been in no condition to see anyone. Still have a few big hurdles to get over, eg. A chest drain is still in and very debilitating. I still struggle of it gets too hectic, as much as I love the company. There is a balance there somewhere.