Well, it’s exactly a week since Christine’s and my world turned upside down. At 12.30pm on Saturday 9 January I was revising for University exams starting three days later, Christine was outside doing odd jobs. Forty minutes later she was in a helicopter making the three minute flight to Ysbyty Gwynedd. I discovered she had been laying on the ice for 45 minutes and her temperature was under 35 degrees C. She had multiple fractures of her tibia and fibula – the leg bones below her right knee, and had damaged her knee. After two days of nil-by-mouth because of surgery which was then cancelled, she finally had a five-hour reconstructive surgery on Wednesday. Apparently, the radiographers who took the post-operative x-ray were stunned at the amount of metal in her leg. That, together with the plate in her wrist from the surgery after a fall nine months ago means she’ll never get through an airport scanner again! My son Mark wants to try attaching the fridge magnets that our grandson Logan enjoys playing with. I’m married to my own Bionic Woman!
Hospital’s always an awful experience and Christine managed to convince everyone she was ready to come home. With the help of Robin, who is a doctor friend of ours in A&E who conveniently ended a shift and drove us home in his van, we got Christine home at 6.30pm Friday with the extra help of Robin’s family. Christine has a really heavy, full-leg plaster cast and was told she can’t weight-bear for three months. She has a walking frame to move around slowly.
It’s going to mean major changes at home as she really needs someone to be with her all the time. After one day as a carer, I have a rapidly increasing respect for the heroes who care for relatives full-time. I’m rediscovering my cooking abilities (how long do you cook carrots?) and how to use a washing machine (where does the Persil go? what temperature for sheets?). Thank goodness for Tesco Online! Thank God too for church friends like Robin and for Joy and Roberta who brought meals to start me off.
I don’t know what this means for University. The accident happened at the start of exam week and I missed one exam but got in for another. However, I’ve been able to do little revision and I have two more exams next week. The following week semester two starts and I’m scheduled for nine hours of lectures and seminars each week. They’re aware of the situation and are both understanding and supportive.
Oh, and the twins reference? No, not Christine but when I visited Christine just before her operation, I met Mark, Samantha and Logan at Christine’s bedside. Sam had just come straight from the ante-natal clinic at the hospital to show us the scan photo of the new baby due in July. The surprise to us all (especially Sam) is that she’s expecting twins! There’s never a dull moment in the lives of the Dicken family in Snowdonia.
