24th February 2012

Hiya,
after a bit of a cock-up on the part of the hospital re' admission times (Awake at 7.00am and we intended to go at 8.00am but records had been mislaid), we took Steven to the hospital at 10.15am for his operation which started at about 11.45am. Returned to room at 2.15pm in fine order, laughing and joking. He wasn't aware that he'd been in the operating theatre for so long, so assumes he went to sleep. He was given injections all around his upper chest and arm, and was aware of the operation, but didn't look. He can remember the surgeons talking, and heard and felt hammer and chisel on his arm. He felt discomfort but no obvious pain. His arm was in a sling but he soon removed that for more comfort. Almost immediately he could move his little and ring finger, and we had a laugh as he tried to give me the "finger". He was also able to move his arm slightly. He was in a lot of pain after about 5.00pm, and was given painkilling drip. The pain returned at about 8.00pm with a vengeance. He's put up with so much we just want it to end, he doesn't deserve all this. He had visits from friends Dominic and Jessica, and Pablo and Cesar, and they livened him up with jokes and daft stories. He hasn't got any appetite, but we'll start fattening him as soon as we can. Due to the excess of pain, it was decided to keep him in hospital for another day.
Steven was released from hospital mid-afternoon Wednesday. He's still in pain, obviously from the op'. He has a large bandage on his left arm to prevent swelling of his hand. It's the bandage which is restricting the full arm movement, but even with the bandage on his arm movement seems better. As I said he has full hand movement. He returns to the hospital Friday for checking over. In the meantime we're back on the roundabout of other hospital appointments, grrrrrrrrrrrrr. We also have to cancel the NHS appointments for his arm. We're 4,000euro lighter, but there's no way we could wait another 2 months just for more scans, not even a consultation nor an operation, so as far as we're concerned it's money well spent.
Today Friday, Steven's arm movement has continued to improve, and believed to be just the bandage and operation swelling restricting movement. The bandage was removed. The scar is about 5inches long, and the area around the wound is incredibly bruised, more so than his hip operation. The elbow has been re-bandaged with a smaller dressing much to Steven's delight. The surgeon is pleased with result. Strangely I haven't got to touch the dressing until next Thursday when the stitches will be removed. With the hip operation I was changing the dressing on a daily basis. Steven has felt rough today, and we tend to forget that surely he is entitled to "off" days, and for the first time he missed his speech therapy. He can catch up later. Yesterday we spent 2 hours at hospital for a CAT scan on his foot, that didn't help his mood, nor ours. That's our first complaint since treatment started, the hospitals are so overwhelmed presumably the same as UK. We will consider soon whether to go the private route for his ankle problem. What has really amazed us about Steven is his incredible patience. He has no worries at missing "life", concentrating on getting better in order to enjoy his life in the hopefully near future.
Best regards
Terry