Audrey’s Blog on living well with disability and breast cancer

Blue badge blues 6 So I’ve been home for almost two weeks, phew. I’m gently easing off the burden of a long hospital stay but it’s taking time and energy. Gradually I’m building confidence in my mobility and my pain is reducing, although it’s not a linear process; particularly with a broken leg!  I have to be careful not to decline with a bad day and not to over do things on a good day. «  It’s going to take time  » is the mantra from all of the professionals who are supporting me. I find that phrase a serious challenge! There have been moments of hilarity too like when I couldn’t find the knickers i had taken off, then spotted them attached to the velcro on the moonboot! Not the look i was going for!   I’m setting myself goals as encouraged by the OT and physio and thats helping me recognise progress, however slow. The community team have been impressive so far with aids delivered quickly and I do have a sense of them working together to support me. They encourage mindfulne

Hospital confidential  A confident stride the prelude to  tugged curtains a breathless introduction Conversations ensue maybe the most painful of our lives behind paper screens We don’t hear all the words but certainly get the tone the grimness in the phrases the timescales dodged Biopsies, scans lives changed behind those paper defined boundaries between your life and theirs iPads and magazines are stared at in desperate attempts to divert attention from this stranger  This stranger who’s life has just collided with ours as I sit uninvited  a mere bystander in their unfolding disaster Curtains pulled back Words digested Heads come up Sad smiles make contact Another hospital confidential story unfolds  and for that moment we are one in these four beds All our stories are shared our tears witnessed our pain cursed our lonely fears observed As I gather up for home these women’s stories will

 The World Cup has been on while I’ve been in hospital. Amazingly I may get through it without seeing a game! Although if I’m out for the final then I will succumb. But it’s left me with a head full of football analogies. And if I can be allowed one, this week has been a game of two half’s!  I was emerging from the trauma of ICU etc and had got a bed on a ward to aim towards discharge. Everyone was saying how well I was doing especially after such extensive surgery. So give me a goal and I will try to exceed it! I was going to recover in record time, until I slid preparing for my shower, my foot went under me and I fractured my ankle. I felt the click but still hoped it was only a sprain. But X-rays confirmed a spiral fracture; my surgeon said I don’t do anything by halves. I know this to be true. So the rest of this week has been getting acquainted with a moonboot, regaining my confidence and trying to get mobile again. It’s been messy and I’ve shed lots of tears if I’m honest. I

Happy birthday #NHS70 today. I have so many reasons to be grateful to you. The family i was born into, would not have had resources to pay for complex treatment. But more than that, going through treatment for breast cancer three times and now in hospital post thoracic spinal surgery; I know all about gratitude to those who conceived of the policy of the #NHS, free at point of need and those who make it a reality daily.  I’m three weeks post op now and the rhythm of care in this neurosurgery unit and the ITU before it is mapped out clearly. I see every day the skills and compassion of the medical, nursing and physio and OT team. First class surgical care is the expected norm and the importance of the complementary nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy skills emerge as the focus shifts towards independent care. The unit here is old fashioned but in the longer term there is a move planned to the ultra modern new hospital. In the middle of the night recently i was making up