peter's prang

days 18 - 23: friday 14 - wednesday 19

Day 18: Friday January 14
Peter feeling somewhat improved in the morning but abdominal pain in the afternoon.

Days 19 and 20: Saturday January 15 and Sunday January 16
As day 18. On Sunday Peter takes a short walk for aprox 150 yards up the road. Very slow. Noticeably agitated and gets right up the verge whenever he realises a car is coming.

Day 21: Monday 17 January
Peter still has abdominal pain. The glands in my neck are up (continues on 18 and 19).

Day 22: Tuesday 18 January
Overnight Peter has developed sharp pain when he breathes in - R chest, to R of nipple. Started at 2am, improved then got worse throughout the day. Chest tender to touch. He's in very low spirits.

Day 23: Wednesday 19 January
Pain in abdomen has gone. Pain in chest somewhat less than yesterday and he slept better (still sleeping sitting in armchair). However not well enough for the journey home.

days 16 and 17: 12/13 january - a setback

Days 16 and 17: emailed the family, my sangha and friends thus:

Poor old Peter has had a bit of a setback. Very swollen feet and ankles the past couple of days (which I noticed when, as a dutiful wife, I washed his feet yesterday afternoon) and pains in his abdomen - we went to the doctor yesterday evening. It looks as though the medication has affected his stomach so he's been put on mega co-codamol, so we hope the intestinal pains will subside soon.
 
He still has to sleep in an armchair - as the rib fractures are at the back, he can't lie down. His friend Gayre, who had a RTA a few years ago, phoned from Australia and confirmed the 'ribs take 6 weeks to heal' that we had previously been told. Peter is concerned about the journey home - naturally. The journey here was horrible for him and the sit in the doc's waiting room yesterday has set him back. So here we will stay and I don't know how long for. We can't wait 6 weeks! The journey will be no fun at all but we'll need him to be somewhat more recovered before we set off. Linda is being fab and is so kind.
 
I'm keeping the Swaffham woolshop in business - already making things for Christmas 2011 'Samaritan's Purse' shoeboxes. Also the bookshop next door to it has second hand books. Have cancelled everything at the universities and am doing the other things I need via iphone (o2 is completely rubbish!) and by short sorties onto Linda's computer where the broadband is excruciatingly slow.

flashing lights 1

Down the south-bound carriage way come flashing lights, passing us and then reappearing some minutes later. An estate car sized ambulance parks up in front of us and the first of the paramedics arrives to assess Peter, who is shaking uncontrollably. Peter is asked questions which I remember from our Kephalonian episode are designed to ascertain whether he has any brain damage - he is bleeding copiously from the left posterior top of his head. We try to wrap him up even more warmly. Peter is finding it both difficult and extremely painful to breathe.