Hello everyone!

Firstly, a quick Happy St. Valentine’s Day to everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful day today. Its also worth noting that this past week saw the 20th anniversary of the release of ex-President Nelson Mandela from the Drakenstein Correctional Centre (previously know as the Victor Verster Prison) in Paarl, Western Cape. Current president Jacob Zuma, used this auspicious date to deliver his SONA. This past week also saw the Chinese celebrate their New Year, or more specifically, the Spring Festival, which is the most important of the all Chinese traditional celebrations. Their celebrations welcomed in the Year of the Yang
Metal Tiger.

My week started with seeing Lauren for OT. In lieu of my going in to surgery later on in the week, she lent me a CD titled Surf Jamz, which would make me feel good after surgery. Back home, while Mom did some laundry, I opted to play with some flour and water. I managed to make a really fine dough which I then smeared all over Roxy under the ruse of giving her loves! As a result our red and tan staffie became a blonde! She didn’t seem to mind too much though.

Afterward I had a midday bath to get all the flour and muck off – poor Mommy ended up having lots to clean up. This was followed by a nice snooze. Once Dad was home we munched together on some fish fingers and veggies. The three of us then headed to the front garden where I did a nice long walk with my walker on the driveway. That evening, instead of bathing, I took a shower, which was a nice change.

Granny looked after me on Tuesday morning while Mommy went out for a business appointment to secure a work contract involving some project management consulting. Granny and I played hard, which resulted in my building up a healthy appetite and eating really well at lunch. I snoozed after lunch which resulted in my mustering up a tonne of energy which I burnt up doing lots of walking with my walker. We then went out to get some ice-cream and chocolates, followed by lots of walkies on the driveway. I showered in the evening again.

Mom took me to music on Wednesday morning. I played really hard and loved being there. Lisel, my music teacher, gave me a Be Sharp Beetle bug to keep me company in hospital the next day. I was thrilled, as I loved the Beetles, and I’ve been bugging Mom to get me one for ages. Granny and Tammy came to visit in the afternoon to wish me luck for my procedure the next day. Dad also arrived home early to spend some additional time with me. After Granny and Tammy left, Mom, Dad and I headed to The Valley Centre on Jan Smuts Avenue to collect Dad’s Blackberry which has been in for repairs, as the touch screen cracked. At this point I must assert my innocence that I was not complicit in dropping and breaking the screen on the phone!!!! Unfortunately his phone wasn’t yet ready, however the Vodashop made a plan to give Dad an identical Blackberry Storm as a loan phone. Unfortunately, the loan phone wasn’t at the store, so the consultant, Richard, promised to have it delivered to our house later in the evening. Back home, I played with Mom and Dad, and as Dad started running my bath the doorbell rang and his loan phone was delivered.

Thursday was the day of my surgery, which I already covered in my posting titled Hit For Six.

Mommy stayed with me most of the night on Thursday and into Friday morning. I slept a little during the night, and during that time Mom went to her room for little shut-eye. She was back at my bedside at four o’clock on Friday morning, and basically stayed there. During the morning Prof Fourie and Dr Lippert popped in to check up on me. It was agreed that I was well enough to be discharged, so the call was immediately placed to Dad to come and collect us. He rushed to Unitas and by midday I was back home, in the comfort of my own things.

The remainder of Friday I rested as I was not feeling too well. I guess five hours of anaesthetic and having veins in my brain embolised does that to you. Because of the embolisation (occlusion of veins) the blood in my brain now needs to find new paths to follow out, resulting in pressure in areas that previously didn’t have pressure, and causing lots of aches and discomfort. I spent much of Friday throwing up and eventually settled down for the evening. I was really grateful to have a bunzy run in the evening, albeit a ‘gentle’ bunzy run. It felt good to wash the hospital smells and chemicals off. Dad also expertly removed the last few straps that held my leg steady, where the surgeons accessed my brain (yes, through the femoral artery on my right leg!).

On the down side, I’ve lost / forgotten skills that I acquired recently prior to my procedure. This is cause for concern, and we’ll be monitoring this situation very closely.

We kept things quite on Saturday morning, as my monster headache and bodily pains persisted. Anyone who has ever been under anaesthetic for even 30 mins will know what I’m talking about in terms of bodily aches and pains. Now take that and extrapolate by 10! My head ached from having had my brain fiddled with. Mom and Dad had planned to take me out for a short while for a change of scenery, and I was really excited by this, but I fell fast asleep. When I woke up in the early afternoon, it was time to go to Morgan’s second birthday party. The afternoon was really hot, with temperatures reaching 36°C. Driving to Morgan’s place in the air-conditioned car was really awesome. Because I was still somewhat fragile, we only stayed about an hour, but it was a great hour. I was sad that Morgan hadn’t received his present yet, that was scheduled to be delivered on his birthday by Kalahari.net, but Morgan’s Mommy, Tanya, had made arrangements to get his pressie to her work.

Late on Saturday night the typical Highveld thunderstorms descended, cooling things off nicely. By Sunday morning it was still drizzling, resulting in very welcoming cooler temperatures. We stayed home most of the day, and Dad and I had a marathon 4 hour snooze at midday. Afterward Dad and I headed out for some ice-cream at Steers and some very welcome junk-food, considering how hectic the past 90 hours have been for the family.

During the afternoon, while watching The Wiggles, I learnt a new skill. One of the songs is about looking both ways before crossing the street. After watching this song a few times, I now look both ways each time The Wiggles chorus ‘look both ways’. I also do this action when Mom and Dad say ‘look both ways’. They’re really chuffed, as this is apparently a good skill to have!

Well, that’s it for this week. I’m happy to say that I’m well on the road to recovery from my surgery on Thursday. Next steps will be to closely monitor my progress over the next few days and weeks, and then in about 8 to 12 weeks start considering going for another MRI scan. From that scan it can be determined when my next procedure will be done. As mentioned in Thursday’s blog posting, the Prof and his team managed to close a really large pedicle, but there are still a bunch of fistulas in the region that need to be closed. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get to them as they were too fine for the catheters, meaning that they have to grow bigger to be accessed to be closed, which is a little ironic.

To all my avid followers and fans, thank you again for all the wonderful messages, SMSs, emails, Facebook postings and IM’s. They really help the three of us to make it through these difficult times. Additionally, thank you for the enormous numbers of angels and guardians you all sent to me and my medical team, as well as all the prayers and positive thoughts and energy that was sent our way. I am truly humbled by all of your care and generosity.

Love,
Jarrod

Photo 1 Roxy, covered with flour

Photo 2 Roxy keeps a safe distance as chef Jay-Bee gets down to business

Photo 3 Getting busy

Photo 4 Being a tiny bit naughty

Photo 5 Trying on Dad’s motorbike boots

Photo 6 Aw Mom, now I’ve lost count

Photo 7 Midnight snacking in my hospital ward

Photo 8 Hospital snoozes

Photo 9 Celebrating being discharged from hospital

Photo 10 Passed out from my hospital ordeal

Photo 11 Dad passed out from a hectic 48 hours

Photo 12 Quiet time outside

Photo 13 My prime spot

Photo 14 My get-well card from Mom’s club

Photo 15 Morgan and his Mommy, Tanya, celebrating his second birthday

Photo 16 Being cute

 

 

Leave a Reply