Day 26 continuing slowly on - Baggy is Feeling Useless.

Baggy feels so guilty for putting her husband through all of this. Clever Bird realises that it was hardly a choice that she made, but actually Clever Bird if you listen to Freda Fretter, it kind of was! Okay, there was no choice over the Lawrence surgery. Once he was discovered, he had to come out and Baggy had to have a full hysterectomy. She had no choice because they thought Lawrence might be cancer. Even when they knew he was a hairy, teethy, durmoid cyst, there was still a very slight chance that he was malignant, so he had to come out, Baggy was not given an option. Baggy's arm on the other hand. Yes it needed doing, she was losing the muscle, but she had already turned the surgery down once, she could have left it. She could have waited until next year. Of course Clever Bird, Baggy realises that that would have been a risk, but had she left it Baggy would be very close to being back to normal now! She could certainly drive (as long as her insurance company let her), so Grotty could at least go to see the horses. She could certainly be looking fully after herself so Calum could get back to normality.

But the arm surgery she had was transposition of the ulnar nerve, where the surgeon removes the nerve from out of the cubital tunnel (a.k.a. the funny bone - but it's really not) and puts it in the nearby muscle. So it's pretty invasive. Baggy does have a very high pain threshold and still hasn't taken anything today, but she can't bend her elbow fully, lift her arm up, or even move her fingers properly. Clever Bird just looked up the expected recovery times on t'internet (yep she's a nightmare), and accidentally saw a load of photos of mid-surgery. Stupid woman, Baggy nearly passed out! But once again she is well ahead of the game. Heavy pain is expected for five to seven days after surgery. she's really not that bad today, one day after. Strong painkillers required for seven to fifteen days. Hmmm! Return to work, but with no use of arm - fourteen days. Again hmmm! Best stop Clara typing this with both hands then. Light use of arm - four to six weeks. Light painkillers - two to four months. Really? Normal use of arm - four to six months. Full recovery - six months to one year. Hmmmmmm! So she's way ahead of the average recovery progress then.

So Baggy knows she cannot drive for at least two weeks. She is probably today still slightly anaesthetised and will feel worse later. But if she hadn't had the surgery now, it would have meant at least three months again next year of Grotty Groom not being a full gang member. So it was the right thing to do. But it didn't stop Hormonal Hannah from feeling so guilty that she put Baggy into another hysterical meltdown, when halfway through typing the second paragraph of this blog, Calum looked across at Baggy in her dressing gown and said, "Oh, I thought you were dressed". Before Clever Bird could shut her up, through floods of gulping tears, Hannah said, "And how pray would I have managed that without your help?" "Well why didn't you ask?", "Because I can see how stressed you are and I don't like to constantly ask", blubbed Baggy. Calum was mortified that Baggy was hysterical. She tried to explain. "But you must ask, I'm not psychic". Okay. "Would you like a shower?", "Well yes, of course, but I need a plastic bag put over the dressing, so again can't without your help". Just get over yourself and ask Clever Bird, Calum does not mind!

Bag on. Shower kind of managed. Clever Bird couldn't face asking Cal to come and wash her left armpit, which is nigh on impossible using your left hand. But she had to ask him to dry her and put deodorant on her left armpit and put her bra on (it didn't suit him) and put her t-shirt on. Ask, ask, ask, so much more difficult than the pain for Baggy. It is definitely for the best that Baggy is off to her sister's for a week tomorrow.......