IDLEMILD - Life’s Rich Pageant While On Bedrest

I had focus only for the clock facing me in my bed, on every hour passing through the night, as the ward slept. I was steadfast in my slightly hysterical belief that staying awake would slow down time and delay my inevitable day with the surgeon's scalpel dawning .   Indeed, i had not slept one wink and time was typically unmoved by my plight to relentlessly march on, and It was still all too soon, despite my best efforts, finding myself being moved in whispers and long silences by the hospital porters, and so unceremoniously i felt for something so seismic, out of the ward and brought in to surgery on the morning of Thursday 16th November 2006.  Another reason for my lack of sleep was because I was still reeling after undergoing an unexpected procedure in the hours following my admission the day before. By late afternoon on the Wednesday I knew what I really wanted more than anything was to be able to duck out of the following days operation. The scale of eve...

I traveled to Glasgow from Aberdeen lying flat on a stretcher in the back of a patient transfer vehicle. I was accompanied by a woman in a wheelchair attending an outpatient appointment at the Spinal Injuries Unit that same day. She had been there as an in patient already and I asked her lots of questions about the environment and her experience to which she was very complimentary. I felt more relaxed certainly for speaking to her and we were both surprised entering the city of Glasgow as quickly as we felt we had. My familiarity with my home town brought additional comfort. I had been having quite a tranquil time of things since my surgery. I had spent almost a month in the ward in Aberdeen waiting for a bed to become available in Glasgow. That time was spent in a single room with books, magazines, music and movies to entertain myself with, in between visitors and casual trips to the gym.  I had been enjoying having my own room and It was as close as I have ever come t...