still cant type unfortunately due to neuropraxia - pish

can't type, gammy right hand has stopped working !
busy weeks though, lot's of mayhem and spectacular river rescue attempt for 20 year old cannoeist who sadly died.

The weather never ceases to amaze me here, no sooner is British summertime declared they shut the snow gates at Glencoe and Tyndrum. The hills look magical again and of course the ski resorts will be jumping for joy. Yesterday was one of those blue sky days and warm enough to sit out in. I got sorted out with my fizzy water and new Jack Reacher novel and Lyndsey set off to Glasgow for a haircut and overnighter at Kerry’s. Three hours later I had managed 71 pages and countless periods of unconsciousness, I’ve got no energy at all but what a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Took all my drugs in accordance with Lyndsey’s kardex with the exception of a zopiclone for sleeping, consequently I was still awake at 3am. What is it about the wee small hours that magnify all of your worries? Not having anyone to bounce things off my imagination was running riot, the ulnar nerve pain in my right hand seemed worse than ever and I eventually convinced myself that the fracture site had moved within the Frame and the pain from the top pin site became a terrible sign as far as I was convinced. Eventually I fell asleep only to wake up at 6 so I’m a tad knackered. One funny thing was that in the mirror instead of a drawn grey faced Ian staring back at me I had a pink sunburnt face and unbelievably had managed to burn my left arm in amongst the pin sites. Just had an old fashioned bath-in-the sink wash, and shave, so I didn’t get the tens electrodes wet. Of course in the light of day the problems are no longer the issue that they were at 3am. Lots of texts from Lyndsey to remind me to take my drugs; I cleaned the top pin site as the dressing was quite stained by exudates. Trying to get the new dressing back on it struck me how near impossible it would be for someone to manage an ilizarov frame living on their own, that and not having my pal in the house overnight made me reflect on how important our relationship is.


And finally the weather; from the blue sky day yesterday it’s raining and the snow is starting to melt, reminds me so much of all of those years camping in Glencoe when you would arrive in brilliant sunshine then wake up to the rain. Everyone except the diehards would go home and the next day would be sunny and superb for climbing and drinking – a strange place but what an amazing place to live. So it’s a day of dozing like the cats and working on the painting of the ridge which is coming along, an enormous work just like I had planned!

Monday's bloods

birthday boy with fizzy water "wine"

Birthday boy today, slept well again last night, using the tens machine lyndsey bought for the ulnar nerve pain. Cold outside with snow flurries, Mabel away to buy me some more hoodies and t-shirts. Loads of phone calls, had a nice chat with Eilidh who seems to be doing well, some worrying news about her sister. Some interesting packages to open when Lyndsey gets home. Haven't painted for two days, feel quite weak but then the bloods from Monday are a bit deranged.

First aid training tonight went very well I thought with the simulated heart attack all the way through to cardiac arrest and CPR with Defibrillation. They need to practice that just the same way we have to practice assessing snow slopes and equalising anchors etc. Big turn out and the usual trip across the road for a beer, or in my case soda water and lime. My bonemarrow is being effected by the drugs,Mondays bloods were way off compared to the previous week; white cells and neutrophils down and HB not any better and liver function starting to go off. Paradoxically feel good and postive, I think the session night is crucial as its stimulating and keeps my head right – a very nice bunch of folk and great to see them turn out night after night.

Another full night's sleep, (drug induced of course)fantastic. Weather crap, cold and wet with snow down to 400 metres on the hills. Still no energy and the latest bloods are a bit deranged with my fantastic antibiotic. Surgeon was very pleased with the photographs of the wound and pin sites we sent down to him, saved us a long trip to Edinburgh. Our professor of orthopaedics in the USA had already passed them in any case! Mabel and Ian last day on holiday today so should see them soon. Still bothered by the ulnar nerve damage to my right hand, hope that resolves soon. Have'nt taken any pictures so nothing to post up.

I slept the entire night last night hooray, shame I had to take a Zopiclone to do it, feel so much better after the last two nights of poor sleep and I've finally started painting again so a much better day today and it's stopped raining! The painting is very large, thought that would keep me busy, it's the Aonach Egach Ridge based on some photographs I took on one of my rehab walks

I sounded a bit negative earlier on today, feel better now and the right hand pain is getting better, took some pics of the arm to e-mail Mr Keenan as he wanted to keep an eye on it but save us a 3hour drive each way down to Edinburgh. I think my anaemic blood results show why I'm knackered and currently unable to do much.

I've been struggling for the last three days, the ulnar nerve damage I suffered to my right arm during the surgery has gotten much worse and is dominating things now. As a result I haven't slept well this last few nights. Its quite infuriating that my main problem is due to somebody not noticing my right arm was in an awkward position or that something was impinging on it through my operation. The pinky finger is worse than the ring finger but it's incredibly uncomfortable and in the wee hours is dominating my discomfort. By contrast my left arm is coming on fine. The deltoid head pin is much cleaner now and the discharge has stopped. Only that one and the one through the bicep have dressings on them. The posterior k wire insertion point is also sore but has been from day 1. 2 weeks into the antibiotic epic, 2 weeks to go. Not looking forward to teaching this course in less than 2 weeks for Claire, should have binned it as soon as I found out in Feb that the arm was infected. Need to see how it goes but I fear the worst and will have to tell her I'm simply not fit.

It’s been raining here for the last week so the white winter is finally on the retreat. Saturday was dry with sunny spells warm enough to sit out in, I was a bit taken aback by being knackered simply walking the length of the river. I was thinking about painting this week so instead of posting up more pictures of metalwork and wounds I thought I would put up some of the recent acrylic work as an inspiration to produce some new stuff.

One week post-op

Almost able to type again, one week in, wounds are healing well with Lyndsey doing the daily pin site cleaning after my daily shower. It will be nice to have a bath one day. The frame takes a bit of getting used to but I have faith that this is what was needed and Pat in the USA is giving me a running progress report from her perspective; as an associate professor in Orthopaedics that's very reassuring. It’s difficult to be objective after three operations and numerous disasters so in my paranoid state I’m a bit worried about the appearance of the humerus looking like Swiss cheese after all the screws that have been in it. Until those holes fill in you have to imagine it wouldn’t take much to fall on it and break it again. I think my days of scrambling and Winter walks are at least a few years in the future. No harm of doing some hill walking for a few years, good fat-burning days.

Ilizarov frame done

Got home from Edinburgh on Monday following Friday's operation. An eventful recovery caused by giving me a PCA drip of Morphine led me to develop a CO2 of 7.5 and talk utter shite for 48 hours. An amazing job removing all of the callous, preserving the radial nerve and putting the two ends together. There's a bit of angulation but hopefully that won't get worse and with some remodelling will improve. I have 5 pin sites which are still weeping a bit and bloody sore. Will find some pics to put up

Pre operative hill walk

In the same vein that I managed to get plodding about on Creag Dubh and Aonach Mor in crampons before the operation on 2nd Feb I thought I had best take myself up the hill today to get a nice memory to hold onto while shitting myself in Edinburgh on Friday. I went up onto the shoulder of Beinn Bhan, gorgeous views of the Glen, Loch Leven and the avalanche debris above the West face of Aonach Dubh. Last post I would imagine now until a week or so post op.

Yesterday was a bit overcast so I didn't get out, first aid training at night in the rescue centre was a good laugh though and we all had a pint afterwards which was very civilised. The team continues to go from strength to strength, better now than it's been for quite a few years. Linda and Spitz's enthusiasm is very infectious.
Another blue sky morning but the weather was coming in from the West so a change seems to be on the way. I finally have the Sat-map talking to Memory-map which is good, what a great bit of kit, a fine use of my gear allowance. We took the cats up to the vets in Fort William for their annual jags which was entertaining, lots of yowling and Lindsey’s forearms are shredded from Mac fighting to stay out of the cat box.

It was another glorious day in Argyll today, blue sky and clear air.

I went out for another short walk trying to build myself up and get some fresh air after three weeks cooped up in the house recovering from operation number 3. Just 4 Kilometres round the point then up above the quarry. Took the camera and got a few images worth keeping, hard not to take decent pictures with the scenery we have here. A tornado GR4 flew over my head but I was late seeing it and had the aperture up at 10 so shutter speed a bit slow. One of the images was pretty good though so I’ll post it here. The title picture for this blog was also taken today. 42 Commando were training in the quarry, had a blether with one of the officers, nice blokes. Found some pictures of Ilizarov frames on peoples arms so have a better idea of what’s ahead of me a week on Friday. I’m shitting myself of course and really desperate that this time I’ll have a good outcome and can finally put this behind me. It’s been a long 19 months with many setbacks but the despair I felt waking up in recovery last month to be told the arm was infected and that there was no new metalwork in the arm was the lowest point yet. It’s taken three weeks to get over the depression that invoked. Having our crazy new pals from the Mexico holiday come and stay for the weekend obviously helped. Mabel and Ian have been great in keeping me going; I don’t know how Lyndsey can put up with my highs and lows though.
Anyway the point of this is to give me some purpose, keep me positive and give me a push to achieve something each day so I can write about it in the blog. I’ll keep it private just now and see how I get on. Would be nice to have somewhere to store my efforts in photography and painting and maybe eventually open it up to others to read. We’ll see.

out and about today

cracking weather today in the Glen, thought I would have another go at walking and see how I got on. I'm 3 weeks post op from the last operation. Last weekend I was sore for 3 days after wandering up the Brecklet path and down to the Quarry. I think the proximal end of my humerus was still trying to swing despite the cast so the callous was all disrupted. Today went much better. I've uploaded a picture of the west face of Aonach Dubh, a crown wall extends the length of the face where the entire slope has avalanched over the cliffs, spectacular and shows how the snow was redistributed after this week's Easterly airflow. Two avalanche rescues in the last week, last wednesday on the Buachaillie saw two lads killed trying to be careful descending coire Tulaich. Saturday was the biggest avalanche i've been involved in with the team. 2 very experienced skiers wandered just a bit too far west of Etive Glades on Meall a bhuirdh and were carried 1000 feet plus down into the Cam Ghleann. One broke his leg so a very lucky excape considering the size of the avalanche and the distance travellled. Rescue 177 brought them over to us so I got involved sorting out his pain control with IV morphine and entonox before slpinting the leg. I felt much better being able to contribute as I was very frustrated on Wednesday being unable to help the team deal with the Buachaille avalanche.