I won’t dwell on the agonies of transferring myself, stiffened after an hour’s drive, from the car to our living room; adjusting to the different seating levels, and manoeuvring myself around the home yesterday evening. Two examples will suffice.
While Jackie was in the kitchen preparing wonderful scrambled egg on toast, I decided to rise from the old worn out Chesterfield sofa which was my favourite TV seat. When Jackie returned after twenty minutes she had to put the tray down and haul me up to the arm of the furniture. I was dripping with sweat, but that didn’t stop me relishing all my dinner.
The most frightening challenge had been ascending the stairs to bed. Having eventually summoned up the courage to give it a go, I surmounted these with comparative ease. Our bedroom is part of an extension added in the 1970s. There is a further step down into it, twice the depth of those on the stairs. Still using crutches, I fell down it, tottered forward and came to a standstill, realising that my replacement knee had twice taken all the weight, with no adverse effects.
This morning, we pondered how we might insert an intermediate step. Having provided me with coffee, Jackie wandered around the garden. Soon I was greeted by her smiling face beside a slab of concrete resting on her shoulder. Would that I could have snapped the moment. I was soon able to step on it and descend the stairs.
We will have to be satisfied with a photograph that the Maintenance Department produced later.
Having given me a personal cleaning service Jackie felt I was really home once ensconced in my corner chair. Note that I am wearing my more familiar slippers.
I slept through most of the afternoon. Later, I really looked forward to my dinner of fish pie, carrots, peas, and green beans. It was eaten with considerable relish.