It’s been a week since I moved back home from the Epworth and I’ve had some more time to myself for sleeping (thank god), thinking and catching up with friends. I’ve also had lots of quality couch time :)

I’ve had so many lovely texts and calls checking in on me to make sure I’m ok. I’ve had grocery deliveries (thanks Alex), lasagne deliveries (thanks Lizzie), cake deliveries (thanks Nic) and online shopping deliveries (thanks Aus Post).

There’s also been plenty of sudoku, I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it.

I’ve also been into work to say hi and catch up on news and views. The highlight without doubt has been my visit today - the guys helped me spice up my crutches a bit with some gold paint. Epic! They’ve been so, so good throughout this whole episode, I’m very fortunate to be able to call them my colleagues and friends.

I received a call from the TAC today to let me know my...

Today is my last full day at the Epworth as I’ll be heading home permanently tomorrow. I’ve spent a lot of time wondering how it would feel to go home and the primary feeling is relief. I feel a lot of pressure to be excited and happy but honestly I’m quite apprehensive about what is still to come.

I’m continuing to reflect on everything that has happened since the 2nd February and I still have quite a few unresolved thoughts so I won’t jump into too many reflections today.

So as I sit here having my last lunch of assorted sandwiches, I’m wondering how many of these I’ve had. Seems a pretty good time to tally some numbers.

Summary
Total days in hospital: 102 days (3 months, 12 days)
Total days at the Epworth: 95 days (3 months, 5 days)
Broken bones: 6

During this time, I’ve had 4 public holidays and 1 birthday.

As an inpatient at the Epworth, I’ve been fortunate to attend:
Physio...

Couldn’t resist the blog title.

This week I’ve hit 12 weeks since that hot February afternoon that didn’t quite go to plan. I’m not sure where the past 3 weeks went since my appointment at the Alfred but on Thursday I was given the green light to start weight bearing on my right leg. I’d been curious about how it was going to feel. Speaking with one of the EPs at hydrotherapy, at the 12 week mark they can see some people literally stand up and walk away, whilst others have to work through a new set of challenges to get the confidence walking. I wasn’t really sure where I was going to sit on the spectrum but given it hadn’t felt too bad over the past few weeks I thought I’d be fine.

Sure enough, I took my first steps walking in the hydro pool as a warm up. I kept my shoulders in the water to keep at about 20% weight bearing so that I could practice the feeling of left/right foot...

Since my last blog I’ve been mixing things up, mostly due to enjoying my newfound freedom from the cast. I’ve gone back to the normal two handed wheelchair, which means I can push myself outside a lot more easily and get myself to physio in about half the normal time. It has meant I can no longer wheel myself while carrying a cup of tea but I’m ok with compromising.

It’s been a full house of visitors lately, which has been a nice change from having some quieter weeks (by request). I had my Mum down for a couple of nights, which for the first time didn’t involve Scrabble but did include lots of time outside sitting in the sun, my first regular takeaway coffee and another beautiful bunch of fresh flowers.

I had visits from work friends and managers as well - they’ve been consistently generous throughout this journey and they’ve never stopped sending messages of support. For a while...

Today I headed to the Alfred for complete x-rays and a review with my orthopaedic surgeon. After a few early hiccups and diversions, I’ve officially exited the holding pattern I’ve been in for the past six weeks. Thumbs up.

I’ll start with a run through of the day’s events, because no trip to to the Alfred is complete without a few good stories. My x-rays were scheduled for 9am, followed by the consultation at 9:45am. Justin, the patient transport driver, had me at the Alfred right on time thanks to pretty much running me all the way from the van to the front door. Apologies to any doctors we nearly took out on the way, pretty sure none of them were Dr Karl or equivalent so it’s fine.

I arrive at radiology and this time ensure I’ve been checked in at the desk (lesson learned). I asked the nurse to confirm what x-rays are being done and she tells me it’s a full pelvis/lumbar and wrist...

Today marks 7 weeks AC (after crash) and I’m making good progress thanks to the team here:

• I can get to standing on my left leg from chair height
• I can hop about 10m using the gutter frame and a lot of concentration
• I can transfer into my wheelchair using my left leg and only occasionally need the slide board when I’m tired or my wheelchair parking was dodgy

While thinking about this, I realise I use so much equipment every day to get around and perform some relatively basic tasks. So I thought I’d share a bit more about my experience at the Epworth and give an insight into the range of gear they’ve provided me with on my journey to walking.

Firstly, my trusty wheelchair…

The physio team searched far and wide for this chair. It’s pretty unique because I can steer it using only the left side - the little wheel pushed forward turns left, the big wheel turns right. It’s a bit of a...

Don’t panic, I’m going to buck a trend that’s established over the past 6 weeks and say that things have been fairly quiet. Phew.

I’d really felt like I’d reached peak exhaustion about 10 days ago - everything seemed so much harder than it should have. I felt like I had a constant weight on my shoulders and no matter how much time I spent flat on my back, I had nothing in the bank. I mentioned this to Josh and I thought it made sense to blame the drugs. I was taking various quantities of Targin, Mobic, Panadol Osteo, a tablet for my stomach lining and the anti-coagulant injection…surely it was something in there that was making me feel flat. Josh asked a few questions, provided support and let me come to my own conclusion that it’s just me, feeling a bit beaten up and not feeling overly happy about the situation. It was bound to happen but my approach of trying to ignore the thoughts...

It’s been quite a big week (which seems to be my standard opening sentence for this blog) - turning 26 earlier this week seemed like a good time to rediscover my left foot. After a fairly average previous week learning about my wrist, I was ready for some good news.

I’ll start with Tuesday morning, which was spent at yet another frustrating appointment at the Alfred. This trip was made even more special when I was left in the x-ray waiting room without being checked in to said x-ray, resulting in a nice 1h30 spent waiting for no real reason. I’m sorry if this sounds a little bitter, but it’s becoming a theme for many of us here and it makes those outpatient appointments a real horror. The upside of the appointment was that I was able to see my brother Rob, who had surprised me from Sydney, and I had my right arm re-cast and I was able to pick a colour. The Swedish doctor responsible...

I’d been thinking that my blogs were getting quite long, so far I’ve been averaging around 2,000 words. Seems like they’re going to get a lot shorter from now on!

I’d had a niggle in my right wrist since the accident but it hadn’t seemed like a big deal in the scheme of things. There were some limitations in my movement but nothing too far off what I’d expect from a sprain. I mentioned it at the Alfred when I was admitted and an x-ray had showed nothing. When I had a follow up x-ray at the Epworth, again nothing could be seen but my doctors weren’t convinced so a CT was requested. Sure enough, just over 3 weeks post accident on Thursday they found a fracture in my scaphoid.

For those like me who have no idea what a scaphoid is, it’s this pesky little bone:

Josh filled me in on the details. It’s basically an incredibly annoying bone to fracture because there isn’t much blood flow...