Sunday 30 December 2012

Another milestone on the road to recovery. December 2012

Above is a very ameteurish attempt at copying a local street map onto the blog. What I achieved today on my crutches was to walk (hobble) down Earls Way to the roundabout along Abbots Way and into Knoweholm . At the end of this road is a lane back into Earls Way and up the hill to the house,a distance of over half a mile the furthest I have walked in 5 weeks. Tomorrow maybe a little further but at least I now know what I can do. Thanks again for all the calls Anne and I have received over the last few weeks it is a great comfort  to know how many of you are thinking about us.

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Christmas greetings 2012


Two of Santa's helpers.
Hello everyone and a very Merry Christmas to all blog composers and readers, hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are in the world.

Sunday 16 December 2012

Update on progress. December 2012


Back out on the prom.

Look no hands!

Not the most comfortable seat I have ever sat on.

This is the start of the "Lang Scots Mile"
Still not had a haircut.
Today Sunday December 16th Anne once again took me in her little car to the Ayr promenade on a calm sunny day. I am practicing walking short distances only using crutches and putting about 50% of my weight on my damaged leg,which is an improvement since last week when it was only 20%. The stitches were removed last Tuesday and after a further x ray the docor said all was well and knitting together nicely. I do not go back until early January so I will have to wear the moon boot for another few weeks which of course takes in the festive period when unfortunately I will not be able to help with the cooking and washing up after our family gathering on Saturday.
  May I take this opportunity yet again to thank each and everyone of you who have completely bowled me over (boom boom) with your cards,calls amd e mails inquiring after my wellbeing, it is extremely kind of you , it is also amazing how many people I actually know.Also my thanks to Anne who has been wonderful over the last three weeks looking after me I really do appreciate the hard work and kindness she has shown me in these difficult times, just as well I am a model patient!
  Finally today when I was on hobbling along the prom I met a fellow lady walker who goes out mainly with the local Thursday group,  generally do a nice gentle "C" walk finishing up with a wee cup of tea in some convenient cafe.When I said perhaps I could build myself up to be able to manage this type of walk she found this very amusing as not many walkers have to "build themseves up" to be able to walk with this group.Watch this space!

Sunday 9 December 2012

Progress after accident. December 2012

On crutches at Ayr shore.

The "zimmer frame"

A moonboot

instead of a plaster cast.
Big day today another step on the slow road to recovery. Anne took her car to the Ayr shore car park on a very windy sunny day so we could both get out of the house to have a breath of fresh air. I managed a few steps with the zimmer and then  the crutches but it was fairly difficult in the very strong wind. Next outing will be Tuesday 11th to get the stitches out at the hospital when I hope to get some form of programme to help me on my way back to fitness. Anyway slow progress has been made and another update will appear shortly.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

ADRC. Straiton to Dalmellington. November 2012

The Monument at Straiton

The group.
First of all let me apologise for the lack of blogs recently as most of my local readers will have learnt I have had a serious accident on the walk I was leading for Ayr and District Ramblers on Sunday November 25th. Details will follow giving more imfo. etc.etc.On  rather damp misty day 15 of us left Straiton to climb Monument Hill over to Largs, Turgenev and finally Auchenroy where the group had a lunch stop in the clearing skies affording us views down to the coast at Irvine.From here we dropped down into Craigengillan Estate walking on paths and tracks until we came close to Holm Farm. Unfortunately it was here on a rather slippy steep hill that I took a tumble and broke two bones in my leg and dislocated my ankle. I was lying on the hillside with my leg going straight down and my foot twisted round at a very awkward and extremely painful angle.It was at this point I knew we had  an emergency on our hands and as is normal the leader takes charge of the situation and plans the best course of action. However this was not possible as I was the leader so I nominated Madam Vice as incident co-ordinator. She used my phone and dialled 999 (911 in the USA) to alert the emergency services of our location taken off the GPS .information of our surrounding terrain, age of victim, details of injuries sustained and generally any other information the controller asks. As in a previous emergency we know not to ask for a helicopter that is their decision which proved useful as they took a couple of minutes to do their assessment and called Madam Vice back to inform her that the air ambulance helicopter had been dispatched from Glasgow and would arrive with us in approximately 15-20 minutes.At this point everyone of the group were doing their best to keep me warm with emergency blankets ,additional warm clothing and generally talking to me to stop me from going into shock. I asked one of our new members who is very good with the camera if he woud do some video and photos of the rescue which he agreed to do with a little bit of trepidation I hasten to add. The results can be viewed in this link. Anne and I watch it regularly making us feel rather emotional thinking how lucky I was to have such a wonderful team of ramblers with me coupled with all the emergency services involved. Once I arrived at the hospital in Ayr a well rehearsed procedure was put into place with upmost efficiency to assess my injuries resulting in me being made fairly comfortable in a reletively short period of time. Dislocated ankle was straightened(ouch) leg x -rayed ,operation to insert a metal plate complete with pins and out of hospital in 4 days. I am not going to go into every detail of my treatment except to say it was text book professionalism administered in the highest possible standard.
    I am now at home recuperating with a surgical moon boot on my foot which gives me support when I try to move about. Anne is looking after me with lots of TLC thrown in she is absolutely marvellous and I could not go through all this without her.My thanks must go firstly to the emergency services involved, the members of ADRC who were with me on that fateful day and finally Madam Vice whose calm level headedness when she took control of a very serious medical emergency, she was my ROCK as I lay there seriously injured on a lonely wet mucky hillside near to Dalmellington. Anne and I would like to take this opportunity of expressing our gratitude to each and everyone of you who were involved in my rescue and subsequent treatment.Obviusly I will not be rambling for some time however I mean to continue with the blog as I find it a way to keep in touch with all you bloggers out there in cyberspace.
Plese also read the comments below the Newton Stewart blogger has composed some verses that are very amusing.