Wednesday

I spent most of  Wednesday morning in the insurance office – again; and left with more lists of paperwork to supply and phone calls to make. But at least I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and felt better than on Tuesday, when I’d gone into meltdown. For some reason, Tuesday was when the big “what if” hit me like a sledgehammer; up to then I’d been positive about how lucky Nick had been, but suddenly I was a shuddering wreck who couldn’t stop crying. Shock, I suppose. Plus not understanding a lot of what was being said regarding the paperwork (never my forté), or the systems that drive it; the enormity of the situation seemed just too much to cope with and it took a while to pull myself back together.

I had more paperwork to sort at the hospital in the afternoon, as well as going to see the surgeon; I think everybody got the impression that Nick didn’t speak French when he arrived, so they choose to talk to me instead.

Thursday

Nick went to theatre at 8am on Thursday. I started phoning for news at 11 o’clock, but he was still in theatre; he didn’t actually get out of theatre till 2pm and back to the ward at 3.30. His left leg in in plaster from the toes to the knee and I saw the bruise on his shoulder for the first time; impressive.

He was groggy to start with, but fairly soon was awake enough to talk to the stream of visitors who arrived. He was on a lot of pain relief, so not in too much discomfort, but started looking tired, so I left him to sleep and met with Gilles, to fill in the forms for the cycle club insurance claim – it took a mere hour, we must be getting proficient!

Friday

The physio called to see Nick today; I think we’ll be seeing a lot of him in the coming weeks and months. Nick’s arm is very swollen, due to lack of movement, so he massaged it and gave Nick exercises to do. He has to make a fist and raise and lower his forearm; at first he could only do that by lifting it with his other hand, he was quite shocked at how weak it’s become.

Kieran went to see him, then came home with me to help me with various tasks I can’t do on my own; taking down the scaffolding, moving furniture out of the sitting room and installing a bed downstairs for when Nick comes home. The problem is that he can’t walk because of his ankle, but can’t use crutches because of his shoulder; so we’ll have to hire a wheelchair for a while and he’ll be restricted to the ground floor.

The surgeon says he should be able to come home next week; it can’t come soon enough.