Intensity to Come

Hi Everyone,
Things back in Hamilton started pretty well and I settled into my new routine quickly. I've been seeing friends and family heaps, going home for meals and reestablishing my social lifestyle pronto. All my equipment such as bed, tilt table, arm bike and wheelchairs have slowly been filtering through the door. My teams of carers are getting sorted with some leaving and some being asked to leave. My motel unit is really nice, and the interior decorator (motel owner Mark), put up my massive Chiefs banner and an oil painting Sally painted and gave me for Xmas. I managed to get a sound system and TV sorted too. I found an adaptive X box controller on an American website, so have enjoyed some gaming.

Unfortunately an incident falling out of my wheelchair landed me on bedrest for a few weeks. If that wasnt frustrating enough, towards the end of the duration of my bedrest, my knee started swelling up, causing me to sweat with every turn. We didn't know the cause and neither did my GP, until about 5 days later when my thigh became swollen as well. So I called Mum (who was holidaying in Kerikeri with her sister Janet), called my GP and went to A & E, where Dad kept me company for the four hours I was there. The next afternoon during an ultrasound, they diagnosed what we all predicted - two clots (DVT deep vein thrombosis) behind my knee. So my left hip and thigh remain extremely swollen (9cms larger than right side).

New Years was surprisingly successful for bedrest. Having friends camp in the lounge before and after New Years, and getting up to party on the night. I've watched heaps of DVD's, and highly recommend Freedom Writers, Babel, and The Great Debaters.

In the next couple of weeks I'm looking forward to the Charity Golf Tournament on the 31st January, ACDC on the 4th Feb and on the 6th Feb, a party with some of my friends for my 21st last year. Being on a ventilator makes it hard to seriously party.

(Something to finish)
Tim