sean

'Never Give Up' 'Man v Trees' 'Sacred Grove' (View from hospital window)

superb mate. love it

City Treescape, Bristol

Much appreciated

Yep....proper out out

Tough call Adam but I'm sure you are strong enough to deal with whatever comes your way. Life is full of surprises and we are constantly confronted with new obstacles to cross and new goals to achieve. See it as a new exciting unknown chapter in your life and it will all work out. Best of luck dude.

Cheers

Cool. Will get in touch nearer the time.

Thanks mate, appreciated

Yes I think I will. You?

Smart trees bristol may well have

Looks like it could be a good day:thumbup:

During my time in hospital and especially when i wasn't well enough to come and go as i pleased it was the 'glimpses' of nature i saw as i was wheeled from one scan to the next from within the clinical walls of the hospital that kept me going.

Thanks as always for all your support and kind words, they really do mean so much and always keep me spurred on when things get a bit tough. So I have been out of hospital for a couple of weeks now. It's been a bit of a whirlwind with what seems like one appointment after another. Community Support teams, OT's, Doctors, Representatives from various funding agencies. It really has been non stop and I have lost count of the number of forms and application forms I have filled out since my discharge. It's so nice to be out of the unit, of course it is. It's now that I am facing new obstacles on a day to day basis. The spinal unit is one big safety bubble, everything designed and geared towards wheel chairs. A different story on the outside. Every pavement is a challenge in a conventional wheel chair. The small casters at the front constantly getting stuck in large cracks or pot holes, stopping dead and nearly throwing straight out the front of the chair. Luckily for me due to the generosity of many around me including the Arbtalkers I have been able to order my new chair which will be a godsend and enable me to have so much freedom. This freedom will not only be enjoyed in the urban environment but also in woodlands and the countryside. I have test driven and now ordered the Mountaintrike. Its such a fantastic bit of kit. All mountain bike technology with full suspension and disc brakes it really is a joy to ride. Up grassy slopes, over tree routes, wet sand, and makes mincemeat of pavements and potholes. Made to order it will be 8 tom10 weeks and it cannot come soon enough. It will enable to get some normality back, I can take my little boy to football with no danger of sinking on a soggy muddy football pitch. I never ever thought I would get excited about a wheelchair!! Oh how things change. Although I have been discharged from hospital I know what a long way there is still to go. I'm still in a lot of pain and my legs are still on fire 24/7 although I have no feeling or moment. It's much the same as phantom limb syndrome. There is medication fro this but I have cut down on the recommended doses as I am exploring through various types of alternative medicines and healing techniques a more natural way of combating it. Wake some mornings still gobsmacked that this has happened to me, telling myself that I just want my legs back. These thoughts are fleeting and as soon as I start to feeling a little morose I drag myself back quick as I know if allowed to sink too far it is a very difficult place to get back from. I still know how lucky I am. Lucky that I wasn't killed or becoming a quadriplegic. Lucky that I have so many amazing family, friends, colleagues etc. lucky that the system in this country does kinda work ( although starting to realise how much improvement there could be). I watched a program about disability in Ghana. It was horrendous with lots of kids who were paralysed living in the streets, turfed out of home by parents, just seen as another mouth to feed unable to contribute. Using skateboards as wheelchairs they spent there days begging. I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like for them having to do their bowel and bladder management in those conditions. It was heart wrenching stuff and I thanked my lucky stars. However I am a believer that pain is relative and we can only deal with what we are confronted with. On the whole though I remain pretty positive and I just want the pain to go, for me to regain my agility which I work on everyday through various exercises and bits of yoga and for me to get on with life. Cheers guys. Will update again soon.

Hi John. Yep you're not too far from Bristol so would love to meet up.

And so the day has arrived. I go home today. Chapter 1 finished and Chapter 2 about to start. Thanks to you all for your kind words and thoughts and donations. You've all been amazing. I will keep you all updated as to my progress and I look forward to once again to contributing photos nd thoughts to this great forum.

Don't they only charge for green waste? I think they take wood chip free

Ode to the Dying Chestnut' Ive been watching the demise of this tree within the hospital grounds. Other than a couple of small bleeding lesions i can see no obvious defects or reason for its demise. Surrounded by buildings saving lives and bringing new life into the world this tree stands reaching the end of its life. A tragic beauty.

Was reading about this last night funnily enough in Richard Mabeys superb and very interesting book 'Weeds'. Highly recommended. Experiments have been conducted which prove that the plant can actually smell is prospective host. Incredible.

Swallow

I've been spending a lot of my evenings sitting watching the Swallows. There's so many of them and a joy to watch. I have a provisional date 5th Aug for discharge. Could possibly be a little later but this is the aim. Cannot wait. A more detailed update to follow. Once again thanks for all your support.

You've got 'Old Knobbley' a huge old oak in the middle of a woodland in Mistley. The Fingringhoe Oak in Fingringhoe Arlesford Creek on the River Colne is special There's some special Ancient Sweetchestnut woodlands around there too. Look forward to seeing your work

Nice find mate. That will be toppling over soon enough. Where in London is it?

Yep it was exactly like that only a bit more dramatic as for the second one I've seen that before.... The guys a crazy ass

25th June Been a bit quiet here really. There have been quite a few of the 'veterans' leaving and a whole new intake of patients who on the whole are on bed rest so not too many of them out and about. George has finally left also, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, oblivious to it all as usual. The postponed trip to the sports shop (see previous post) finally took place which meant i could finally buy some new footwear. My feet which are normally a size 10 have swollen so much that i am now looking at size 12's. Being a 6 ft 1 able bodied person I had trouble seeing all the footwear on offer at these establishments due to the shelves reaching to the heavens in order to cram as much stock into the place as possible. Now wheelchair bound I could actually see approximately 5% of the trainers on offer. For the next half an hour i took on the role of Andy in 'Little Britain', craning my neck, pointing a lot saying 'that one, I want that one, that one there, no not that one, I want that one'. The only difference between myself and Andy is that I did not get out of the wheelchair as soon as Susi's back had turned. Shame. So trainers were fetched, 'that one' did not come in my size. 'What about these ones?' Susi asked. 'No they have to be running shoes' I answered. Im sure the assistant thought i was having a laugh at his expense as the look on his face was a little confused. "I know" I said to him. "Its not as if I will be doing any flicking running is it?". Oh how we all laughed. We finally found a style I liked in a size 12 which still came up too bloody small and that was that, call the mission off. And so we walked and wheeled out of the shop clutching a brand new pair of sod all. I've been into town now, on the bus and everything. That was an experience which unfortunately will have to be repeated at some point. Having waited until everybody had boarded the bus I then had to wait for the driver to get the ramp out so I could get on. Wheeling onto the bus was probably the most self conscious I had ever been. The whole of the lower deck, facing forwards, 40 plus eyes looking at me, the guy in the wheelchair holding everybody up. Parking in my allocated spot proved somewhat problematic as I had to negotiate a myriad of OAP's shopping bags on the floor. I'm sure Mrs Doddery will once again curse me when she gets home to find I've run over and completely ruined her baps. (Snigger snigger). The problems a wheelchair user had to face quickly became apparent once I had disembarked and I took my first tentative 'steps' into the big wide world. (It's hard to get away from using the vernacular language associated with my legs.). The hospital with its emphasis on wheelchair use quite quickly became a distant memory as I bounced over cobbles, cracks in the pavement, the high curbs, all conspired to shake me to the core, the lack of suspension on the chair increasing the force 10 fold ensuring my fragile bones danced a not so merry dance to the tune of 'shake, rattle and roll'. We went to look at a bungalow in Bristol a couple of weeks ago with the Occupational Therapists from the unit here who would determine whether it was suitable or not. The property was owned by a spinal charity and it was currently vacant and therefore ours to have for a temporary period. Looking around that property was a massive dose of reality served cold. Everything inside was brand new and specific to a disabled persons needs. The sockets are at wheelchair height, the cupboards had levers which when pulled would open the cupboards and the shelves would descend to a suitable height. The cooker and sink could be adjusted to various heights to suit both able bodied and disabled needs. It was pointed out to Jasper by me that as the sink could be adjusted to his height he could no longer use the excuse of not being tall enough to enable him to do the washing up. On the ball as usual in front of the Occupation Therapists and the lady from the spinal charity he questioned this logic with the words, "Umm I thought the idea was that you had to be independent." I really have no idea where he gets his smart arse genes from. Anyway the bungalow was deemed suitable and we will probably take it. It is not an ideal but at least it is in Bristol and we will see it as the next stage of rehab and give us time to decide what we want to do long term. This post would not be complete without an unfortunate trouser incident and I know all those who read these posts wait on tenterhooks to find out the level of embarrassment I have reached. Well unlucky because I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of having a laugh at my expense. And anyway there's nothing to tell. Sorry? What's that? Tell them about the wheelie incident instead? Bloody hell can I not have a single post without being laughed at? Okay here we go. So I finally managed to have my 'stabilisers' raised so I could get up bigger kerbs in assisted. This meant also that I could learn how to do a good wheelie. After only an hour or so I had mastered it. I had a couple of close calls, of course I did but due to the stabilisers still being in situ albeit higher I was saved from falling backwards. In due course I was able to hold a wheelie for any amount of time by holding on to the wheels and making fine adjustments. And so the time had come at last when Dad could show his small son how super cool and down with the kids he was. Alone in my room with Jasper at last I took my opportunity. "Hey Jasper, look how good I am at wheelies now" I said. As he looked my way I grabbed my wheels to wheelie like I've never wheelie before. The front of the chair came up and completely tipped backwards. My head smashed against the door and I ended up looking at the ceiling, still sat in the chair with my legs in the air. Poor Jasper looked at me with what I can only describe as concern and sheer bloody pity. Before I knew it Susi was at the door. She had been out in the garden rustling up bacon sandwiches along with the wife of another patient. She was half way through cooking some bacon when suddenly she had an urge to come and see if I was alright. Just as she was nearing my room she heard a crash closely followed by an aargh and on looking through my door window saw me propped up against it. Now, this sudden thought to come and see me I can only attribute to a premonition probably based on the fact that she knows what an idiot I can be. Anyway, to cut a humiliating story short, I only suffered a bruised elbow but unfortunately my pride took one hell of a battering as I was hoisted from the floor and dumped unceremoniously back in to my chair. Having enquired if I was ok the only other words of comfort Jasper could muster were "don't do that again Dad". Ok son I will.