We went to see the surgeon yesterday; he’s happy with Nick’s progress and said that he no longer needs the “gouttière”, a sort of removeable plaster cast and can soon start to put his foot on the ground, which feels like a glimmer of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Nick feels that progress on his shoulder is very slow, but this, apparently, is normal; it’s the joint with the most articulation, so getting full movement back will be a long, slow process.
The physio has a pulley device; Nick pulls the cord on one side, which enables him to lift his bad arm. So I’ve drilled a couple of holes in the beam in the sitting room ceiling, screwed eyelets into them and threaded them with cord; Nick can do the same exercise at home now. It’s shocking to see him unable to lift his arm, but that too is normal at this stage, we gather.
Before all this happened, Nellie and I were asked to sing at a concert in January; normally we have the reassurance of the rest of the band with us, but this time will be a lot more scary. The organiser asked for a photo of us for the flyers, so Nick played the role of photographer today, on his “mobility scooter”. It was a lovely afternoon and Hervé came along with Nellie, quite peeved that I hadn’t yet asked him for help. He was disappointed to find that Kieran is keeping up with the firewood, as he’d arrived with a couple of chainsaws in his van, but I was able to keep him occupied putting in stakes and wires to support the mange tout peas that are growing nicely now, while Nellie and I dug and weeded other parts of the garden, and Nick rode around happily on the mower, delighted to be outdoors in the warm autumn sunshine.
As the sun went down we had aperos by the log fire and Hervé made me promise to call him the next time there’s a task I can’t cope with.
One such task was taken on by Adrian and his brother, Mick. For a couple of weeks I’ve been hearing scrabbling, pattering noises in the space between the kitchen ceiling and my bedroom floor; at first it sounded small, like mice, but last week we had the impression of something enormous, wearing hobnailed boots. I really thought it was a rat, though it could have got into the space, I couldn’t imagine. It was so loud that it woke me at 6 o’clock one morning! I bought sachets of poison and pushed them into any gaps I could find, but the noises continued. I mentioned it to Ade when he was over; he and his brother cut out a square of the floorboards under the bed, where it won’t show, scattered several packs of poison as far as they could and put back the boards, reassuring me that the droppings they found were only those of mice. I haven’t heard anything since, so fingers crossed that they’re gone, or dead, or both.
We really count ourselves very lucky to have such good friends.
Le kiné a un outil de poulie à son cabinet; Nick tire le cordon sur un côté, ce qui lui permet de lever son bras malade. Donc, j’ai percé deux trous dans la poutre du plafond de la salle de séjour, vissés des oeillets dans eux et les filetée avec cordon; Nick peut faire le même exercice à la maison maintenant. Il est choquant de le voir incapable de lever le bras, mais on nous dit que c’st normale.
Avant tout cela est arrivé, Nellie et moi ont été invités à chanter lors d’un concert en janvier; normalement, nous avons l’assurance du reste du groupe avec nous, mais cette fois sera beaucoup plus effrayant. L’organisateur a demandé une photo de nous pour les flyers, donc Nick a joué le rôle du photographe aujourd’hui, sur son «scooter de mobilité”. Ce fut un bel après-midi et Hervé est arrivé avec Nellie, assez irrité que je ne lui avait pas encore demandé de l’aide. Il etait déçu d’apprendre que Kieran a bougé assez de bois de chauffage, quand il est arrivé avec des tronçonneuses dans sa camionette, mais je pouvais le tenir occupé en mettant des piquets pour soutenir les petits pois mange-tout qui se pousse très bien maintenant, tandis que Nellie et moi avons creusé et désherbé d’autres parties du jardin, et Nick a roulé joyeusement sur la tondeuse, ravi d’être à l’extérieur dans le soleil chaud d’automne.
Lorsque le soleil se couchait nous avons pris l’apéro à coté du feu et Hervé m’a fait promettre de l’appeler la prochaine fois il y a une tâche que je ne peux pas faire. Nous nous considerons avoir beaucoup de chance d’avoir de tels bons amis.