Heavy going

A lot has happened in just a few days. I ran into a spell of breathlessness for the fourth time and had to be wheeled down to the "shock room" again for a bronchioscopy, meaning a camera on the end of a tube being manouevered into my bronchial bits. This time, the culprit was a large blood-clot that was too big to cough up. It was blocking the air passages and damn nearly suffocated me. Fortunately, it was quickly and efficiently removed.

This morning, a larger cannula was fitted. It allows more air through.

I spent an hour having an ultrasonic scan of my heart which turned out fine. I have no idea why they wanted that to be done because I haven't had any heart problems to speak of. Still, it's a comfort to know that there are no ticker problems.

My daily walks with the physiotherapist are getting longer and longer. One foot still isn't as flexible as it should be, but we're working on it.

I bumped into the professor during this afternoon's walk. He has consistently moaned about my massive production of saliva but hasn't found a way of stemming it. Now he says if I can hold out for just another three or four days, he will be able to remove the stent (I didn't know I even had one of those!) and that should put an immediate stop to all this saliva problem. I hope he's right. I can't (yet) swallow the saliva in the normal way but have to spit it out. That's a nuisance during the day, but it's even worse overnight. I generally wake up with a sopping wet pillow. Very unpleasant.

On the whole, I suppose it's true to say that every day is bringing just a little bit of progress and the days are being ticked off quite quickly. I am still on schedule for release sometime in the month of January. The big step forward will be when I can start eating and drinking. The next one will be when I get my voice back, or at least am able to speak again. There are quite a few "little triumphs" to look forward to.