More Physiotherapy and Composing at the Piano

Saturday 5 July 2025. It's weekend. Usually that means fewer staff but yesterday they were running on low numbers anyway. Our usual table by the window in the Day Room was free though and we were joined by one of the ladies from the women's ward.

The table had been set out already and looked very refined with a full set of matching China plates, cups and saucers. We started with cereals then moved onto a couple or more slices of toast, half a packet of butter and a pot full of jam or marmalade single portion tubs.

One of the physios came round to ask if I fancied a climb up the stairs. I agreed and was wheeled down the maze of corridors, past the gym and I realised that by "stairs" they meant a full uncarpeted very solid flight of concrete stairs.

The Physio nurses (there are two of them and both lovely) said they would support me but I asked for my walking stick from my room as I wanted to see how I could manage on my own after the fall which led to this 8 weeks and counting hospital stay.

With the stick in one hand and the handrail firmly gripped I took a deep breath and climbed the first step, one foot then the other. A bit wobbly but I did another, then another until I reached the top where I sank gratefully into a chair. I had done it... the same number of steps as we have at home! After a short while I swapped the stick to my other hand and went down, a slightly more scary climb as I was now looking down the drop before me. But slowly I reached the bottom and the physios were full of praise for me as I was wheeled back to the ward.

I asked to do a walk with the stick on the flat. It felt so familiar a thing to do. So since then I've not touched either wheelchair or Zimmer frame, but have walked with my trusty walking stick to and from Day Room and loo or bedroom. It felt good.

Someone said the photo of me and one of our little gang of three at the Breakfast Club was on the wall so I had a look and later was given an A4 sized copy which had been laminated.

But the ward sister had another challenge in mind... "John I want you to write us a jingle to promote the Breakfast Club and we can record it this afternoon." Blimey Charlie! Playing I've done. Singing I've done. Composing I haven't done since the 1970s when I played lead guitar in a Manchester band, Spiral.

But jingles are short and club rhymes with grub so it was finished in my mind by lunchtime with Miss Franny visiting to listen and bounce ideas off. I don't read music so the tune had to be composed and memorised. For a while it changed a bit every time I attempted to sing it...

The ward sister came back in the afternoon and I went to the piano. Now I can play keyboards fairly well. Pianos require a bit more work from your left hand and I am no Paul McCartney... With two nurses both videoing me on their phones I set off. The tune was something like the one I had tried so hard to memorise. It was also a little like the theme to the TV show "The Beverley Hillbillies". Take one tripped up on the last line. Take two was pronounced a success and a round of applause came from the patients and staff in the room.

My first performance since the cancer was diagnosed. But the achievement I was most happy about was undoubtedly the walking. I feel like home may be just days away.

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I Have Physiotherapy And Save A Life

Wednesday 2 July 2025. After all the weather forecasts here yesterday saying how nice it would be it was a day of white skies and a bit of rain later. I didn't think I was all that late going to breakfast club, but our usual table was already full and our little club of three ended up sitting away from the window for the day.

Miss Franny came with her brother Bob, or Smiley Bob as he's known in dog agility circles where he acts as a judge all over the Northern hemisphere. His (I'm sure) long suffering wife Mary made up our little reunion. It's always fun to meet up with them. They arrived just as the physios' exercise class was beginning. So they joined in with the leg stretching and arm waving and general hokey cokeyness!

Then the physios whisked me off to the gym where a short flight of four steps was waiting for me to see if I could fall a bit more gracefully than I did the last time. No getting up there with a Zimmer, but they had bannister rails on both sides and so, with one of the physios behind me ready to be knocked over and give me company if I fell, I climbed slowly up the four steps to a small mock landing then came slowly back down. No falls, no submissions, and any knockouts were reserved for how I felt.

I did it another two times by which time I had done just three treads short of climbing our stairs and coming down again at home. Now I gratefully accepted the offer of a rest before skipping merrily - no, better make that 'climbing slowly' back up and down twice more.

Later on I walked to and from the toilet from the Day Room, again further than I've driven a Zimmer before. The rest of the day was spent dozing and doodling a sketch.

Thursday 3 July 2025. I'm now using the walking frame more and finding it easier with only the occasional wobble. Because of those wobbles I'm not supposed to use it without a nurse at my side or behind me to lend a supporting hand.

The TV in the day room was taken away yesterday. It was a colour TV but limited its display to blue only... the blue got darker and darker towards the top of the screen until you couldn't make out any details at all. Still it was the only hospital TV showing blue movies... The replacement hasn't shown up yet but is to be a whopping 70 inch one. This means even people at the back of the room will be able to watch it.

The weather took a bit of a turn in that whilst it was sunny and bright, there was a fair bit of breeze making it quite chilly out in the garden. Then at lunch the Mutterer (remember him?) decided he had had enough of his pudding and scrumpled his paper serviette and put it into the bowl. Five minutes later he must have changed his mind because when I turned to face him, half of the serviette was poking out of his mouth whilst he was chewing on the rest. I had to put my fingers into his mouth to get it out. Probably another life I've saved. It must have tasted horrible but he was still doing his best to get the rest into his mouth.

Our little gang of three musketeers spent the day in the Day Room as usual. Although I had been woken as usual and asked if I was going down as usual, it was 40 minutes and 9.00am after being told I was next that anyone came back for me. It transpired that some of the nursing staff were on training courses, leaving very low numbers of staff to deal with the usual number of patients.

I turned down the offer of being wheeled down in a chair and walked with the aid of my Zimmer - it now sports my name on a little tag - and used that for the rest of the day to get to and from the Day Room to the loo etc. Miss Franny witnessed one of these journeys back and I was treated to a quick look of surprise and a big beaming smile.

An Occupational Therapist came to talk to me about what I might need putting in place at home which I took as a very positive sign that I might be able to go home shortly. As I approach being in hospital for eight full weeks, that was a very pleasant prospect to think about. For my family as well as for me. Fingers crossed. Oh and I finished my sketch seen above. It's of somewhere in the Cotswolds but don't ask me where...

Friday 4 July 2025. Two workmen came in and we all thought that the new super-size TV must have arrived, but no, they were measuring for new window blinds. One of the two men was particularly suited for the job - he must have been seven feet tall...

Lytham Festival started last night with Stevie Wonder headlining. As the nurses changed over to the night shift one was yawning. "I live just four minutes from the seafront," she said, "They've been doing sound checks all day, I haven't had any sleep at all..."

It had been an overcast day and evening brought a bit of rain. The three musketeers relinquished their muskets and escape plans and one by one we were wheeled or supported as we walked back to our rooms or ward bays.

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Learning to Walk Again, June 2025

Sunday, 29 June 2025. Weekend so the physios weren't taking me off doing any exercises to help me get walking again. However instead of the sack truck I was given a Zimmer frame and used that to get into my chair and onto loo or bed as required. I also used it to walk from my bed all the way to the loo and back, an achievement of which I was ridiculously proud...

Yesterday's garden party went well. We could have been back in the 1920s for a while seated on a bit of lawn - a test for my bedside chair's small wheels - under a large table umbrella with cups of tea and scones with butter and jam. Sadly no clotted cream!

Then a singer trotted out to backing tracks - lots of 60s songs that we used to play. The weather held off and it was all very pleasant. Some visitor brought a couple of friendly dogs in. They were up for being petted as much as we were up for giving them attention. It does your mental health a pile of good.

Then last night the new bloke on our ward woke us all up at midnight watching Beavis and Butthead at full volume on his phone... I mean... do some people have no brains at all or is it just that they couldn't care less about anything other than me, me, me... This of course set off the chap with the runaway mouth who never stops talking, even to listen to nurses trying to help him. It's much worse when he's complaining that he hasn't had a laxative even though he's been to the loo, when they are dealing with something far more important with another patient.

My legs are now being redressed daily but in turn so that each leg gets done once every two days. Pleased to report the large wound just behind my toes has shrunk or closed up considerably.

Monday 30 June 2025 and the start of week 8 in hospital. Light at the end of the tunnel though as I continue to improve both in terms of the ulcers and wounds are healing and in terms of my use of the walking frame - Zimmer - and the distance I can get with it.

Days here are long and repetitive and it makes you tired and dozy. I find myself Jenkins upright from the very edge of sleep - Jenkins? Jerking! - many times. It was also very hot. No physios in on Sunday but they are back this morning and have moved that tunnel opening a bit closer. More tomorrow, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself!

Tuesday 1 July 2025. I have moved again. I now have a room to myself, no one else wittering or watching noisy videos in the middle of the night.

Apparently the previous occupant stayed in his room all the time with no company and no interaction with other people. As for me, I spend most if not all of my waking hours in the Day Room so will still see my little group of friends and be able to help my friend with Parkinsons.

My legs continue to show improvement. There looked to be a huge blister on my heel yesterday but when the nurse looked it was a lump of dry skin that fell off, leaving healthy pink skin underneath. Probably the remains of a blister...

One of the physios came to talk to me over breakfast to ask what I thought I needed before going home. I still need to build up strength in my legs and have a go at coping with stairs. We would have a job to fit a bed downstairs I think.

So more light at the end of the tunnel. I wonder though, with so much difference between the style of treatment here in hospital to how the District Nurses work - would the improvement of the past few weeks continue or not? Time and eventual discharge home will tell.

Cancer and Leg Ulcers Index
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Cancer and Leg Ulcers Index

A series of articles chronicling my personal experience with cancer and leg ulcers from 2022 onwards. The intention is mainly to inform and help fellow sufferers know what to expect and help deal with the various aspects of their own journeys through such experioences. I must stress that leg ulcers are by no means a necessary side effect of cancer and nor might they only appear after a cancer diagnosis, so it may be be best tp treat them as two totally seperate things.

Each article can be accessed by clicking / tapping the photographs below. A link at the end of each article with bring you back here.

Helping and Being Helped

Saturday, 28 June 2025. Yesterday was a dozy sort of day. I was awoken early for tests and meds and was taken down to the breakfast club by 6.30. Our friend from Bay D was there but no one else and breakfast wasn't until 8.00 by which time we were clagging for a brew (transalation: rather thirsty).

A very harassed nursing assistant finally arrived, searching with only limited success for cereal bowls, saucers (we had our China cups slithering about on plates in the end) and butter for the toast.

Already a bit short of nurses, two more were on escort duty - accompanying patients in ambulances who were being transferred to the main hospital in Blackpool.

My little old lady friend joined us for breakfast along with another old lady: "I don't like her..." I was told. She seemed OK though and joined in the chat so I'm not sure what the problem was. My little old lady friend went home later. I'll miss her mischievous banter.

It went very quiet after breakfast. We were left with just three of us most of the day. Two of us had our photos taken for posters advertising Breakfast Club. I did wonder whether to smear marmalade around my mouth for effect, but a cheery smile was all that was required.

Miss Franny came to visit then later in the day my friend with early stage Parkinsons was talking to the Staff Nurse about his release which would involve relocation to a different part of the country. He was in tears poor chap. Having sat next to him over the weeks, looking after him, wiping up if he dribbled, feeding him etc I was concerned and a bit upset myself as the nurse hugged him through his sobs

"Well you have friends don't you?" she said. I heard him say my name and the nurse briefly glanced at me and said, "yes, he's lovely isn't he?" and suddenly I was wiping my own tears.

Afterwards I asked her to wheel my chair close and held his hands and talked to him. He still has a chance of recovery and I told him to hold on to that and believe in it and that if ever he needed me I would be there always in his mind. The nurse said "oh what a lovely thing to say," so then we were all blooming crying...

Hopefully today will be dryer... Apparently there is to be some sort of concert and party in the garden. I'm not sure the weather forecast helps much with that. Perhaps it is the Grand Gargling Championship...

Yesterday's sketch was inspired by - but not of - Limone on Lake Garda.

Cancer and Leg Ulcers Index
Family Memories: Personal Index