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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Physiotherapy and a Broken Back

Tuesday, 24 June 2025. I finished my last article at a point where I was still at the breakfast table so we carry on from that same day for this post.

The big news is that I managed to walk with assistance from a zimmer frame and two physio assistants, almost the full length of the corridor. I quickly lost count and the two physios lost count but Miss Franny was watching and thought it close to 30 steps. Quite an achievement after my maiden voyage of 12 steps the other day.

The Day or Garden Room continues to be my favourite eating and resting and just sitting place. I sketched it over a couple of days and you can see the result here.

Usually the same group of us meet up here daily. At lunchtime others may join us. Miss Franny was once again here over lunch and was able to see me walk the corridor. Mind you, my leg was very painful once I got to bed and kept me awake until 2.00am. A nurse came then to turn me to avoid pressure sores and I was able to get some sleep.

Thursday, 25 June 2025. It's only 6.20am but my day started early as I felt the need for a bedpan and water bottle. The bottles here are very bulky, stubby things, made of the same sort of recycled card or paper as egg boxes from the grocer.

Trying to use one at the same time as being on a bedpan is fraught with difficulty and with some horror I felt the thing start to break down. Being short and stubby (the water bottle - don't let your imagination run riot...) means it's almost impossible to hang over the side of a bedpan - a disadvantage to anyone who does No.1 before No.2 starts - and I soon felt a warm and damp sensation where I would rather only feel the same whilst washing... Plus the bottle was quite heavy by this time, just my luck to have managed to sleep through... Luckily the need for the bedpan had translated into just wind. The pan had also broken under me, spilling the already spilled water onto the bed. A very young and attractive nurse made physical discomfort a slightly embarrassing one aswell...

Well the physios gave me a rest from walking yesterday. I spent most of it in the Day/Garden Room again. The usual gang joined me, including my lively 89 year old lady and others from her ward. Every week the wards are emptied of patients and given a 'deep clean' and it was their turn yesterday. Today I think we lose one out of the four in our ward as they are going home. That sounds such a wonderful prospect after almost seven weeks in hospital.

Friday, 27 June 2025. Friday comes around again. In here, or even at home once retired it's just another day. So what happened yesterday, I hear you say...

Well one of our four in the ward went home and the bed was full of someone else when I came back from the Garden Room. Today my little old lady goes home. She said she would miss us all. In here, especially in the Garden Room, where we sit with the same group of people, you do form attachments like people struggling through some form of challenge together.

I generally sit next to a chap in the early stages of Parkinsons so I can give help if he can't quite lift his hand to his mouth or to grab a tissue to mop up any dribble. He can only talk very quietly but yesterday after I had stopped a large dribble just before it reached his pyjama top I overheard him say to the others, "he's good isn't he?" So it's nice to know I'm appreciated.

Also yesterday the physios took me down to the gym. It's not a gym for pumping iron or anything like that. It holds a mock staircase of around three or four steps up leading to a half landing with a 90 degree turn to steps leading back down again.

I'm not ready for that yet. Instead I was directed on to a set of parallel bars. Now before you have visions of me swinging my legs about over the bars to do about face or other athletic moves, all they required was that I grip the bars and walk the three metres to the other end and back three times. I did it five times.

After the first they said I was walking with my left foot splayed out. Guilty m'lud... I think there must have been a bit of penguin in my far back ancestry... After the second they asked me to lift my feet more. So with thoughts of pedalling a bike in my head I set off again.

They made me sit down and rest after the third and asked how I was. I said I was ready to do more and did another two theres and backs before they stopped me, saying that was enough.

Then they had me stand at the side of the bars. I warned them I wasn't up to doing ballerina leg swings but the next exercise simply involved raising one knee for a count of five. Easy peasy.

Thanks go to old school chum Janet and hubby Graham for bringing Miss Franny down and back again. After a short chat they went into the town to look round the shops leaving Fran with me for an hour or so. Thanks also to ex-colleague Carolyn who came to see me last night and you will like this, Flower. Someone after you had gone asked if you were my daughter... Bloody cheek!

Every now and then my memory is not up to fine details and I was having so many MRI scans during my time in hospital that I'm not sure if this happened at Blackpool or the Lytham Respite Ward. I've had a bad back since my twenties and it flares up every now and then. A couple of days after an MRI scan on my spine a doctor came to see me and said "This wasn't caused by the fall - it's an chronic (meaning long-standing, not horrendously bad) injury, but you have some broken vertebrae in your back. Vertebrae 1 and 3 are broken and vertebrae 5 is close to slipping the disc." So great - here Quasimodo, have a hump to go with that funny eye...

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