Coping, just

As soon as the nursing staff began to come round (at 7.00 am, having only got back to sleep at 6.00), I stated my case for cutting short my convalescence and moving out tomorrow. I spoke to several members of staff and told them all that this place just isn't for me and that staying for my full allotted term of a week would leave me less well when I left that I was when I got here. In fairness,everybody was very understanding and my point of view was fully respected, so by mid morning I had already contacted my next-door neighbour and arranged for her to collect me in the morning and bring me home for a couple of days before I move in with Carl for a week or so on Saturday.

I had a short session with a physiotherapist who gave me some new exercises geared more to my chest wound than the concentration on walking which had been the main thrust of the physiotherapists in the Mater. With that under my belt and formal clearance given to move on tomorrow I settled down to making myself as comfortable as possible for the rest of my time in Clontarf and especially for organising my own little corner so I could listen to music and watch DVDs in comfort (all the more necessary since the weather had taken a turn for the worse and walking around outside wasn't a viable getaway option as it had been yesterday). Everything went well enough until 6.00 pm or so when the wife of one of the guys walked over and switched on the TV above my head 'to see what's on the News', turning the volume way up in the process. Once the TV is on, it stays on, no matter what's showing, even though the evening meal is served at 5.30 and the lads (and even the wife who turned on the set) nodded off before 6.30.

The blip is of Willy, who has control of the remote because he's in the bed closest to the TV. As well as being a TV addict, he's an inveterate chatterbox, unfortunately generally preferring to carry on his conversations with one of the guys on the far side of the room, which means that their raised conversational voices are added to the too-loud television sound. By 11.15 pm, the others actually had to ask Willy to switch off the TV, which by then was flickering away as the only light in the room. I'd somehow managed to maintain some semblance of cool, and came through the day with at least some of my sanity still intact.

I've also uploaded a blip for yesterday. Uploading has been delayed because the whole Clontarf experience wasn't at all conducive to settllng down to an upload session.

By the way, I showed this photo to Willy before I left the hospital, just to be sure that he was happy for it to appear on the internet. He was fine with it.