Day 8 and morning of day 9

More great progress! I managed to get up and have a shower yesterday which, while being exhausting and painful, was a real accomplishment and much better than just sponging myself down on the edge of the bed as I have before. I then also got told that the doctors were so pleased with my progress that they now want me to be discharged on Tuesday 17th rather than Friday 20th.

The other wonderful thing was finally have my last drain tube removed from my abdomen. There had been quite a bit of fluid coming out still so they'd held off, but the little plastic bag they've replaced it with temporarily has hardly filled at all so it's already healing up nicely. It's made my much more mobile.

I had lots of visitors last night, and while they were here I managed to walk all the way from my room to the hospital restaurant on the ground floor (albeit taking the lift). It was pretty tough, but I was really pleased to be able to manage it.

I've been doing my best to eat better but I've come to the firm conclusion that absolutely everything they produce here is absolutely disgusting. They even completely ruined an egg salad yesterday and as for the fish and chips even my brother chewed thoughtfully and said "wow, that really is foul". I'm now going to get people to bring in food, or go down to the shop or restaurant to eat as the quality there is at least a little better. I'm waiting for the nurses to start telling me off for not ordering any food, but I'm getting rebellious!

I had an excellent night's sleep last night - best so far. I've moved rooms (due to some room-swapping the ward needed to accomodate new patients), and I'm now in a bigger private room with a bathroom that isn't shared - room 26.

This morning I've managed, despite not having quite enough painkiller, to walk down and up two flights of stairs. When I've managed to top up the pain meds then I reckon I might be even more ambitious later. The Physios are essentially signing me off as sufficiently mobilised to leave hospital now, but I'm going to keep challenging myself before I leave on Tuesday.

I have my last antibiotic treatment last night, which will mean no more intravenous medicines, though I'll still need intramuscular jabs (with the very tiny needle) for heparin (blood-clotter) and painkiller topups (oxy-codine). Hopefully I can negotiate slightly stronger every-day painkillers to reduce my dependence on those injections.

Excellent, between that last paragraph and this I just got another jab actually, though the nurse had to zoom off after quicky as there's a *really* annoying woman just up the coridoor who spends her whole day wailing and whining and calling out (she apparently hasn't worked out the use of the call button for the last 30 times). She is clearly attention-seeking. Who does that? :)