Home Sweet Home

Elaine rang me this morning to say that she had been given the all clear to come home.  I sprang out of bed and once again gave the boat a going over to make it look a bit presentable.

I decided to take the motorhome again as it's more comfy than the little C3 Citroen, plus she could always go to bed if she wanted to on the way back!

By the time I arrived at the hospital they were giving her a huge bag of drugs to take home!  It was then time to take our leave with Elaine receiving lots of hugs and kisses from fellow patients and the wonderful nurses.

The M6 was pretty busy for the journey southwards ... I will miss the M6 (not) but we don't have to go back to Manchester for about another 3 weeks!

The dogs came with me to Manchester to pick up Elaine and seemed a bit non plussed by it all ... but once back onboard the boat they went a bit mental.

Bombo was very happy to have his mum back!

So that the surgery is over and after a couple of follow up appointments we should be good to go to leave the marina in April.  Actually, we are planning on leaving in the motorhome - the boat will stay here for a while.

I will leave to Elaine to write a few words, now that she is back with her pack

Hi Everyone !  El here ...

Thank you so much for all your messages and e-messages - goodness, they kept me busy!  The Nurses kept bringing me wads of paper in brown envelopes ... I think they wondered what was going on !  It was so lovely to receive them all ... thanks so much - I felt the lurv !!!

Well, all is good with me - I am sitting comfortably tonight in my little slice of heaven I call Narrowboat Caxton with all my boys!  I've got Paul the slave boy working hard too, so what more could I ask for?!  (Oh yeah, a bath!)

I just wanted to say that I have been treated amazingly (by the NHS) for the whole of this journey in several areas of the country!  I should just add that I do have a background in the medical / health industry and more recently in the natural health industry (UK, Middle East and Oz) , so I reckon I am pretty qualified to say that the medical staff I have encountered do exactly what they can within their remit but are also happy to listen to patient's needs / requests also - and, as such, have worked with me for my treatments, never against me.  I have, of course, been helping myself with safe, natural remedies along the way - but that is my area of expertise and my choice, so I would never expect the mainstream medical staff to know where to go with it - they have way too much work to deal with!

I was a little saddened during my stay in hospital though to hear people's many and various stories but more so that the majority of them didn't want to get involved in their treatments and handed it completely over to the docs ... to the extent that many of the people I spoke to weren't even sure why they were having the treatment / operations they were having ... they really didn't want to know.  Sad, but interesting.

Anyway, that is my little bit over.  I have enjoyed one of Paul's amazing omelettes since I have been home ... which was exactly what the doctor ordered!!  (I have also had a slice of vegetarian sausage roll passed through the side hatch by our next-boat neighbour Joan and the promise of a veggie pastie tomorrow from Dot ... yummo !)  I am sooo thankful for all my family, friends and support I've had and ... I will finish now ... (I know, too much morphine this week!!!) ... just want to say that our Boaty mates are wonderful people!  OK - that's my lot for now !