Hospital Day Again - Making Progress Slowly

Wednesday 26 November

Another day, another hospital visit… small improvements to report each day now.

Sara came in for the early shift, while we did some more laundry, a bit of admin, another coffee run and I baked a quirky chocolate cake for the team looking after Helen - it’s funny how weird it is baking a tried & tested recipe in someone else’s kitchen!

We headed in to take over at Helen’s bedside at around noonish, Louis walked down to the Olympic Pool for a swim and Sara & I stayed with Helen. She was definitely more alert, and had come off the ketamine but still had pain relief self administered by a button in her hand.

Sara left early afternoon and Louis returned from swimming to be with Helen, so I took a stroll over to K Road to get my Fitbit steps and have a browse in the many op shops and retro stores there (had to laugh at the Laura Ashley floral frock - I would have loved that back in my St Andrews Uni days in the 80s!). Dean Mistri, Louis’ back surgeon mate, popped up for a social call and he felt she was looking good, all things considered!

Early evening we said goodnight to Grandma and hit the rush hour traffic north to Beach Haven to say kia ora koutou to the Orr family - and Summer of course. They were our lovely Banjo hosts throughout the August/September sojourn in Auckland for Louis' back surgery recovery and until recently were Dilligas' adoptive parents. I'm not sure if Lily & Finn have not forgiven us for letting Amy adopt him back again, but they certainly weren't in any mood to socialise with us this time around so we made the most of Tim & Mairi's company.

Then whizzed back to town for dinner at White&Wongs with five out of six of the usual suspects… Jez being in Timaru with his new job! Crispy duck pancakes, green curry, overly coriandered salad and various other Asian fusion yummies - always a good food selection here.

We had rescheduled our flight back to Ōtautahi Christchurch for first thing Thursday morning, but decided to stick around with Helen & the whānau over the weekend - let’s hope we get a compassionate refund or credit!