Morning after the surgery before

Saturday 22 November

Helen had not had a great night - restless, in pain and coming down off the morphine she’s been on for a few months now. So we all came in to be with her at her bedside throughout the day.

It was a tough day with hallucinations and confusion, and a roller coaster of pain management - but one or two of us were with her all day.

Quite by chance we bumped into Mike & Ayesha, as his mum was in the next room to Helen - lovely to see them, as our schedule may be too tight to catch them at home.

I had a hair cut booked with Jacob at Killer Hair early afternoon so walked over Grafton Bridge for my appointment. Love my hair the length it is but it will soon grow taggy so good timing to get a pre-summer trim, add in a few more layers, shorten the front fringey bit and generally spruce things up. Great catching up with Jacob too - I was one of his training models so lovely to see how well he is doing now!

Louis picked me up afterwards on Cross Street, home of the mural below and we got a wee break at the Fernandi’s while the Brooks held the fort.

Came back to the hospital later for the evening shift, a stroll around the corridors and levels checking out the artworks and the Christmas decorations (going up early, it's not even December!!!) and met lovely Nurse Rose who was rostered to be with Helen all night, which made us happy.

Last pic is fascinating to me - the flowering pod of a nikau palm, all wrapped up but ready to burst open fully any minutes - the birds will love this! Spotted on our way back to the car which was parked, appropriately enough, on Park Avenue

Back to a fairly early night and a bit of travel chat with Nickie & Russ before bed.