FYI

Some of you have asked for an update, so here goes.

I have been back at home for two weeks and am feeling much better.  I went straight to my doctor with the Ghanaian x-rays and she told me that to confirm any injury, I would have to have an MRI. 
I decided to try an alternate route first and have been going to a physiotherapist twice a week.  During the day the pain subsides provided that I don't walk or stand for too long .  At 3 am the aching pain starts and I have to get up, eat something, take an anti-inflammatory and pain killers and lie on an ice pack until I can fall asleep again.  This gives new meaning to "a pain in the butt."  We are working on the assumption that it is my sacroiliac ligament that has been torn, according to the type of pain that I have been having.  If it is that, then the healing time is at least 4 - 6 weeks. So, we're nearly there.
Last Monday I told the physio that lying on my "inversion bed" in Ghana seemed to really help, so she gave me some traction.  That was not a good idea, as it set me back about two weeks.  Since then she has just been massaging, needling me and has given me exercises to do at home, as well as advised me to do lots of resting. I have been trying not to take medication but since the relapse I have decided to take the anti-inflammatory for a week and see how the healing progresses.
Again my friends have been marvellous with offering to bring heater pads as well as driving from Durban to drop off a proper "inversion bed" for me to borrow.
I had a good day yesterday (Tuesday) but woke up this morning and had to take pain killers again!  Ugh!

I won "a movie evening with Emma" at her kitchen tea by being very quick to produce an object from my handbag. (Absolutely no cheating!)  So last Friday night Kell and I took supper over the  Nicholson's house (where Emma is staying while her new husband is in Germany) to go and watch one there.  It was "The Notebook" which I have seen three times already and I sobbed again!  It's ridiculous, it gets me every time. What's the matter with me?!

Roger was here the other night and wanted to ask Joyce a question.  I phoned her on my phone and passed it on to him.  Tiki and Scruffy were lying quietly on their beds until they heard him speaking Zulu.  They shot out of their beds very confused, looking at him and then the door and back at him, and started to half-bark, but with confusion even in their voices.    I promise.....ask Kelly!!!  They could hear Zulu but they couldn't see one.  It was so funny!
When we lived at Tygerskloof, the dogs, without barking, came to my bedroom window at 1 am and whined for me to wake up.  I got up and opened the front door to see what the problem was and they ran inside the house, past me and stood and whined, smelling something under the tea trolley in the dining room.  There was a cane rat! (Grass cutter in Ghana).  They had access to the dining room by themselves but they'd chosen to call me first. It must have come in the back security gate that we left open for the dogs to get out if they wanted to.  How clever are my girls?  I have the best pets in South and North West Africa, if not, then the world.

Robs came down to Durban with me last Friday as I had an appointment with the oral surgeon to see whether my wisdom teeth are impacted or not.  I am supposed to have my last two wisdom teeth out this coming Monday!  The surgeon is flying back from overseas on Sunday and if his flight is on time, then I'll have them out as planned.  If it is delayed, then there is another appointment for the 10th June. I have opted to have them done under local anaesthetic so, although it might be more traumatic at the time, I won't be recovering from them as well as from the general anaesthetic, which can be worserer.  What with the loss of memory from pregnancy and babies, (which I don't think has fully returned, maybe it has, or perhaps it hasn't, I can't remember) dying brain cells and only having three wisdom teeth to start with, I now have two and those are to be removed, I shudder to think of how I'll end up!

Andre` and Sandra Nel came down from Vryheid this last weekend for Cars in the Park.  The three of us had supper with them as well as other some other friends, Des, Harry and Di.  Another fun-filled evening with much hilarity and learning moments.  Harry taught us that the word "O.K." derives from the name Otto Kusel who worked for Henry Ford.  He was the last person to inspect the finished vehicles and signed his initials to them if he was satisfied.  True or not, I like that story.  You live and learn!

I didn't take a photo on the evening.

 

 

It has been wonderful to have the first class care that I am receiving here at home but I am really missing Porks and my Gunds and Genie.  I have been persuaded to remain in South Africa until Porks comes home in early July.  I would have flown home a few weeks earlier than he anyway, so it makes sense just to stay here and wait, recover fully, and then fly back with him when he goes back mid-July.

I'll keep you informed!