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The World of Illusion Knitting

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PICKING UP THREADS

This was written in
2007
so is now very dated

As things turned out, I needn’t have panicked as much as I did. We had warned the registrar that there could be a problem handling the rings and signing the register and were told that the rings would not cause a problem as they are not a legal requirement and that I would have to sign or make a mark with my left hand if necessary.

I had been told that a piece of skin would be taken from my arm, or some unobtrusive place, as the graft for the area where the skin would need replacing. There was a good chance that this would involve both arms being operated on and a high risk of the graft not taking because of the poor state of my skin. It was likely that one or both areas would be severely restricted for several weeks. In the event, the surgeon decided he could take the graft from the right arm so, at worst, only one hand and arm would not be functioning.

I arrived for the operation and was horrified to find that I was last on the day’s list again, because mine was the most time-consuming operation. When I told the surgeon why I was concerned about that, he decided the other patients should wait and he personally escorted me to the operating theatre immediately. It was a delicate operation and, part way through, he told me, with profuse apologies, that he must remove the nerve to the end of my finger and I would be left with life-long numbness. He didn’t know me! There can’t be any part of my body that reacts in a normal manner and this was no exception. When the anaesthetic wore off, it was obvious that there was no such damage.

As I would have predicted, I felt no pain and very little discomfort afterwards so there was no need for the strapping and sling they had anticipated. I couldn’t use the hand but it was not the encumbrance I expected. The first stitches were removed five days later and the graft was far better than anyone had dared to consider. I was still bandaged on the day of the wedding but it might have been far worse. I even managed to sign the register in a reasonably tidy fashion though the old-fashioned pen and ink did provide their own challenge.

I have never liked to plan anything far in advance and, true to form, the wedding had been arranged at short notice much to the surprise of family and friends. Most work colleagues knew nothing until about ten days before the wedding and even then many were not exactly sure what event they were being invited to celebrate. It was too late to think about an official reception but the flexible space in our house gave plenty of scope for celebrating at home. We had to forgo the usual Christmas tree, which we inherited with the house, as it is ten feet tall with a proportionate width so it would have taken up far too much space in a house full of people. We made up for the absence of the tree with a surfeit of twinkling lights, silver bells, balloons and baubles throughout the house.

Very fortunately, we have a very talented school colleague who is also a hairdresser and caterer. Her multiple talents were pressed into service and she did us proud with lunch for fifteen then a complete rearrangement of the furniture for an ‘at home’ for around sixty people. A good time was had by all.

It had been another hectic year. In addition to all the work on our own behalf I had been working in school for much of the year and, at some time previously, I had also managed to pick up a very rare, non-contagious, form of TB, which had started to make its presence felt at the end of the previous year. It had taken several months to identify exactly what the problem was and how to treat it. It was all so unusual I was asked to sign for all my medical notes to be used for any teaching purposes. This was nothing new to me although the climate relating to any personal data has changed a great deal over the years. I have often been a guinea pig in many medical trials and investigations. I wouldn’t be here at all if it wasn’t for wonderful medical services I have received so it’s the least I can do.

The experts of several hospitals decided that the best treatment would be a two-year long course of very powerful antibiotics but the situation was so unusual they were really working in the dark. There were only two possible antibiotics. One should not be mixed with other drugs I was taking so it had to be the other one, which entailed only a minor adjustment to my other medication.

The leaflet in the box gave all kinds of dire warnings of the potential side-effects of the drugs. You name it, it was there, ending with ‘hallucinations’ and ‘losing the sense of reality’. It’s strange that the reaction of friends and family was “What’s new?”

For the first few months there were no noticeable effects but after eight or nine months I started to notice that I sometimes couldn’t remember the names of everyday objects and used completely the wrong word. Sometimes it was frustrating, sometimes I was unaware that I was talking rubbish. I had some strange conversations with Steve but he usually knew what I was talking about anyway and carried on regardless. Goodness only knows what I might have done to the poor children I was teaching.  None ever passed comment but I feel sure there must have been days when I called a triangle an umbrella, or something similar.

I put it down to the drugs. It might have been old age!

After a year the TB seemed to have disappeared and the drugs were tentatively stopped at Christmas 2005.  They seem to have worked

The Christmas and New Year period is a lovely time for a wedding and  the end of 2005 seemed a good place to stop this story ... but ...

27b. TYING THE KNOT continued