It is now 6 weeks since my operation, I am out of hospital and at home. Although recovery is slow things are improving especially in the last week.

How I feel

Overall, I am feeling pretty good, I seem to sleep a lot and even though everyday is not necessarily better than the last overall things are improving.

My energy levels are low, however I do have windows of clarity where I can do some work and catch-up on things but its pretty inconsistent and are starting to get to about an hou before needing to rest.

I am confident that by the 4 Sept (fathers day) things will be much improved and I will at least have some clarity but its so slow it drives me crazy.

Medically where are things at

The key things that am working on at the moment are;

Swallowing

There is little progress here, I can’t swallow at all and am starting therapy to help me get there. Overall, the team is positive I will get there but there is no timeline at the moment for when that will happen.

Until this progresses I am stuck with the tube directly into my stomach where I put all my food and medicine through (I crush my tablets then put them down through the tube)

Skin Graft

The Skin Graft on my wrist continue to repair. I need to get the dressing changed every two days and will do for the next 5 weeks. Apart from a little pain, it makes it difficult to type on the keyboard but overall the progress of repair is good.

Talking

I can talk pretty well as long as my mouth is reasonably dry. I have an injection that I can give myself to dry things out when I need to. I do however need to limit the amount of talking I do (which I am very bad at) as the more talking I do the more tired and sore I get.

Where to from here.

Over the next few weeks the focus is on working on being able to swallow, resting as much as I can to recover and starting to get across what has been going on while I have been sick

I am trying to build on the energy I get from the family, the occasional visitor and putting together some plans for the next 12 months.