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Been just a little occupied recently .... storms in Languedoc ...


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Even if you don't have farcebook Norman and personally I wouldn't touch it with someone elses long pole. But that video is quite dramatic!

Our part of the Aude was well behaved as far as I know? That must have been quite near the bottom end? It's a shame they didn't say.

This is a handy site if you want to know the state of the rivers. If you click on the various points it gives quite a lolot of gen.

https://www.vigicrues.gouv.fr/niv2.php

No need to worry Sue, the submerged bridge was about 4 foot or so down and get's to vanish when the river rises. The fun bit was in 1999 and the village was cut off for 4 daze!! That was 5 years BJ  (BJ = before John [8-|] )

Just as a matter of interest? I wonder if that is where this came from [:-))]

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  • 3 weeks later...
Hello Everyone,

At last, I am back home, yes, only 16 days after the op, at least a week earlier than most would manage.  The op went very well indeed ..... all as planned, and I was already walking (well with help, operated leg had not at that point come fully back to life) the afternoon of the op!!!  Next day I began to make good progress and before I left hospital for re-ed, the Monday after ('cos no-one leaves on a Sunday, though I was well ready), was walking around the hospital confidently if not quite perfectly.  So I get to Vald'Orb, the Monday, and as is their custom, I was made to use a wheel chair!  Quelle horreur.  At which point, all the bruises descended to my shin, feet and heels, painfully, fine before then.  So then I struggle, arms hurt, knock the wound every time I try to get into the chair.  I neither used it around my room, or at night, and enfin, on Thursday, having told the Kine that I hated the chair, when I have my first appointment with the clinic doctor (not my surgeon) he says I can dispense with the chair.  And so I finally began to progress.  The next day I tried to lift my operated leg, to start preparing for stairs, difficult, painful and didn't go very far, but with the prepared exercises, traction (yuk - torture someone described it!!), and by just beginning to walk again, by the next week I was already lifting it much higher., and one week later, almost as high as the other leg. Meanwhile I found I could do steps OK, BUT our steps at home are deeper, so hence still do them one leg at a time ... easy - just as I was doing before, good leg up, operated leg down .... but without the pain!

I progressed so much (voie anterior, minimally invasive, no muscles cut, strong legs from years of ballet), that by the Thursday I was walking upright (like a dancer) with crutches and even a single stick (which the day before I had been a little wary of!).  After seeing the doctor again, I was given permission to leave, as and when I wished ... for me it could not come soon enough, 4-5 hours sleep a night definitely not enough ....so I left on Saturday morning, and am now home, albeit trying to take it carefully.  Best re-ed the surgeon said, was to walk, and he has reluctantly given me "permission" to travel by car as a passenger for short distances, which will help greatly in getting some semblance of normality - shopping etc ...

Meanwhile, as could be expected, the French formalities for the admin of the flood claim has stalled, as the expert wants something I am waiting for the notaire to supply.  But now home again, with access to  my computer files I can at last begin to progress.

So I am très contente, très bien satisfait (and I spoke more French than I have done for ages!), but happy to be home, even if the house is not sparkling clean yet and needs much work!.

Onwards and upwards now as they say!.  Thanks all for your advice, encouraging words etc etc ... In all of this the thing I missed most - a decent cup of English tea - with milk!  First thing I had when I got back!!!!

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D'you know what, Judith, strangely enough I was thinking of you today when I walked the dog.  Just wondering how you were doing and thinking that it was a long time since you were on the forum.

I came home, made a cake for later, fired up the computer and here you are with your good news!

Well done! 

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Well, I did once do the cancan, though the charleston was more my forte!

In quite a lot of pain today, it has been manic here, nurse, neighbours ... etc ... but sure will all be better once I get more sleep and more rest ... still to get really organised of course ...   door bell just gone, builder t his time I  think.  A tout à l'heure!

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Glad you are on the mend. I have just been talking to a friend who had her op in England, at a private clinic as it happens two years ago and she was out after two days, and they had her on her feet the day after the op. She goes in for the next one in 8 weeks time.

She did her excersizes at home and saw the physio and after a couple of weeks, was doing really really well. We were comparing, the differences and there seem few in post op care between hers and mine......

.......... As it is twelve days since my knee op, which I am told is a bigger operation, and they had me up and walking the day after, home the day after that. I could only come home if I could manage stairs, which I could in the way the wanted me to, which is brilliant. Was down to one stick a few days ago and no sticks now. I sometimes use my sticks on the stairs if tired, but can manage without. Doing my excersizes and seeing the physio.

Why the french authorities would want anyone would be in hospital for so long with either op, I do not know. Like they should not have had me in for 10 days for nothing either just before I left, I had had food poisoning......... and decided it was more than that, in spite of me saying there was nothing else wrong........... and there was not, once I had stopped firing at both ends[+o(]...... ! I do know that french news was saying that the french health service was going to reduce lots of hospital stay time.

ps 88 year old Aunt had her knee op about a year ago, and needed sticks a bit longer than me, but everything else was the same..... and maybe others need sticks longer than I do...... I am doing really really well.......![:D]

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@ Idun, very well done, you are doing really well only10 days after! I didn't know you were going in for that op. So now two of you are progressing to doing the can-can! ?

@Judith, hope things have settled down somewhat now, more rest, less pain; I've found in the past that once friends and neighbours get it that their visits don't always help, they find other ways to show their care.

Take care, both of you.

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Frankly I probably wouldn't have mentioned it at all, why would I, just that that length of time in hospital in France, sounds excessive to me these days, with modern operating techniques. So my post was more of a comparison between the systems, and if my being out in two days sounds rushed, it wasn't as I have not been left feeling abandoned or ill, came home with pain killers etc and I would rather be at home.

I had wonderful care, but they wake you regularly for blood pressure and medicines regularly AND at ungodly hours and that would have continued if I had stayed. The food was better than expected, and perfectly fine and what was lovely at breakfast time, was that if you asked for toast, they toasted it fresh, so it was hot when I got it.

Still there is one thing I HATE here in the UK,and that is, new mothers not having longer maternity hospital stays, think that it is better in France, even though it is reduced there too, especially when they take the baby away for a few nights so that the mother can get some sleep, prior to getting little, that really is GREAT! Still, my brother was born at home and I have dutch friends who tell me it is common there.... so no rest at all[:-))]

Also, it isn't as if this op was not on my daily agenda at home........I have two friends, one in London and the other in the NE who are waiting for hip ops which are both imminent, as we all find that as we get older, time flies, and we have been chatting about pre op and post op quite a lot recently as well as my knee.

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How on earth can anybody be expected to cope at home only two days after an operation?

Mark you it sounds par for the course over there.

My Ex-wife had a knee replacement last year and they forgot to check if she had osteoporosis (she had) so her thigh bone shattered and she is left permanently crippled.

Instead of sending her to a proper convalescent/nursing home she was sent home, and given Physio exercises by Telephone [:-))]

Only later when she finally managed to see a real person was it noticed that what she had been told to do  (unseen) over the telephone was totally the wrong thing for her problem.

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Spoke to my son tonight and in the Rhone Alpes, our bit, they send people home within a couple of days too with new knees, he knew, because he has two friends who have had this operation.

In fairness, I was asked if anyone was at home, and IF I had been alone, have no idea what would have happened then.

I am fine. Needed little assistance, the first couple of days, yes, some, but very little to be honest. Yesterday, we called in for lunch at a nice restaurant, on the way home from a follow up  and are out to dinner tomorrow night.

We got home on the Saturday PM when I was discharged, calling in to shop on the way home and then OH helped me bake cakes, did things like putting stuff in and out of the oven. On Sunday we had a roast dinner, lovely, I did most of it, and so it continued. There are still some things I cannot do and have to ask for a little assistance, but basically I am living a full life. WHY would I be other than home???

And you know how France works NH. We are responsible for our health and informing the toubibs. When people don't, or would rather not mention important things about their own health to their Dr, and make sure it is very clear to whosoever looks at their notes, then isn't it down to the patient. I look at my notes as they scan through sometimes, because I have raised an issue........... and there are lots of things since I got back, Drs have not got the time to read every last thing, no one else would get treated if they did. It is up to us to highlight very important things about our general health. And more fool us if we do not.

An example is my son in the UK who has so many problems, his GP said he would go through his file, and did, he took it home to do it. He would never have had the time in surgery to read it all. Son was very impressed the next time he saw him.

And I shall add one thing to this. Someone I used to know well in France, decided that they would start a new alternative truth about parts of their life. Carefully chose new Drs and these new Drs even did reports for them. Little of it was true and yet these Drs are very well respected, I would doubt that they had an inkling that this new patient was other than honest.

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HiI Idun,

Good to hear your are coping well with the new knee, which I  understand is more difficult than hips.  Yes, I am sure I COULD have gone home sooner, but with a recently flooded house, I decided on the re-ed to start myself off, and must admit that the kine was excellent.  Had my first session of kine outside today, and not so impressed ...

I also have a OH who is not too good a home "nurse", so better that I was strong enough to cope when I came home.  I was up the first day ... but I do think the hospital and surgeon I chose are taking precautions rather than suffering unforeseen consequences.

And I am still finding I am very tired ... but we are all different of course!

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It must be the season for knee Ops, my FiL had one 2 weeks ago. Was kept in hospital for 3 days as there was problems with bleeding, normally he would be out in 2 days.

He was in quite some pain when he went home but it's better now and he's getting around on crutches, physio starts soon.

The big issue is my MiL.  She tends to panic at the slightest thing and can't cope with this,  to be fair, she has some serious health issues too.  My wife went and stayed for 10 days to organise things. It all went OK and she returned home.  Then gets a call from her mother insisting she returns  so she can go to the hairdressers. I mean, What??? A 200 mile round trip to babysit her Dad who is doing just fine.  More to it than that I think.

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And Judith, for me it too would have been a relief to stay in longer if my house had being flooded and that for me is an unimagineable horror and sympathise with anyone who has suffered it. In fact I would probably have been reluctant to quit the hospital at all.

But my point was that they do this for everyone and I don't believe as a general rule, longer stays are needed usually. As NH points out, for someone who lives alone, a little longer stay and help at home would be the least of things, but that was not my case. I was glad to get home.

I am trying to think how much aid I needed. Cuppas, but my OH always, well 95% of the time makes them anyway. And he would stand and assist in the kitchen and say chop onions etc.  And moving things around for me, as with two stick initially I could not do.  I truly have been doing most things. IF I had been worse, he cooks so that would not have been a problem anyway.

My biggest thing is not being able to drive yet....... that is awful for me, but I'll get there.

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Idun,

Knowing how much yo love to cook, it must be difficult.  Happily, I could stand very well immediately I got over the anaesthetic, and was almost independent before I left the hospital ... only needing help with support stockings.  The re-ed was in fact quite useful, once I'd cracked the system, and I was not sleeping well, in either place, hence feeling that I'd had enough once I'd proved to myself, and eventually to the doctors, that I could cope at home. 

Because of the lack of sleep, it has taken me the best part of a week to stop falling asleep very early, but today I feel I have made good progress, only using the crutches outside as the pavements are badly in need of repair after the flood, and because people don't see sticks, but they do see crutches, and so avoid you!! So each day is now proving that I am moving onwards ... stitches came out today - wonderful!!

Hope you continue to progress well too!

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Yes, my sleep has been perturbed by pain, unfortunately, the oromorph disagreed with me so I have only got simple pain relief, which is probably not sufficient, but it is better than throwing up all the time.

I have been cooking every last thing I usually do since I got home. Pastries and cakes, all our meals.

As I was unsure of what I would or  be unable to do, I did a big dough bake before I went in and froze a lot of bread and pizza so don't need to do any for quite a while.

I am doing really well, and the pain is diminishing bit by bit as muscles etc strengthen, funny old thing pain though, lying in bed is the worst, as there are no distractions to keep my mind off it. Hate doing my excersizes, but I do them anyway, I have to.

As I said, the only thing I want to do is drive. Left leg operated on and an automatic car so I should be able to soonish.

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