The Blurred Line

Day 32 - Annual Dinner Mark 2

I thought I would get a good night's sleep but my bladder was trained to wake up at 4am, which would have been when someone in the ward would be screaming for something or another – the witching hour! You see hospital had quickly transformed me into a small child with my colouring but was also simultaneously slowly being transformed into an old lady with my early morning wake up calls – something a bit like a Benjamin Button complex!

I did get a good night's sleep though anyway, underneath a proper duvet instead of a bed sheet, on a really comfortable mattress and in a room that wasn't the temperature and humidity of the Amazon Rainforest. I also got to do my favourite activity in the whole wide world – lie in past 10am. I also really how my mum and dad joined me for breakfast in the back room. Breakfast in bed!

My room is gorgeous, painted with this lovely green colour, and all my soft toys I've collected over the last four weeks are above me on the mantel piece. My dad and then my uncle and mum did so much to tidy the room and the hallway so I could get to it. My dad painted all the walls and my mum and grandad even did the ceiling! Mum said though how hard it was to want to be in hospital but also needing to finish the room. I can't express how grateful I am to them all for the fantastic job they did.

Unfortunately, I was working them to the bone again. As I have mentioned before, I really wanted to go to the annual dinner I had organised for the Hiking Club but decided my leg was too fragile to go so Laura, Megan, Jonny, Dave and Colin made their ways from Manchester or Coventry to have an annual dinner mark 2.

Though I'd suggested we'd go to the nice Chinese restaurant, I wasn't really supposed to know that we were dressing up nice so what a shock when they turned up and I was dressed up fancy too! My nan had helped me choose a navy blue sweetheart dress with purple sequin bits down the front and the waist band. They also had bought me a white scarf with silver feathers that went very well with dress and covered up the bruises on my arms that the anti-coagulant injections had caused. Everyone was so fancy, especially Colin and Dave who turned up in tuxedos!

We had such a good time! Dave brought really good brownies and some lovely flowers and Megan, Jonny and Laura had a bunch of yellow tulips for me and a bunch of white tulips for Susanna, as it was her birthday weekend, which she loved. We started off just chatting and laughing in my room for a couple of hours, had a cheeky little of bucks fizz! I then got stressed that the alcohol might affect my drugs which I hadn't even thought about before! Megan said it would be fine since it was such a small amount of alcohol but then got excited telling us about drugs (it seems a first year medic's penchant is for paracetamol) that one of my mum's wine glasses couldn't handle the enthusiasm and snapped it's stalk. Megan was so sorry but it was fine and my mum said "it was in the sale anyway." I should note that I wasn't quite legless – I've still got one!

Laura, Susanna, Dave, Colin and Jonny walked to the restaurant whereas Dad drove me and Megan, who is on crutches after an operation on her knee from a Skiing accident – a good advert the pair of us make for the University of Manchester Hiking Club!

Dad has borrowed a ramp from his friend for a couple of days until we get our own but there is still the lip over the door to the ramp which Mum found quite hard. My wheelchair is really really anti-tipping with the wheels set really far back. We heaved a sigh of relief as Mum got me over the lip but then we just kept going backwards and backwards faster and backwards faster. I screamed and Mum yelled but we manged to stop thankfully– Mum physically stopped the chair and I stopped the wheels. Absolutely terrifying!

We got to Maxim's, the Chinese restaurant we love and have been to over and over again throughout the years, without any more trouble – at least for the 5 minutes' drive – and my leg was actually ok in the car. I just have never thought how awkward steps are before. Getting into Maxim's, there were just two steps but they could have been two Snowdons. A thankfully movable cupboard had to be moved in order for me to get to the table too and there aren't any disabled toilets unfortunately.

However, when we were settled down, it was all really lovely and I didn't feel like I was treated differently which was really nice. I don't know if I thought I would be treated differently but I did just feel normal. The tables were high so I could put my legs under which again I hadn't thought about before. We all had our own things and then shared when we got too full. For main, I got a really interesting king prawn with egg white which I assumed would be mainly vegetables for some reason but it really was a puddle of white with some prawns. Honestly, I thought it looked pretty revolting – slimy white stuff that stripped from the spoon but it was genuinely very yummy! I was glad to share noodles with Susanna though otherwise it would have been very odd to eat on its own no matter how yummy.

The food was so good and so was the company and the restaurant was so warm that I just felt so happy and begun to fall asleep. Susanna phoned Dad but they weren't quite home yet as they'd gone to IKEA to buy a wash station for me – the poor wonderful loves – so Jonny pushed me home which isn't too far but is just far enough on bumpy pavements to justify going by car. He actually did really well and noticed that the wheelchair veers right when you leave it to its own accord because of the weight imbalance from the missing leg –pretty sad really but I'm fine as long as in my whole life I only ever need to turn right.

We all skyped Annual Dinner Mark 1 when we got back home. I received (technically from Dave but from the committee who were at the other party) a beautiful silver neckless with mountains on. We got to say hello to everyone there who looked like they were already having a merry time but I was so glad it all worked out. Apparently the food was good and so was the atmosphere so I was a very happy bunny even though I couldn't be there with them. Jamie, who was running the trip I was on when the accident happened and is notorious for having his trousers round his knees, was actually wearing a belt! I could not believe my eyes!

Dave heroically drove everyone home and got them all back safely though I have no idea what ridiculous time in the morning he must have got back. I was shattered by half ten which was when they left and went to bed immediately after the door closed.

(Picture - clockwise from right: Laura, Dave, Jonny, Megan, Colin and me, with Susanna taking the photo, in Maxim's Chinese restaurant)