I survived my operation and am back home again - explicit photos which everyone may not wish to see

I am now back home again after my abdominoplasty operation to remove the spare skin from my abdomen after having lost over 11stone/72kgs with my mini gastric bypass.  My usual gastro surgeon performed the op - Dr David Lechaux.

The photos are explicit - you have been warned!  The first one shows me marked up the evening before the day of the operation.

Although I had traditional internal stitching, the external wound was closed with glue and medical grade honey.  An innovative system of a dressing connected to a vacuum pump was then connected which kept the wound stable and the dressing in absolute contact with the forming scar.  This photograph was taken after the operation showing the new type of dressing and before the corset was fitted.

The next photographs are of when the vacuum dressing was removed on the Friday after the Monday operation.

And now a photograph of the more conventional dressing applied once the vacuum dressing had been removed.

I was discharged the following day and my good friend, Jackie, picked me up and brought me home via the Pharmacy for dressings and anti-coagulant jabs and via the supermarket for lemon meringue icecream and baguettes.

Overall the experience was fine and thanks so much to the people who visited me while I was in Yves le Foll hospital. 

I am now not allowed to drive for far too long and have to take it very easy.  The corset stays on for eight more weeks. 

I have overnight developed a very large, swollen, fairly unpleasant haematoma on my left thigh which is extremely uncomfortable.  I shall see how it goes and the nurse has told me to ask for a doctor home visit if it gets any worse.  Fingers crossed for the moment.

Three things I like:

1.   Being back home in my own bed.
2.   That I didn't take out the stairlift after I lost weight and didn't need it anymore - it's very helpful at the moment.
3.   Being back on the internet and in touch with the world at large.

Harvests, butterflies and my granddaughter

Yet again I lost my three month prescription this week.  I put it somewhere ready to go to the Pharmacy but when the moment arrived I couldn't find it.  The receptionist kindly arranged for another one for me to pick up and while I waited for it to be signed I wandered outside and saw these wonderful thistly-looking flowers over two metres high stretching into a blue, blue sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful isn't it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An equally beautiful bloom - a passionflower on my pergola.

 

 

The lanes have been filled with tractors and combine harvesters and here is one local farmer getting in his hay crop.

 

 

My harvests day after day are keeping me in veggies and eggs - here is one day this week.  I love the shiny aubergine and am eating tomatoes in lots of meals now all the different sorts are ripening.

 

There are butterflies everywhere in the garden but they particularly like the buddleias in the main flowerbed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather's been so good that I decided to get the large rug from my sitting room shampooed and dried in the sunshine on the terrace.  As soon as it I came inside the three cats appeared and started playing on it. 

 

 

 

Purrdy slept there for most of yesterday afternoon.  I usually do this earlier in the year, at the start of summer and leave the floor bare until the colder weather starts but I am late because of all the rain we were having a few months ago.   I also stripped the covers off the settees and armchair and all the cushions and got those laundered and dried too while the sun was drying everything so well.

 

Here are two photos of Mia - she's definitely got yawning off to a fine art whether she's with her Daddy or Mummy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hard to believe that my lovely granddaughter, Mia, was a month old on 27 August - she is growing so fast.

 

 

Three things I like:

 

1.  The thank you card my lovely German guests made for me and gave me tonight.

2.  Getting my under cupboard lights working again - thanks, Andy, finally I can see what I am preparing in the kitchen.

3.  The free books and DVDs I collected yesterday which will keep me occupied when I go into hospital on Sunday week.

Roscoff Onion and Garlic Festival

Today was a brilliant day out at Roscoff Onion and Garlic Festival.  It rained for the whole one and a half hour journey and then the sun came out as we parked in a great space inbetween the main onion sales area and the town.

 

 

Jane and I wandered around the main onion and garlic area and between us bought nearly 70kgs of onions and rose garlic.  There were lots of demonstrations of onion stringing, wicker basket making, clog carving, cookery etc. and lots of possible tastings of cheeses, seaweed products, onion confits. 

Two of the girls and a young lad from the stall we bought our onions from helped Jane get the produce back to the car while I stood idly by taking photographs!

Banners were all over the place and there must have been several thousand people in Roscoff for the event.

Here clogs are taking shape from a block of wood.

Artichokes got in on the act too and there were several stalls selling them and tarts with both artichokes and onions.

 
This was a good band in the town and there were lots of other little groups of people playing, a trio of strings and woodwind and of course, the obligatory Breton music group.

This was a sundial on the wall of a rather impressive church and some interior shots.

In the street there was an apple press from which the juice was being sold at €1 a glass, certainly not "rip off" prices.

The tide was out and four boys were investigating in the salt water pools and seaweed left behind.

Here I am supporting a large apple made from apples raffia tied to a chicken wire frame on one of the floats from the procession.

 

Before we came back home, we sat on a bench on the prom looking out to sea and people watching while drinking coffee from china cups with saucers.  The hundreds of people who passed us clearly thought we were a couple of very eccentric Brits and we had lots of comments and some slightly longer exchanges from thirsty passersby.

 

It was a really lovely day out and one which I hope will become a regular appointment in my diary.

 

Three things I like:

 

1.   Spending the day with a good friend.

2.   Being slim enough nowadays to walk all day without being tired.

3.   The thought of all those onions and rose garlic waiting to be used.

 

 

Difficult days and better things

The last couple of weeks have been difficult and I'm very glad they're over.  It's not often I get down but all I can say is - it's a good job my oven is electric!

 

I went to the hospital at Rennes and stupidly left my wallet behind on the desk of the woman who was giving me all the papers and forms for me to have an operation there.  I realised the following day what I had done and telephoned her.  She said she hadn't seen my wallet.  After giving her three or four hours to change her mind - I know where I left it - I called my English bank and my French bank to cancel my various bank cards, CPAM to cancel my Carte Vitale, my insurance company to cancel my Mutuelle, Brittany Ferries to cancel my discount card etc. etc.  There was also €150+ in it, photos, stamps, store loyalty cards, my driving licence etc. etc. 

 

Unbelievably, several days later I got an answerphone message to say they had it after all - what a surprise!   Unfortunately, she said it was in a locked cupboard and I wouldn't be able to collect it until after the holiday of the person who had locked it up.  A French guest staying with me took over the conversation as I was out of my depth in the things I wanted to say to this woman.  Later the admin woman telephoned my guest's mobile and told her that she had managed to get it from the cupboard and it was ready for collection.  Luckily a friend was going to Rennes to take her husband to the airport and I hitched a lift with them to the hospital and collected it.  Seventeen days later, today, I received my pin code to enable me to use my French card.  I am still waiting for my English bank stuff.  My carte vitale could take up to six months to renew, although hopefully it will be sooner than that.

 

Claude, my young white cat went missing for 48 hours and I thought he was gone for good.  He arrived back and spent nearly 3 full minutes with his head in a watering can drinking rainwater so must have been very thirsty.  Heavens knows where he had been I'm just really glad to have him back.

 

 

 

He came running down the lane as I went up to feed the animals 48 hours after I'd last seen him.   He has become very adventurous since his temporary disappearance and later that day I saw him climb out of the landing Velux window and walk around the roof with Purrdy looking on.

 

 

 The surgeon I was hoping to meet at Rennes - after a thirteen month wait - was not there.  Instead a person who looked as if she should still be at school saw me.  She wanted to do a more extensive operation.  I didn't have any confidence in her youthfulness and the secretary there was extremely unpleasant and rude - it was her I later had to deal with over the matter of the wallet I left in her office.

 

I felt quite unable to have my operation done at Rennes and was fretting about it all.  Finally I telephoned my previous surgeon at St Brieuc and arranged an appointment to see him on Friday afternoon.  He agreed to do the revised more extensive operation himself, thank heavens, and I shall have this on Monday, 9 September, going in at late in

 

 

the afternoon the day before.  I have total confidence in this surgeon and this will be the third op I have had with him.  His office staff are very kind and helpful too, a different situation than at Rennes I'm glad to say.

 

On to happier things.  The bramble fruits in the lane are ripening well now and I pick a small bowl each day as they plump out and become sweet.  I like them raw, but I also cook them with a little sugar and water and pour the result over vanilla icecream - scrumptious.

 

Both Middle and Small Cottages are occupied with guests; this week from Germany and from England - all very pleasant  - I've been so lucky with the people who have stayed in www.rainbowcottagesinfrance.com  and I hope next year will be as good.


I have read loads lately.  When it's sunny I spend as much time as I can in the garden and read.  Here are some of the books I've got through.  I really enjoyed The Memory Keeper's Daughter. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Guilty One was my book club read for September so for once I am ahead of myself.  I enjoyed this book too.

 

The Patrick Gale books I like very much - I do like his writing style and am currently reading Gentleman's Relish also by him - a collection of short stories.   I'm trying to get into Ripe for the Picking but it the style seems a bit scathing for me and I may not continue with it.

Tomorrow I going with a girlfriend, possibly two, up to Roscoff for the Onion and Garlic Festival on there this weekend.  This a photograph from the internet.

   

We should come back with enough onions and garlic to see off vampires for the next half year or so and I'm really looking forward to the day out.

Mia, my lovely granddaughter with some super expressions!  She's four weeks old today - where does the time go?

Three things I like:

1.   The lovely photos of my new granddaughter which her Mummy posts on Facebook.
2.   Getting my operation re-arranged with someone I trust.
3.   Spending a night in my campervan so that I can have an evening out and drink a couple of glasses of wine without driving.