Recovery

On Jack’s birthday, January 30^th we flew back from Vienna to the Netherlands. Unfortunately, we cannot fly anymore from Graz, that was the easiest and shortest option to return home.

KLM took out this flight, which means we park the car at Robin’s office near Graz and then take the train to Vienna. It’s alright but just a long journey.

We left early and were really early at the airport. We spent couple of hours at the KLM lounge, which was relaxed and good.

When we arrived at Leiden Central Station we took a bus to a snack bar, where we had great Dutch snacks (kroketten and frikandellen), not healthy but it tastes so yummy.

We came home around 10pm and went straight to bed. On January 31^st we took the train to Amsterdam and then a shuttle bus to IJmuiden to the DFDS ferry to Newcastle. This trip the sea was calm, and we had a nice relaxed journey. We arrived at Newcastle around 09:15 and were home at 1pm. When we walked up the stairs, we heard the smoke alarm going in the living room. Ayo hates these high pinched sounds and started trembling all over his little body. I opened the garden door, so he could wait outside. He waited at the very end of the garden, being not happy!

Our ceilings are 4 meters high; the smoke alarm is also extremely high. Even with the ladder it wasn’t possible for tall Rob to reach this damn thing. We put many books under the ladder and then the next hurdle came up, how to open this thing! With YouTube!

Finally, he got it open, and the irritating sound was off and Ayo could get “home”.

Noa also arrived on Sunday, she was coming over to help me out after the surgery of the next day.

February 2^nd was the day that I got surgery of my pelvic floor and hysterectomy. I could eat at 6am, which I did. However, surgery was at 15:30, such a long day without anything, and I hate that! Surgery went well, we saw the doctor in the evening, and he was happy how it went. The next morning the catheter would get out and when I was able to pee, I could go home. Unfortunately, my bladder didn’t really empty, and it was so painful.  The whole day was about peeing, measuring and an ultrasound of the bladder, every time I peed. In the evening, they gave me another catheter, because it wasn’t working. Wednesday morning they took it out again and the process of peeing started all over, with no positive result. So, the decision was made to give me again a catheter to let my bladder relax for the next 7 days. Three catheters in 3 days, wasn’t pleasant. Apparently, a bladder is a sensitive organ, and this was one of the complications the doctor mentioned before.

We experienced a few beginner mistakes:

·      The second night we forgot to close the tap at the end of the bag, there was almost a liter of urine on our carpet next to the bed, not good!

·      The second night we were very aware of closing this bottom tap, but we forgot to open the top one. Around midnight I didn’t feel well, took some painkillers and tried to sleep again, that didn’t work. I checked the bag, but nothing was in it, so at least it wasn’t leaking. Slowly I realised I hadn’t opened the top tap, so my bladder was painful because of the overflow….

·      And last one was when I went to the toilet, I forgot to close the tap. I didn’t have the bag on during the day, this way my bladder would stay active. When I felt the urge, I had to go to the toilet and could open the tube. But so, the last day I forgot to close the tube and suddenly my trousers were wet on one side.

I was relieved to get rid of this thing on Wednesday. I had to spend several hours at the hospital with the same routine, peeing, measuring and ultrasound of the bladder. Good news was my bladder emptied, and I was sent home again. Now my recovery could start.

Noa left a week after she arrived. She was a great help. In the evening, we played games and on Saturday we went to a mall nearby us. She bought a nice suit for work.

A few days later Robin came over to help. I slowly started cooking again, this is something my eldest daughter doesn’t like to do. Robin was also working every day; she doesn’t have many days per year. We also went a bit shopping with Robin. She also needed a few working tops.

It was the first time Robin paid us a visit in Edinburgh, she loved it but felt very cold in this old house!

At the weekend of 20th of February Lindsey and John came over. That Saturday morning, we got a phone call from Noa that she passed her driving license in Prague!! Her second one, because a few years ago she got her Canadian one, but this isn’t valid in Europe.

On Saturday we went out for dinner with Scottish friends Lindsey knew from her Warsaw years. I met Morag here in town, Lindsey introduced us.

We had a wonderful weekend with Lindsey and John, like always!

 This weekend was also very sad because one of my best friends Geraldine had to let go of her partner Gerrit after a sickbed of months. He was such a warm, easy-going man, only 56 years old. We all knew his end was coming so I already had asked my surgeon if I could fly to the Netherlands to be there for my friend. I was allowed to fly but could not carry anything heavy. Jack picked me up late at night at Schiphol airport and the next day we went together to the church for the funeral. Thursday night 700 people came to say a last farewell to Gerrit. There was no space at the church for all the people, they had to use a community hall next to the church. Jack and I went on Friday, and again a full church. It was a beautiful service; he was loved by so many people. They were in Edinburgh with us last year, the same weekend he passed away this year.

Saturday, I flew back home again and needed a few days to recover from this trip, but I was happy to have hugged Geraldine for a few moments.

March 6^th Rob and I travelled together to Austria to be there for just one week. Ayo stayed with Ali and Guy in Dunfermline; they have two dogs of their own and they had another guest dog staying. They were playing sausage hunt in their living room before bedtime; the little videos were hilarious.

We had great weather in Austria; I enjoyed a bit of sun and Rob skied a bit and worked some days in the afternoons. It was super relaxed. Noa went to our house a week later with her roommate from Canada. After Noa, now Jack, and Ailsa and their dog Zara are staying in the family house. We like it that everyone goes there.

Rob had reduced his travelling in February to stay close to me when I recovered. In March he started to travel again and was reminded very quickly on the pleasure of doing this in the UK. His first trip was to Manchester by train which is a 3 ½ hours trip. Halfway through the journey the cables had broken, and the train was stopped at Preston. He was told to take a different train to Manchester. On the platform 7 people of different railway companies were shouting that people for Manchester Piccadilly needed to stand at the left, Liverpool at the right, Birmingham at the back. Very helpful exercise when then somebody else from the railway company joins and says that Manchester is on the right and Liverpool at the front. To add to confusion the loudspeaker announces that the next train to Manchester had arrived at platform 4…… So, going to platform 4 to discover that the train did arrive …… at platform 6. Then waiting on the train to be informed that the train is cancelled and that busses for Manchester are waiting outside and when arriving outside being told that the train on platform 6 will leave in 5 minutes and that busses are cancelled and when arriving at the train the driver’s telling us that the train is officially terminated and that taxis are at the side of the station waiting. Very efficient process and to make a long story a sort of short, the total trip took him in the end 7 hours. If you think nothing can beat this than his next trip was to London by plane. On his flight back from London City with BA he saw that there were still 3 planes leaving that night to Edinburgh at 19pm 19:45 and 20:35. Rob was at the 19:45. He was waiting at the gate when he sees planes landing and taking off. He sees the 19pm flight leaving and then his plane is announced to be delayed and delayed. He gets the announcement that boarding will start after cleaning is finished, but that plane is not parked properly so not sure if we need to change to the gate next to him. Rob looks outside but does not see a plane. But planes are all the time landing and taking off. BA has what Rob calls ‘BA book of bullshit reasons’ where they randomly give reasons why there are issues with flights.  At 20:30 it is announced that his plane is cancelled due to heavy wind that it could not land after several attempts and that it has been diverted to another airport… Really remarkable since no other plane was impacted! He needed to stay for another night, travel back to the city and arrived home the next day.

In the weekend of 20^th of March, we had a family weekend in Domburg in Zeeland. I flew in a few days earlier so I could have an ENT doctor’s checkup, and I could go to the hairdresser, that’s so much cheaper in the Netherlands!

I also saw Geraldine on Friday morning. As I wrote earlier in this post, that she just lost her husband. It was good to sit down and listen to her how things are going right now in her life.

Friday afternoon we drove to Zeeland, it was busy on the road, but we got there on time. The house was amazing. We were with 13 in total, Rob’s sister Caroline and her husband Peter and their girls Kim and Maxime and their boyfriends Sander and Rico. Only Noa and Ailsa from our side weren’t there. The weather was gorgeous but still bit chilly. We played Armin’s favourite Kleinjan’s game,” boeren bridge”. On Saturday afternoon we went to a kite clinic at the beach. We started with a small one and then a bigger one and then at the end a huge one. The kids loved the big kites most because they were really pulling them all over the place.

Saturday night we played more games. Sunday Robin and Armin left around midday, and we all went to Veere, a lovely small village nearby. We brought Jack to Middelburg where he met a study friend. In the afternoon we brought Hugo and Anna to the train and picked Jack up again.

Guess what we did in the evening……..indeed we played more games.

Monday morning, we all left Domburg behind and returned home with many lovely memories and with the promise we do this again next year. It was a weekend filled with nieces, because on Monday I saw my other niece Joe, it was her 33^rd birthday. Jack and I had dinner at the Malle Jan in Leiden with Joe, Sanneke, and Cardie a close friend of them. It was wonderful.

On Tuesday Jack, Ailsa and Zara left for Austria, they are there for 3 weeks. He’s in-between two jobs at the ANWB.

Half of April he’ll start his new job. His last week of work was filled with goodbye drinks, walks, coffees etc. like if he was leaving the company almost. He’s changing to the IT department.

In March I recieved again a letter from High Court, that I was needed for jury duty........stop asking me! I don't want to do this. I'm not a native speaker and I'm deaf! Luckily I could sent proof that I'm traveling again, this time through Scotland itself.

On Wednesday 25^th of March Loes and I travelled back together. Finally, she was coming over to Edinburgh. We were on the plane when the captain announced that the support brakes weren’t working. A few technicians came on board to see if they could fix it. They couldn’t, therefore they were looking for another plane for us. Luckily it was standing besides us, that was great. The captain informed us to off the plane, and we needed to wait at gate 28.  All the luggage needed to be off loaded and therefore it took 1,5 hours.

We had a long delay; therefore, Rob got the groceries and cooked a lovely meal for us.

On Thursday we walked the whole Royal Mile, from Holyrood Palace all the way up to the castle. We walked more than 10km that day. On Friday there was a surprise for Loes and me too. Our birthday presents from Rob, and the children was making bags of tartan. This was so nice to do. It was led by a nice lady. We went home with two beautiful rug sacks.

Thursday, I noticed a fly while we were watching tv and another one and many more. We were having a huge moth attack of our woolen rug under the sofa in the living room. We pulled it away, quite heavy though and threw it outside, there we witnessed the damage of the rug. They were also between the wooden floor racks. It took us a long time to clean it all.

Let’s pray they stay away!

The last week of March I started to play a bit of golf again and Pilates. Slowly gaining more energy and getting out of my bubble. Of all my surgeries in my life (about 25) this was the toughest one. I just had to sort of sit it out. When you get a new knee you work hard to get back on your feet again, this one was very different.

A last nice news to mention is that also Noa has accepted a new job! She will leave Prague and will move to Hilton Vienna as active sales manager DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). She will start on June 1^st. Great for us since we can see her during stopovers on our way to our house in Austria. Great for her since it is a great place to live and closer to Robin. Plus it’s a big next step in her career. She also still got some friends there from the time that we lived there like her best friend Isabella.

I hope to have a more exciting blog to post in the following to months, this was February and March.

April is filled with friends coming over to Edinburgh. In May I’ll go for a road trip through Scotland with Sanneke.

Many nice things to looking forward to.

Spring's arrived, although it's snowing today in Edinburgh!

These photos below are all from the park behind our house and our garden.

Stay safe everyone.