Grey.

Today has been another grey and mostly wet day. The lawns are looking a nice shade of emerald mainly due to the moss.

Our day has been spent driving down to Exeter for my spinal block. It was a lovely drive down through the rolling hills of mid-Devon. This is the 'old' road dating back many hundreds of years and it winds around beautiful old farms dotted along the wide river valley. This morning we had to avoid an old farmer walking down from his barn using a pitchfork to carry a bale of hay on his back. At another farm I could see the cows in an open sided barn right next to the road. The river runs through a wide flood plain and I imagine the houses there must be prone to damp. One house, probably made of cob, had a thatched roof that was almost completely covered with green moss. Not an easy house to maintain. The mansions and grand houses are all built higher upon drier ground overlooking the valley. There is also a short stretch where the road runs through a small forested area with its own special character. Although Exeter has some good architecture even the 10 minutes spent skirting round the edge of the city to get to the hospital made me long for our quiet country roads.

I have to admit than when we got to the hospital I grumbled at bit at having been made to go nil-by-mouth. Apparently a lot of people prefer to be sedated for the procedure. I think that must be more out of fear than anything else. The scratch when the local anesthetic is put into your back is no worse than when they stick a cannula in your hand and while the positioning of the needle into the spine does produce an odd sensation down the leg it could hardly be described as painful. Anyway my moaning got me a cup of coffee and 2 mini packets of biscuits. I had a bad headache when we got to the hospital which I put down to my sinuses but as it was much better after a drink I guess I was just dehydrated. I waited nearly 2 hours while my blood pressure etc was taken (red bands because of my mild allergy to bee stings), and then I walked to the operating theatre for the  injection which took 5-10 mins. I was wheel-chaired back because you can feel a little dizzy and as soon as I got someone to bring me my clothes and they checked my blood pressure I was free to go. Back in Barnstaple we stopped at Lidl's and I got some fruit including blueberries which I am going to have on my very late breakfast muesli. My back is stinging a little at the injection site and I have a numb bum. The top of my leg is also numb but the real test is to see if I can sit & lie in bed without the usual pain. The consultant said that there was no point in waiting for another appointment to discuss the result of the injection but if it has the required effect I should ring his secretary and I will be put on the list for surgery. And he said it would be at the private hospital again as the wait is too long at the RDE.