Some calm after a horrendous week

This morning I had to do some chores at home, laundry, change bedding etc. before going to see Gavin at hospital. Luke and Tommy came with me when I walked Xena so I took them down the road to see our local bluebells, which are looking really good this year. The boys were impressed with them.

Gavin had a slightly difficult day, he is in pain and tired. The surgeon did warn us that day 2 post-op would be worse than day 1. He is reluctant to use his morphine pump - he and I are both not keen on using drugs - but the nurses explained he has to use it as pain relief is very important in his recovery. They eventually had to add more painkillers to his IV drips.

Luke had to sort out the MOT on Gavin's car today and was doing other errands for Gavin, so Tommy and I got the train to London. We got off at Vauxhall and used Forest bikes (a dockless electric bike-sharing service operating in London) to get from the station to the hospital. We are lucky that London has an excellent cycle 'highway' so it was an easy commute in a cycle only lane.

The vascular surgeon came to see Gavin today and we discussed how the operation went, he said he was very pleased with it and he had hardly anything to do as there was not much cutting and stitching up of things. He said Gavin would remain in ICU for the weekend and then move into a ward, and hopefully go home by late next week. The pathology report will take a long time as the tumour is so complex that it requires all sorts of analysis and these tests take time, so we may only get this report the week thereafter. It's a long time to wait and Gavin is understandably feeling very anxious about it.

Luke went back home tonight, and Tommy flies back to Munich tomorrow, so it will be a bit different now. Luckily Luke lives near the hospital so can pop in and see Gavin at any time.

The only good news today was that Meriel got a very good Foreign Office posting that she applied to - it is very competitive so she did well to get the position. Not sure I am allowed to give any details about it so I won't just yet.