Hurrah, my laptop is home and well

Been laptop-less since I came out of hospital so have had to beg, borrow and steal to get online - until now! I felt limbless without it. What a world we live in, when gadgets are so sorely missed. But I love 'em! There's some software still to be re-installed, most importantly Photoshop, so can't upload any pictures yet.

Bertie's settled in very well. He and Morris play pat-a-cake every day until Mo gets a little enthusiastic and Bertie gets a soggy neck. Bertie now has a 'safe' tower with scratch posts, hidey holes and a fur-lined bed that towers five feet above the dogs. He loves it, they're frustrated.

My head is healing, although there was a hiccup the other night. I'd been bothered for a few days by something sticking out of the end of the wound and, like you do, piddled with it incessantly. Well, I pulled it a bit too hard and this fishing-line type wire kept coming out of my head, still attached to something inside. Nurse Fifi cut it off, stemmed the flow of blood (ok, the trickle) and dressed it to prevent infection. It was, of course, some internal soluble stitching not doing what it says on the can and all is ok now.

I've also got upper back issues. When I came round from the op I had an incredibly painful neck which has been troubling me ever since. Dr Embryo asked the physios to have a look at it whilst I was still in hospital. Granted, they did - look, that is - and then went away again with no advice or treatment whatsoever. It feels like somebody needs to whack a vertebrae back into place then all will be well. Finally unable to take the pain any longer I went to see Doc Simon who confirmed that anaesthetic-ridden bodies on op tables are indelicately pushed and pulled into place so, because my head was gripped tight in a vice, the rest of me was probably dumped out of kilter. The other, slightly shocking, thing he told me was that this second aneurysm was in a really difficult place to get to which made the op even riskier but I didn't know that beforehand. Just as well really as my worry level was sky high anyway! He also confirmed that Nurse Fifi had done just the right thing post-stitch-piddling. I now have yet more pills to add to the daily intake and some physio to try before anyone gets whacking. Small price to pay for life.

Christmas cards have all been written and posted (smug) and all the Christmas wrapping is done (even smugger). Fif and I are going away for stress-avoidance reasons. We thought we'd got the avoidance sussed this year but there're always those who wittingly or otherwise upset the apple cart so we just booked it, will pack it and then **** off for ten days. And boy do we need it! It's been a tough time.