HARRIETTE

Harriette and I came into the hospital on 10 august 2015 for an operation the following day.   We were warned it would be a long operation and it would take about a week to recover.  Two to three weeks after this we would have to come back to hospital for the main operation on her vertebrae which were crushing her spinal cord.

However after the first op Harriette lost all of her feeling and movement in her arms and legs.  After an emergency scan that night nothing was found to be wrong and it was soon realised that her problems were due to.the nerves around her spinal cord being disturbed and these.nerves not liking the surgery.  Gradually after a few weeks Harriette started moving little by little.  A few weeks later she could stand and with a lot of physio she started to try to walk again.

During this time her brother and sister started college.  There is only 2 and a half years between Harriette and her elder sister (with her brother in the middle) so I needed to be home regularly for them as well as being at he hospital for Harriette.  My way to do this was to cycle back and forth as I don't have a car.  I could cycle home in 10-15 minuted and ensure they got up in the mornings for college and pop home regularly to be there for them why also getting back to the hospital quickly if I needed to.  However, a few weeks ago my bike was stolen from the hospital making my days a lot more awkward. I would get up at 5pm to walk home to be there for the other two.

It was about this time that Harriette started to struggle to move again and by the end of one week she fot so bad that by the Sunday she was back in bed not able to move anything again.  Emergency scans showed swelling on her spinal cord and the second operation  (which had previously been put back to 18 months later due to Harriette not being well) was brought forward to a few weeks time. The decision to bring it forward again was then made and the operation was done two days after this decision.

It was during this time that I was introduced to Sian at Jacbach and after meeting Sian she told me that they were going to get me a new bike.  I was so grateful as not only was I obviously worried about Harriette I was also concerned as to how I was going to continue to manage to get back and forth. I was so thankful to Jacbach for their kindness it really was such a relief to be mobile again.

Harriette is now recovering well after 10 days and I'm hoping she will be well enough to get out of bed very soon.