Just a quick note to let you know what's going on & why I've hardly been around lately.

My 82 year old dad was admitted to hospital last Tuesday.  He had a knee replacement in Nov 05 & that leg has never been the same since.  A few days before his admission to hospital, he had a check up for his knee.  They said everything was fine.  On Monday evening 22.01.07, after taking his dog for a walk, he began to have some pain in the knee.  This went progressively worse as the evening wore on.  When he was getting ready for bed, the knee gave way and he ended up on the floor.  By this time, the knee was so painful, he couldn't get up & despite having his cordless phone in his hand, he spent the night on the floor of his bedroom.  Luckily he had left the heater on in the hallway, otherwise he'd have probably ended up with hypothermia!  When I asked why he hadn't rung me or one of my brothers, he said he didn't want to be a bother as it was late!

To cut a very long story short, he had an operation on the knee on Wed 23.01.07 to drain some fluid from the joint which was very swollen.  This fluid was tested & it turned out he had an infection.  He also had a temperature, which I think had affected his mind, hence the not phoning anyone & choosing to spend the night on the floor!

On Thursday 24.01.07 he had another operation to flush out the knee joint.  This basically involved taking the artificial joint apart & washing it with sterile water, so in effect a very similar operation as having the knee replaced in the first place.  He is on intravenous antibiotics too.

I went to visit every evening last week, but just can't keep this up.  I am also looking after my dad's dog as well as my 4 kids, so I told my dad I would have to cut down the visiting to every other night.  I am also having to make sure he has clean pyjamas etc.

As you can imagine, this is putting a very big strain on my free time, so this is why I've not been about lately.  Please keep sending me your challenges and I will get round to them eventually!  I am also checking out a few blogs when I get a minute.

I am missing you all loads.

Keep in touch.