Wednesday and the Chinese New Year, the year of the Snake arrives and I wake up to the sound of the Builder Badgers finishing the block paving outside. I take my vitals and get up and into my training kit, although I will not train till later. I make the badgers a coffee and go and chat to them, they reckon they will be off in about an hours time, job done. While they are finishing off I have breakfast and check messages and socials and make the all important pre hospital check list for tomorrow.

The badgers finish their work and I go out for the farewell chat. They have done a good job as they always do and they are a handy crew to keep hold of for future work and they have a useful network of tradesmen who have turned out to be good as well. They leave and I get on with replacing the worn insulation on the exterior overflow pipe from the heating system. Before being re-piped this pipe would freeze up and stop the boiler from functioning properly, once insulated it never froze again and the-system worked. The ravages of time had taken it toll so I replaced the major part of it encountering a huge garden spider who obviously likes the warm and most environment of the overflow outlet. All in all a productive morning.

I take a rest as I feel I am getting through my days allotted amount of spoons quite quickly and I have lots still to do. While I rest I start to draft the blog. This may well be my last two handed draft for a week or two as from tomorrow my right hand is going to be bandaged like a mitten leaving me to accomplish everything one handed. I am sure lots of people have experienced this but I have the feeling that it will be the obvious everyday things that will be the most difficult like showering, using the toilet and in my case rowing let alone other things like driving and getting dressed. So my future blogs maybe more pictorial for a while or very short due to my one handed typing and key board skills. It will be an adventure, all I have to do is survive the general anaesthetic.

Time to train. And train I do for an hour on the rower, just trying to make the most of the time I have. So I grind out an hour and it turns out to be a reasonable session as I manage to make 11+K and burn 700+calories.

With the training out of the way its time to do some chores and have lunch. Amongst the things I finally get done is to re-pot the “money plant” that I managed to “steal” two Christmas’s ago. Apparently we had to steal them because it is lucky. Where other’s plants have grown into vital plant mine has struggle in its tiny pot and even survived outside for a while. so while I have two hands I decided to give my plant a new environment. I hope my efforts bear fruit.

With the indoor gardening done I am changed and off out to collect my monthly drugs prescription, some cash and a newspaper, I am hoping that this will push up my PAI score. Once home its time to start packing for tomorrow. Of course once I have my hand in a mitten like bandage I will need something easy to get into and out of. Luckily I have a collection of ice hockey jerseys that will do the job nicely. I reread the pre op instructions and load up all I need, including entertainment options. Once I am happy that I have everything including the list of the crowns in my mouth for the anaesthetist I return to the blog and then to an evening meal, last before I go to the hospital tomorrow.

Now its all about relaxing, sleeping, drinking water and having a shower in the morning before getting an Uber to the adventure. So there maybe a break in the blog but I am hoping my creativity and adaptability will rise to the surface First things first be organised, have the operation, survive the general anaesthetic and get home. The rest will be another story. So I will see you(blog) all on the other side as the Jamaican nurses used to say as they waved me off after dialysis.