The one where John flips a pick-up truck....

First off, thank you goes out to a very special person today...

....Katya. You really have no idea how much you helped me over the last two weeks, and how much you will probably continue to do so as I rush towards recovery with open arms. Constantly around, contacting my folks and bro and other worried friends keeping them in the loop, tireless in enthusiasm and support, and still willing to laugh at my jokes?? Is there no end to your genius??? (Thats about as gushy as she would allow me to get I think, without resorting to violence ;) )

So, to explain what all the fuss has been about for anyone who missed the bits and pieces, here follows a quick synopsis.....



On the 11th of September, after a very successful trip to town to pick up some supplies for the kids in the play , organize Katya's Anniversary present and put the new computer for Rocky Road into production, I swerved the center's pick up to avoid a monkey in the road...managed to get the damn thing back onto the road, but the steering locked and I veered left, popped over a barrier and 'Dukes and Hazzard'ed it into a field, rolling the truck three or four times, whilst manging to be thrown from it before it reached its destination.



My initial prognosis was nothing broken, a very bruised back, and a laceration across my head that needed twelve staples to stitch up...and an award for the luckiest fucker on the face of the planet....





A trip to the hospital and three days later I was home again....but not for long.

The doctors were not convinced by my still relatively high level of discomfort, and promptly send me for a day of x-rays and MRI's up and down the Garden route here, arriving back at the hospital where I was initially led, to a consultancy with a Dr Verrier (probably the best doctor I will ever meet!)

He quickly showed me through the 3d rendering that the Catscan/MRI had done that I had broken one of the joints that held my vertebrae together in my neck separating my c6 and c7 discs, which then turned in towards my spinal column (pretty much anyway).He immediately hit sent me to bed, and set me up for an operation, to take a piece of bone from my hip to replace this joint and fuse it to my vertebrae with a titanium plate, going through my throat...




All in all, when they got in there to do the operation, the cord had swollen and it was very messy, but all good in the end! Got released after a few days rest and back here to Rocky Road for 6 weeks, until I can get another x-ray to check progress...



So that has slightly put us out of our plan, as OZ will have to wait out another month or so, but onward go we do.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who sent me messages and texted and called over the last two weeks; you really all kept spirits up and made the days lying motionless go quicker and quicker. I owe you all a drink (or 5!)

Cheers especially to my bro Rob, too, who stood in and saved the day. you little Gem.


Gotta go and get some rest, peeps... will be on to you all again soon with recovery news from the lazy-boys in front of the TV ;)

Soon,

J