::Griffblog::

With New Year’s Eve only a day away the issue of alcohol consumption is one that concerns most of us.

But for me it is different as I have not been able to consume any alcoholic drink for some months.  As I’m on a mix of oral morphine (a cough mixture like liquid version) and other strong pain killers as well as antibiotics on many occasions, on the few occasions where I have tried to enjoy a glass of beer or wine I have become very nauseous soon after.

Couple that with the difficulties I already have in getting about and the added problems that alcohol may bring mean I have chosen to abstain completely.

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I received a Chumby for Christmas, a Classic model to be precise rather than the recently launched ONE but more of that later.

The Chumby is a difficult device to pidgeon hole. It’s a small Linux powered web connected gadget to which you can add up to a 100 ‘widgets’ from a list of thousands available at Chumby’s website.  It is also a streaming web radio and clock/alarm.

It has a 3.5″ colour touch screen, stereo speakers, two USB “A” ports and a unique soft leather shell.

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It has been some 4 months since I went under the knife (and chisel, spanner and mallet) and had the ilizarov frame bolted into and onto my leg.

By and large it has been a lot easier than I had feared. I’d had almost a year to prepare mentally and practically for the op so when the day finally came there was little shock at the appearance of the frame fitted to my leg and whilst it has been painful and uncomfortable and life limiting to large degrees, for the most part it has been easier than I had feared it might be.

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Only recently I was thinking how lucky I had been to only suffer one pin infection very early on in the process.

Then last Saturday one of my pin wires sprung an infection which got worse very quickly. By Sunday I had another pin wire and one of the thicker pins also infected.

My earlier infection I now know was but a teaser and the discomfort I had back then was nothing compared with the agonising and completely debilitating pain that this one has demonstrated.

So Monday morning I saw my GP who quickly prescribed Phenoxymethylpenicillin and Flucloaxacillin, two types of high dose antibiotic and as my normal pain killer supply wasn’t touching this new source of pain, Co-Codamol in the high strength 30mg dose.

The main infection is in the pin closest to the top of my thigh.  It is in the worst possible place because the skin and flesh moves a lot in this area.  And movement = lots of pain.

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