Had various visits from hospital staff, psychiatrists asking how I was feeling, physiotherapists running me though some simple upper body exercises using pink weights (1.5kg?!) and elastic straps and surgeons checking wounds before the op.
Surprisingly I felt really happy, so much so that I had to confirm with the nurses that none of the medication I was on was giving me a high. They confirmed that none should be making me 'feel' good, so I can only put it down to relief of being alive.
Later that morning, the ward nurse received a phone call and I was wheeled off to an operating theater. This one was smaller and didn't have the side room for anesthetic, so I was wheeled straight in to the theater its self. I remember seeing two large adjustable ceiling lamps above my bed, like bigger versions of those in a dentist surgery. Once again I was hooked up to the anesthetic, started talking to the surgeon and eventually passed out.
After what seemed like no time at all, I woke up in what I initially thought was A3, but turned out to be a small op recovery room for people that had literally just woken up or were in the process of waking up. There were curtains to my left and right, and doctors checking notes in front of me. Eventually it was my turn to be seen, the doctor checked my notes, looked at my wounds and then indicated for me to be moved back to the ward.
I can't recall if I went back to A3 first, but that evening I ended up in Ward J2. J2 is a lot more 'relaxing', nice paint on the walls, individual rooms for some patients and generally a lot more like the kind of hospital ward I was used to seeing. It turns out J2 has only been open for a few months, so everything was pretty new, however, as with anything new some things didn't quite work. That night, as I was sleeping my bedside fan decided to disintegrate and turn into what sounded like a broken washing machine! that kept me on my toes.
On J2, the staff to patient ratio is a bit lower, so each bed has a control pad to call nurses, turn lights on and off etc. also figured out how to raise and lower the bed with another control pad.
Here is a photo from my first bed in J2, I had my own room at the end of the corridor in J2 (bed 5) for a few nights then moved into a double room. Looking a bit sleepy here and in need of a shave!
This is the view from the window, cant get out of bed yet due to tube drains and other wires attached to me. Sometimes I hear a helicopter flying over so guess it's somewhere near the helipad...
On the 19th Jan I had the pleasure of meeting Mark Budden, the first person who jumped down on the track and directed John and Pamela during the rescue. Most emotional day so far, in a good way. He was able to answer most of the questions I had and described how it all went down.
On the same day I also had my first proper meal (thanks Sammy)!
A few days later the physios got me moving about. First mission was to get to the side of the bed, first attempt failed as my balance had completely gone due to me not having much weight below my waist. Second attempt was a success. Next I had to get out of bed, this involved rolling onto a sling sheet, then connecting the sheet to a hoist and lifting the sheet (with me in it) off the bed and lowering into a chair.
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