::Griffblog::

After an aborted trip to see the consultant two weeks ago (tuned up only to discover he had been called away) we finally saw him last Tuesday.

The good news is the bone has now connected and begun to knit and fill in the gap. I am now booked to return on 8th December and if all is going well then, they will start undoing the tension on the frame to transfer some of the weight through the new bone rather than the frame.

If that goes to plan then normally the frame is removed a month later!

Given some of the stories I have heard from others with ilizarov frames, this has gone very well.  We were told at the outset that it would be 4mths at the very least but typically 6mths – 1 year so if it comes off in January it will be a shade under 6mths.

I’ve also made some huge improvements at home, I’ve thrown away the crutches and can now get around using a walking stick.  I can walk without but it is there as a backup as balance is an issue with a heavy frame on one leg and it locked straight.

So that was great news, my wife and I returned home with huge smiles on our faces at the good news!

For almost a year know we have been searching for a dog to join our family.  Our daughter has wanted one for many years and we chose to wait until she was old enough to take some responsibility.

Earlier this year we started the search for a suitable breed and by luck one day whilst out walking we came across what we all agreed was a lovely looking dog.  Chatting with its owner we discovered it was a Lakeland Terrier.  Further research revealed this was an ideal breed, good natured, intelligent if a little ‘lively’ and the size we were looking for, smaller than a labrador, larger than a toy dog or Jack Russell.

We though that deciding and agreeing on a breed would be the hard part but we were wrong!  Lakeland’s are a rarer breed nowadays having fallen out of the mainstream and so locating a dog was not easy.  We wanted a bitch and originally set out to locate a red. Typically these are the rarest, most being black and tan.

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True to their promise, Amazon and UPS tuned up at my front door this morning with a Kindle International, the new, albeit somewhat kludged (more of that later) version of their previous US only EBook.

I had lusted after one of these for a long time so when the announcement came that the International version was being released and could be pre-ordered I put my name down that very day.

Later, having read some of the restrictions of the International Kindle such as no web browser, no access to blogs, no images in newspapers or magazines etc I cancelled my order.  At least I thought I had until the email announcing dispatch arrived.  Ooops ….

And so here I am with a Kindle International.  And first impressions are very good.  It’s smaller and lighter than I had imagined, about the size of a paperback in width and height and 6mm thick.  It is very light in the hand and comfortable to hold, much better than struggling to keep the cover of a thick paperback open or supporting a weighty hardback.

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The time has come for us to choose a new family car.  Our current Mercedes Cabriolet which we’ve had for 5 years is proving very thirsty as it’s primarily used for school runs and short trips into town.

Being a 3.2 litre V6 Auto this is the worst possible driving cycle and we’re now seeing MPG figures in the late teens and if lucky, early 20’s which makes it very expensive and gives us about 270 miles from a full tank.

Last year we were a two car family. But my Discovery, being rather impractical, was being used less and less.  Though I loved that car, it’s 4-litre V8 Auto would struggle to pass 16MPG even if driven very carefully.  This was mainly due to the kit that it had fitted, it was an ex-G4 Challenge competitor vehicle complete with full rack, snorkel, front winch and under body armour which all weighed it down.

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I came across an photograph taken a few days after the frame was fitted and noticed the difference in the gaps between the rings before the lengthening had begun and now with it all finished.

I’ve taken a quick snap as close to the original as possible for direct comparison but it’s immediately obvious how much lengthening has been achieved in less than a month. You can also see a gap between one part of the frame/pin and the skin has appeared where before, the leg was so swollen that it was tight against the frame metalwork.

The red sections are the lengthening rods, compare before and after! The blue box highlights the area where the surgeons made the incision to break the bone, look how tight it was against the skin whereas now there is an inch or so gap!

All but two of the pins have stabilised so much now that they require just the daily cleansing, no dressings needed. Only one wire pin at the top of my thigh (and which goes straight through the leg exiting in my buttock) requires dressing still, mainly because the skin around it is being moved each time I sit or stand.

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