Once upon a time, a girl asked a guy, “Will you marry me?” The guy said “No” and the girl lived happily ever after and went shopping, drank martinis With friends, always had a clean house, never had to cook, had a closet full Of shoes and handbags, stayed skinny, and was never farted on. The end.

Thanks Mum for updating.
Today I’m seriously tired. Not sure why. Have had a lot of visitors though
And physio, and an assessment by the neurologist.
He describes my ‘ journey ‘ to wherever I finally get to physically as 20% there   So  I’m still warming up really..
They’ve just given me a baguette with horseradish on it. God I detest that stuff. Had to spit it out!  Replaced with a chicken sandwich 🙂
Had more presents today including a fart machine….. And a penis water pistol.
It’s great that people take my intellect seriously ..

Both eating and sleeping are getting easier for me I’m happy to say. 7 hours last night more or less non stop. It’s a relief I can tell you. 2 hours then awake is really not great

Been thinking ahead to driving. I’ll finally have to have a decent car. The 10 yr old Yaris will have to go I think. App it’s easy to convert cars to hand controls, which is a help.
Maybe I’ll get a Mustang from my Bruv?

Gotta sleep now.
Thanks for being out there for me.

Russ

A good day yesterday. Russ's brother Stu turned up just as we arrived at the hospital entrance. Russ was leaving the hospital in his wheelchair for his almost daily constitutional stroll by the Thames. We were able to accompany him . On our return, the waiting area had filled with visitors all so eager to see our man. We had to seriously shorten the period that each spent with him . Everyone had a few minutes  which 
Russ enjoyed.
 The athletics are continuing to be a source of pleasure for him. Stu , who lives outside London, was able to spend some time with his brother . They are very close and it was really good to watch them enjoying each others company and  humour as brothers do.
Well done Russ. Another good day under your belt.

Love Mum and Dad

Hi all.
I’ve been told by my doctors that I need more rest.
The only way to do that is to restrict visiting times a bit.
So from now on I’ll get physio 9 til 10. I get proper rest between 11 and 2 every day, then I get physio 2 til 3.
Around 3 I get to go down to the river in the chair, so all welcome to come 🙂
Then visitors are fine after 3.

If I can stick to this I’ll get better sooner, right ! So it makes lots of sense.

Thanks to everyone who’s gonna come and say hi.
🙂
Russ

Note from Melissa:  Thanks Russ, the calender has been updated to reflect this regime so any times in the day that are in red, please don’t visit! x

Today I had a very brief visit with Russ (sticking to my own guidelines!).  Russ, lovely to see you and the impressive progress you have made in the last 9 days since I was last there.  So good to be able to hear you and understand completely what you are saying…probably the first time in years!
😉

I am glad you are getting through your smoothies but do make sure that you allow yourself plenty of time to eat your meals too…us visitors can wait, you need your grub to get strong.

I came back after my shopping expedition but the waiting room was completely chocca with lovely compliant friends all with confirmed slots on the calendar, I might add!  Lovely to see Sarah, Larry and their lovely boys, Trudi, Bob and Di and of course your little Bro, Stuart…Stu, thanks for not pointing out my sunburn/redness this visit! 😉

Hope to see you very soon.

Lots of love

xxx

Countless well wishing visitors have reduced me further to a wreck.
At one point there were 10 people waiting for me. A bit too tiring to be honest but nice that you all care….:) everybody’s been so generous with their time.
Good news on the neural side i that My toes have started twitching which I guess is good?!
They’re not doing it under my control but there is some connection between my tiny brain and my extremities I believe  
My right side is weaker than my left which shows up dramatically in the short physio sessions I’ve had, but I should be able to regain that.
I’m not accustomed to feeling feeble, as anyone who knows me can imagine, but it’s something I’ll have to deal with until I’m not..

Got a welsh flag on my wall now by the way, courtesy of Nick and Sophie.. Like it.
Saw Roy today ( and Alistair). I had a ticket for bloody Glastonbury , didn’t I !! Will I ever get to go now? Roy had a great time despite losing his wing man.  Good on the Roymeister.

The day has rushed by today. Was great to see my little brother, Stuart , who lives in Wales
Stu’s in the car trade and is about to import his first Mustang (1968)  
Any of you out there who want an American car, text me and I’ll put you in touch… Maybe you get a Californian babe with big ones thrown in, I’m not sure.

The food in this hospital really is restaurant standard. Sadly my appetite is sparrow sized, so missing out big style. I’ve just managed to actually slowly eat my fillet of salmon and fresh broccoli , but it was an effort, bloody hell.
Pavlova next hurdle.

Wish me luck.

X

Hi Melissa,

P.S. No children were harmed in the making of this photo….honest, they just cried a bit:)

Mummy Dawkins:

Russ is looking pretty good , so much better than he looked last Saturday. His appetite has improved and he is making a huge effort to eat more than he was. This morning he went down to the Thames in a wheelchair accompanied by a couple of his visitors . Sitting  up is very painful for him but in true Russ style, he is going for it in spite of a huge degree of personal discomfort . 

Russ is enjoying the World Athletics Championships on  the  TV at the moment.  As an endurance athlete, Russ loves to watch every kind of sport. Bob and I decided to stay away today so that he would have more time to watch the athletics. He also needs time to sleep during the day, to eat because he eats very slowly and to do the exercises that his physiotherapists have decided that he should do in order to regain his strength . When his Dad and I visited him tonight he was watching the athletics and was in good spirits. We shaved him ( doing our best Dani - no nicks honestly ) although I prefer a little designer stubble it's not appropriate in ICU where cleanliness is essential.

We did not stay for very long, we left him enjoying the athletics , clean shaven and feeling comfortable. We feel that he has progressed over the last two days which is wonderful. Well done Russ, you are a real star.

Russ looking healthier and stronger than he has for week with his cheeks healing well after his chemical skin peel…..The lovely lady is Sima, a former Opto student.  Apparently the nurses are rather intrigued by the number of hot babes visiting him! (They call him Hugh Hefner behind his back!)…

Hello lovely peeps,

So as you can see from Russ’s lovely heart warming posts he is continuing to make steady progress and is getting stronger with each day.

Since Russ’s return he has had literally countless visitors and has without doubt been the the most popular patient in London this last month let alone just the LBH…with perhaps the exception of HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.

Russ’s moral has been hugely boosted by the love and commitment that has been shown by you all in every way, from reading his blog, to visiting him in France and now visiting at the LBH.  Sorry if that sounds a bit flowery to you macho types (see above).

Today my new name is ‘Bouncer’ but not as in the friendly dog in neighbors… 🙂

The lovely, dedicated nurses have been on our backs….

Visiting Russ:

The nurses have specifically requested that the following times be kept free for them to do their stuff with Russ…it is uber important:

11am-12pm and again 2pm-4pm

Russ also needs to rest an awful lot each day.  His body has suffered an unbelievable stress which it is still recovering from and this adds to his tiredness along with his injured lungs that reduce his oxygen levels.

Please, please DO continue to visit with the same intensity but please could you perhaps keep your visits to a maximum of 20 mins (unless v close friends/family – you know who you are).  Please could you also use the calender if you are intending to stay for more than 10 mins as some days Russ gets tired and may need to cancel.  If your visit is on the calender, he can contact you but if it is not and you turn up he will feel too sorry for you to turn you away…and then he will get tired.

I have a calender on line which is quite easy to access.  If you are not already able to access please email me at melissa.leach@iagoft.com and I will send you a link.
If you are a complete technophobe, just email me and I will book you a slot!

I am pretty sure that Russ will not like or agree to the above but our priority right now is to get Russ fit enough to snuggle up on the sofa with Dani and the girls (just before he rows across the atlantic) and that might take a bit of resting along with the love and support of you all…. a very fine a balance…whilst I write this I kind of know that I am going to be asking you all to increase your visits to 3 hours again next week….;-)

I feel I need to add those immortal lines…’Your name is not on the list, you are not coming in!’….as they used to recite to me at ‘The Met Bar’ all those years ago when I was known as Spartacus… 😉