The end is near…

Friday 26 October

Our last full day in Hamburg.  I have a feeling that the weather is making it easy for us to say goodbye, because it is overcast most of the day.  What we don’t know is that hurricane Sandy is looming in the distance, because we don’t receive the daily newspaper any more and we hardly watch TV.  Anyway, probably just as well.  We don’t need any more stress right now. Not being able to move around, or at the most, not moving around quickly, is really getting to me.  So much to do and all that needs to be done is cast upon Frank’s shoulders.  He vacuums and dusts the house, while I carefully hobble down the stairs into the basement to put loads into the washing machine and dryer from time to time.  Then, after a good rest I venture into the kitchen to do the cleaning there, and by the time most of the basic cleaning is done it is lunch time.  

After lunch it’s time to do our last shopping, but not being able to walk this poses a real problem, until Frank remembers that he’s seen a wheelchair somewhere down in the basement.  He goes down to investigate, and yes, he’s found it.  That, at least, solves the problem of the shopping.  It’s not my favourite way to move between the isles, but hey, who else gets to try out a wheelchair before they are ‘real’ old….. J  We don’t have much time, so again it’s only the basics that we get and at the in-store pharmacy we ask for advice as what to do with this leg of mine.  They can't help, but instead send us to a medical pharmacy at the other end of town.  Just what we need…

However, we do get there before closing time and the advice is to either get a knee brace or a pressure bandage.  Seeing that we will be on the plane for a long time and my leg might still swell I go for the bandage, because it can be adjusted if necessary.  I’m also advised to take anti-inflammatory tablets, but since they tend to mask the pain I am not going to take too many of them.  Pain is not my biggest problem right now!

At home we have an easy meal, left-overs from the freezer, so dinner has been taken care of.  After dinner I go downstairs again to do the ironing and have everything ready for packing the next day. For the rest of the evening I take it easy and read till it is bed time.