Take Two

Pendle Hill, Lancs - jacket says it all: want to be back South!

I've been allowed to use my left hand for two weeks now and things are coming on in leaps and bounds.  After a few months of no use at all it will take a while to build the strength back up, but I'm already seeing steady and positive progress.  Some milestones crossed have been important functional ones such as holding a fork without dropping it (still working on the actual using it bit), but sometimes it is the seemingly trivial that is most rewarding.  This week I've been able to tie my hair back for the first time since January, and by the time I am reunited with my hairdryer and straighteners I should have sufficient hand strength to be able to style it too!  

80 days doesn't sound too bad when written down, but these past few months back in the UK has felt like an eternity to me.  I've said it before, but I remain absolutely devastated to have missed my one opportunity to have experienced a South Georgian summer, and all because of a finger injury.  Whilst seemingly quite trivial and the involvement of an avocado in the mechanism to some comical, the injury has been disabling for me and the recovery and rehab process long and difficult.  There has been near constant anxiety about rupturing the repair, frequent frustration, periodic pain, and one or two tears shed along the way.

BUT...5 months after I originally jetted off for my Southern adventure, I'm FINALLY setting off again for South Georgia.  My re-insertion will take a little longer than my record breaking extraction but I am relieved that finally I can get back and get on.  Can't wait :)

Single Handed Progress

Yep, that's my actual nerve there, all sutured up

It is now 5 weeks since I had surgery to mend my severed digital nerve and flexor tendons.  Whilst it was the obvious injury to the nerve in my finger that prompted my medivac, my prolonged UK stay is due to the tendon damage found in theatre.  As I approach the halfway point of my stay in the UK I thought I'd explain in more detail what I have injured, and the hows/whys of my long recovery.

Off to a good start

Photo Credit: Matthew Phillips

Right, time for some retrospective catch-up on the blog.  Prior to my premature departure from KEP late January, when I last wrote from the South in November, I was on the RRS JCR heading northwards from Signy.

I finally made it to KEP on 25^th November, and absolutely love it.  The above photo is our official Christmas card to other Antarctic bases.  We’d had a festive dump of snow (not uncommon, even in summer) and had just finished decorating the church.  Merry with mulled wine we were coaxed outside for the shot, but a snowball fight was inevitable.  Unfortunately the first throw hit the camera lens dead on!

Before I get onto more about life at KEP, a catch up on the last part of my journey:

A tale of a finger

The offending avocado.  It was tasty...

I have been woeful at updating my blog – so much for every two weeks!  I’ll blame this partly on a university assignment that swallowed up my December.  I’m going to post a series of catch-up posts over the next week or so outlining what I have been up to since I arrived at KEP.

However, first some disappointing news to share: I have had to return to the UK due to an injury