I have a new knee! Well a new ligament in my knee, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is fully functioning – yet! The surgery itself went very well, although they had to remove 50% of the cartilage as it was too damaged to sew back down. My recovery however was not so smooth. My body took a great dislike to the morphine and I spent a lot of time vomiting as I faded in and out of consciousness.

The morning after a rather restless and uncomfortable sleep, I was having some more lovely drugs while my anaesthetist and surgeon came to see how I was getting on. Next came my first physio' session and I was very reluctant to stand on my new leg. After getting my head around the fact that it wasn’t going to give way on me I started doing what I was told, to then be promptly told I was not allowed to use it like that again! I have been given strict instructions on what exercises to do and how long it should be up and iced for each day. The most important part at the moment is to get the swelling down and the movement increasing.

Yesterday I was allowed my first bath, even if my leg stuck out in the air! I was also able to take the dressings off and look at the numerous wounds over my knee, which I don’t feel are going to leave massive enough war wounds to admire! However the bruising all over my leg is very colourful and the majority of the time it is my calf and lower leg that throbs the worst from the severe holding and manipulation it got while the drill was powering through my leg.

The surgeon gave me a copy of my surgery on DVD, so most people who walk through the door to see how I’m doing get the great view of the inside of my knee. I’m glad most of my visitors are medically trained as it means they don’t mind seeing cartilage being chewed up or steel powering through bone, and stay rather than fleeing from my flat as soon as they arrive!

My next physio' session is on Monday, and I am desperate to get there to know what the next step is in my recovery. I have to keep reminding myself to take it slow at the start and gradually get stronger. Rushing at the beginning increases the risk of the ligament stretching or breaking down. I’m not used to this taking it easy lifestyle and daytime television is driving me crazy!

Happy New Year everyone! Here we are in 2010 – and still I don’t know if it is two thousand and ten or twenty ten! Our trip to Olympia was great fun – and I am sure it was warmer in there than it has been before – we went in nice warm clothes and ended up having to carry them everywhere. We did lots of shopping, and also had fun working out what who was buying the silliest things! At first we thought it was the people who bought large tubs of horse treats until we saw those carrying jump poles around! We stayed in London overnight doing the touristy thing in the very cold rain on the Monday. We visited the Tower of London (Huw hadn’t been there before and yes, it was busy just before Christmas), also the the National Gallery and we took photos in all the obvious places.

Whizz (my new cat) was most upset when we went away since I took her back to the surgery and had to fight to get her into one of the kennels so that the nurses would look after her. She was decidedly cross when we returned and was not at all keen on the present I had bought her, which is a toy dog that rolls around the floor laughing if you go near it.

I was working on Christmas Day and although I had hoped to have Christmas lunch with Huw’s family, it was not to be – within ten minutes of arriving I left to deal with an emergency. I would like to remind everyone that if their dog is trying to vomit and the vet asks whether it has eaten or done anything unusual, it is sensible to tell the vet that it had eaten a turkey carcass in the morning, before she has single handedly investigated for every medical condition in the book! The rest of the day continued to be busy with the animals of South Wales refusing to stay healthy, and I ended up grabbing some reheated Christmas dinner in the evening, interrupted by even more emergency calls! Whizz decided Christmas present unwrapping with all the bits of paper was great fun and I had some superb presents including a satnav, which means that I should not get lost any more – well at least I will not have any excuse for getting lost.

We managed to get home a couple of days after Christmas to have yet more food and presents and to see Blue. The hard frosty ground after all the wet weather is causing his feet to become damaged with the wall beginning to break up, so we are going home again next weekend to put shoes on him to protect them for next season. And for those of you concerned about Whizz being abandoned again, this time one of the senior vets came to the flat and fed her so that she wouldn’t have to suffer!

My knee is still giving way on me at every opportunity, but I should be under the knife in a couple of weeks and can then start building on my strength and fitness ready for competition which starts in April. I am really sad that I will not be able to ride at Gothenburg Horse Show in February, but there are lots of exciting competitions in 2010 which I hope to be selected for – the European Championships are in Wales this time, the World Team Championships in Switzerland and WEG in Kentucky, where Mounted Games is going to be a demonstration event. So fingers crossed!

I hope that everyone has a successful and enjoyable 2010!