On a wet, windy and quite cold day, there was mounting concern over Della's Traction after an X-ray showed the two slanting surfaces of her broken thigh bone too compressed for knitting together.
Della had a change of scenery this morning and was wheeled into the playroom where the activity supervisor got her to do some cutting out and sticking with the other children. Debbie sat in with Della later as Di and I went to the parents evening at the Prep Department in Kimbolton where we were given time in preference to the other parents to discuss Della.
I had got to bed by about 11.30 in the end and slept until 7.00am when Diana woke me with a start for my morning tea. There had been no call last night and so Diana had slept through and then read my note about how Della had fared and so was quite relaxed about things. She drove off to the hospital and arrived before Della woke up and I got showered and shaved ready to face the day. Di had already combed Debbie's hair and encouraged her to get right ready for school. I had breakfast with Debbie and then drove her to the bus stop as she had lots of bags to carry.
** "Read More" BELOW for the complete story **
Back home to review the mail, put out the payment for the gardener and relax for a while and then I followed Di into the hospital to see how Della was doing. We were expecting her to have an X-ray today to see how the bones were knitting together in her right leg and this came later at lunchtime. I was with her at the time and helped wheel her down to the radiologist where some more shots were taken from both above and the side. The bones did not seem to be any better with the two slanting surfaces too compressed. I telephoned the consultant's secretary and arranged a meeting with him for his morning round between 8.00am and 9.00am in the morning after having spent a considerable time on the telephone to Freda about hospital practise.
Della had a change of scenery this morning and was wheeled into the playroom where the activity supervisor got her to do some cutting out and sticking with the other children. She also had her lunch there and then it was Diana to take over from me for the afternoon. We first grabbed a lunch together after an argument with the canteens about not wanting to serve us after 1.45pm. I had been telephoning the police today to check on the state of the inquiries into Della's accident. They had been rather remiss with even the initial report not having been filed. I shook them up a bit and got the response that they thought there were three factors contributing to the cause.
The motorist was not driving carefully enough, overtaking on a blind bend; the bus driver should not have stopped on a left-hand bend and Della had run out. They had taken no decision about whether to prosecute and our solicitor would be able to requisition the file and get details subsequently if we wanted to take civil action. I went to welcome Debbie home after school in the pouring rain and then we had tea together. She sat in with Della later as Di and I went to the parents evening at the Prep Department in Kimbolton.
We were pleased to see Hugh Hunter, Mr and Mrs Reeves and Mrs Woods who were all very sympathetic and helpful, giving us time in preference to the other parents to discuss Della. I was the night owl again, seeing Della off to sleep in what had become a busy and full ward now that the weekend was over. The weather was wet and windy today and quite cold but at least there was no frost that would have put Heronshaw or the Paxton Princess in any danger with me not being able to get up there.