Hi all, a quick message to let you know I’ve now had my heart surgery. The Aorta was repaired and placed in a tube, the surgeon was fantastic and managed to fix the valve rather than replace it.
Other than having 3 strokes (2 small, 1 medium) which have left me missing words (not feijoas! 😀), struggling to chew or use my right hand, concentrate or see in certain directions, but the stroke team think most will come back eventually. Plus a hideous infection which the doctors weren’t sure what exactly it was, pretty standard for me, was pumped full of antibiotics and seems to have settled.
Now settling in for the 3 to 6 months of recovery with a few blood tests and more MRI scans but in general all looking good.
Sorry for the lack of feijoas but the last few years have been a bit of a bugger. I won’t be around for a bit whilst I spend time healing.
Gav.
Update 21/12/21: The infection that got me in hospital came back and has affected my lungs quite a lot and really knocked me. The symptoms of the stroke are still very frustrating. Eating is very tedious as chewing is hard, and the shakes are very annoying, my brother got me one of these GYENNO Bravo Twist Parkinson Spoon* to try and help fight the tremor.
Have managed a few feijoas and will be saving them for Christmas day, the kitchen smells lovely of feijoas at the moment.
Have a Merry Christmas everyone and hope 2022 is much more fun for everyone!
Good to hear you are recovering. My fejoia doing well in heated greenhouse in Devon but no flowers yet. Saw massive plants on holiday in NZ we were lucky to get in in late 2019
Thanks Laurence, sorry for the very long reply time.
How old are your plants in Devon? Plants in NZ are phenomenal and you can find some fantastic specimens. There’s also a very old one at Kew Gardens that I must visit when I’m back in London.
Cheers,
Gav
Hi Gav sorry for very late response. I hope you are continuing your recovery. My feijoa doing well in polytunnel. 6 feet high 2 years after buying early in lockdown but no flowers yet. New plants from cuttings also doing well. Great to grow unusual plants. Best wishes, Laurence
Hi Laurence, no issues at all. I am still struggling to type most days, was before the strokes due to dystonia but they have made it worse.
Glad to hear the plant is doing well, would have expected a few flower buds for a plant that size, great the cuttings are growing!
I had planned to put up a new post soon as I am getting back into growing now I know the heart issue isn’t severe heart failure as diagnosed back in 2020.
A few photos, hopefully get these in the right order.
1: Ginger Rogers helping out with the feijoa seeds
2: Seedlings from Scottish grown fruit – 1 – possibly only 2 plants will survive
3: Seedlings from Scottish grown fruit – 2 – grown in the same conditions but more doing well. This is how I sort out the strongest plants for Scottish conditions, from 100 seedlings in a good year I get 10 to 20 plants, a bad year be lucky to get 1.
4: Flower buds on a plant (Today May 18th), this plant is grown from parent plants that were both grown in Scotland from seed. The fruit are sadly small but it produces around 100 to 200 and starts very early. My imported NZ plants haven’t even started putting new growth on yet.
Can’t wait to get back into more growing as my health progresses.
Cheers,
Gav