Thursday 11th June, 2011
John began having diarrhoea last night, after previously being constipated. In the end he was stuck on the toilet for an hour and a half with everything pouring out of him. (Sorry to be so graphic.) Called the twilight nurses and a male nurse came round to give him an injection for sickness. That made him sleepy and he soon dropped off to sleep exhausted. I had made him promise to call me if he needed to get up because he was so wobbly on his legs but I sat up until 2am because I was concerned about him.
In the end I went to bed and fell into a deep sleep. 5.45am this morning I was woken by a loud bang. John wasn't in the bed and I found him on the floor outside the bathroom. I eventually got him on his feet and onto the loo but he was in a hell of a state.
I called my son and daughter-in-law and they were there in a flash, my first intention being to get him cleaned up with their assistance and back to bed when he'd finished on the loo. But when he continued to sit there with everything pouring out, I decided to call the ambulance, suspecting that he was getting very dehydrated.
Any way, the long and short of it is that the ambulance took him into hospital. He had a very low blood pressure as a result of the dehydration. They hydrated him after having a lot of trouble finding a vein to do it and eventually admitted him to the Acute Admissions Department (no beds on Oncology!). He's in a side ward in case it is infectious.
I really thought I was going to lose him today because he looked so poorly but his blood pressure slowly climbed up and he began to recover a little. I know he's feeling better now because he's starting to grumble but he's still suffering from diarrhoea.
So, no meeting to discuss scan results today and he won't be able to go to the MacMillan assessment tomorrow either.
But they are calling a meeting for the family tomorrow, i.e. oncology and macmillan, to discuss caring for him at home when he is eventually discharged (hopefully in a few days time).
So here I am, absolutely knackered but too uptight to rest. So I'll unwind on my friendly mac site for a while because I know you will all understand what we are going through.
It's keeping everyone informed that's wearing me out. He has three children and so do I; and then there's friends, one of whom has taken my little dog home, and my sister and his brother, etc, etc. Neighbours who saw him go off in the ambulance this morning. Ho hum!
His children all came to the hospital today, even his son who he hasn't seen for over a year. I warned the two girls not to nag him because it will only turn him away again and I know John is so pleased to see him.
Gotta stop now cause even my fingers are tired.
Love, Madge x x x x x x
