Today Toni had an appointment for an x-ray on his abdomen to check the stent is still in place. This means a journey of epic proportions which starts in the bedroom.
He decided he wanted to have a shave so dragged himself out of bed and went to the bathroom to perform this male ritual. It didn't take him more than 10 minutes but when he'd done he had to lie down for 40 minutes to recover. As we needed to leave the house at around 1.20pm I started to get him dressed at 1pm. This entails top half off then top clothes on and rest for 5 minutes. Then bottom half off and trousers and socks on and rest. Then finally boots which he insists on wearing even though his feet are like elephant's feet, so badly swollen. Me pushing and him pulling eventually got them on then another rest.
Next step is to get down stairs and I place a chair at the bottom so he can sit for a while, then he stands up to put his coat on. We gett out of the house and safely into the car and set off.
At the hospital we drive round and round for a while as there are no spaces. Work is going on at the hospital to build a new surgical day unit so what with workmen's vans and fewer spaces it's a right old game finding a parking space. I eventually got one outside the MacMillan unit which is miles away from the x ray dept. You watch tomorrow when he has an appointment in the MacMillan unit there will be no spaces!
So parked up out comes the wheelchair out of the boot with me slipping on ice trying to lift it out. I'm only 5ft tall so it's a struggle to do. I help Toni out of the car and into the wheelchair and we're off.
We trekked through the long hospital corridor towards x-ray when the fire alarms go off and we get shunted into a corridor by a very officious member of staff so that we're safely out of the area where the smoke is. We wait ten minutes then the all clear is given and off we go again.
X ray were brilliant once I explained the difficulty with getting his clothes off and on and his low energy levels etc. One of the radiographers went to get a zimmer for him to lean on as he went from wheelchair to flat bed and they also helped me get him undressed. Plus they saw us straight away which I was grateful for after the palava with the fire alarms I thought we'd be late seen. He had a shot of oramorph before he went in just in case which was a sensible decision as it took a lot out of him.
Once back home at 2.45 we went through the same procedure in reverse.
And we'll have to do it all again tomorrow!!
