You are now leaving the NHS dungeon… Day 1 A.S.

I am please to annouce that A finally escaped the clutches of the Intensive Care unit around 5 this afternoon. They were extra pleased with his progress (after a slight high blood pressure and high temperature wibble in the early hours of this morning). I have to say I cannot express what a relief it was to leave the room in the middle of the hospital with no windows and a plethera of noisy buzzing and alarmed machines. I am sure it is the best place for someone who needs a period of intensive nursing but it was absolutely the worst place to be a visitor - I always felt in the way somewhat - and what's worse is I probably was! Still, A was annoying the nurses when I arrived this morning with his bad jokes (always a sign he is feeling okay) and his stats were back on track. The ITU specialist declared him fit to leave around lunchtime, but then he had to wait for a bed to become available in Urology which took til five. Then it was a whistle stop tour on his bed round the back access routes of the hospital before we arrived back at the Urology ward. I have a new appreciation for the ward having spent the last 24 hours staring at the walls in ICU. Really, to me it now looks like the Ritz - I mean it has a bed view and everything. As for A he has had lots of new friends come and visit him in the last day - a specialist pain nurse (they keep asking him to assess his pain on a scale of 1 to 10 and he makes if about a 0.8 - so the epidural is working just great), after her he saw the physiotherapist who spent time demonstrating exercises he can do in bed to increase his mobility a little - she also gave him a "comfort pillow" and showed him just how to hold it firmly against his wound when he feels a cough or a sneeze coming on. She has promised that tomorrow they will get him out of bed! Meanwhile there were familiar nursing faces and a visit from the junior doctor who assisted on the op who popped in just to confirm the opinion that the op went "really well". It's all looking good, A has started drinking tiny amounts of protein juice every hour in order to slowly start up his digestive system - they will be gradually increasing the amount all day tomorrow. In other good news his wound drains (all 3 of them) now have nothing draining in to them so chances are that's three more tubes that can be hoisted out in the morning. (yay!) Basically A's aim over the coming days and week is to build up to farting (no, seriously, this is a vital measure of getting his diced about colon up and running again) and then basically he has to pooh and climb a flight of stairs in order to be able to come home (I do not think these events necessarily have to happen in this order or even in any kind of time proximity but you get my drift). He is cheery and handsome as ever and my absolute hero for showing such strength and determination - especially over the last 24 hours. I am also doing pretty good, although utterly exhausted having had almost no sleep last night and getting in to work early followed by two hospital visits. I finally crawled home just before nine to cook myself some pasta and drink a large glass of wine. Tomorrow is a no alarm clock morning though and I am planning on just sleeping til I wake up. It's going to be good. Sleep - what bliss. Night everyone. Sleep tight. T x