Thursday May 4th.
At long last, after another disturbed night, Val’s stoma has started to work. She is still not eating and drinking particularly well but it is a start. The physios had got her out of bed and moving so by the time I visited her she was back in bed and although looking well, she was tired.
Val told me that the agency nurse (paid twice as much as her NHS colleagues – hello?) had caused a lot of disruption…
Thursday April 27th
I rang Ward 10 first thing in the morning and was told that Val had had a disturbed night due to feeling and being sick.
This caused concern in the family as Val, due to her underlying health conditions, does not have a normal appetite at the best of times and cannot tolerate fruit or fibre. We were concerned that the ward staff might not be aware of the fragile ecosystem that they had on the ward…
Friday April 21st.
I rang the ITU when I woke up and the nurse said that Val was stable and had slept a little. This turned out to be the highlights of Val’s first night in UTI as her temperature had apparently spiked at 39 degrees and they were concerned about a possible chest infection necessitating an x-ray and a chest scan. The morning call to ITU became an important part of the day as it enabled me to send a text…
And so begins a pivotal week, the most important week, in our married life. We enjoyed our Easter break but now it is back to reality. We remain positive but little slips of the tongue –Val using the past tense – show where our thoughts are taking us. I would describe my mind set as hoping for the best but anticipating the worst. As enjoyable as our Easter was, seeing family and friends, it was difficult to banish the…
We arrived at the hospital a little earlier than we would normally do for our appointment as without paperwork to hand we expected that things might not be plain sailing. We were however pleasantly surprised as the staff in the Clinical Assessment Unit seemed to know all about Val and were expecting us. The radiographer was kindness personified and asked who our consultant was and when he needed the results. I said that…
