Nocturnal Activates

Jill here, and I'm a little all over the place with this blog this evening. Please bear with me. We start back at the hospital sometime ago now at the point when they remove the drain from my lung.

Luckily for me my big brother was on hand ( literally )He arrived late Wednesday night , and came to the hospital with Steve on Thursday morning. Aware that we were breaching 'visiting rules' he left at lunchtime , but arrived back in time to be useful for 'hand breaking' whilst I was having the drain removed and the stitch put in. A fairly brave move, considering Pete doesn't do hospitals at all, and is a little squeamish at the best of times.

Anyway, that's now in the past, and at least I managed to get home.

This blog has been stopped and started at least four times... I've lost track of days and times ...

Pete has left to go back to the UK tonight , a fleeting visit, but at last they are back next Friday week for the wedding.


Here we are again, 1:30am, ( Friday night) and obviously the very best time to be awake and writing a blog post.


I realised I've been home at least 24 hours and have not managed yet to get into the front garden , in fact as I spend 98% of time hooked up to oxygen , if the lead doesn't stretch that far I don't go that far. I can have ten minutes of so off oxygen but have to take it really slowly and not get out of breath!

It's now 7 am, and as my eyes were crossing and the words were blurring in the early hours, I couldn't continue last night. Topped up with morphine to help suppress the cough, which of course it does but equally knocks you out. Part of me loathes my reliance on it.
A necessary evil , I understand , ditto methadone , and in between paracetamol to cover all the bases.

Yesterday was a good day to a degree, I had the a single bed delivered ( the family had ordered and already prepared space for) not tried it yet but it's one that keeps all body parts moving to prevent pressure sores. This is just as well as I am spending a lot of time on my bottom........and I'm not going any further with that sentence.

I had not one but two district nurses turn up and administer their care package, antibiotics , bandages for the legs, all the usual sats blood pressure, temperature , oxygen saturation .
They have a new scoring system, and I came out as an eight, my little face brightened up, "oh , that's not bad, two more to ten" ( think I was thinking of the babies Apgar score we used to do when they were born) . The Nurse looked at me pityingly "no, ideally you would be zero"! Crushed.

SW came round with shopping, and then very kindly helped me sort out some Jewellery pieces, just another 'to do job' that I didn't think I'd get a chance to do if I'd gone to Hospice.

I had a long standing hair appointment in the afternoon , in readiness for the wedding of course, but wisely I opted out of highlights, and went for a shorter cut. It would be a waste of money , by the time it comes round I may not have any hair , and it's easier to shave my head if it's shorter .

Jack chaperoned me and my portable oxygen and then kept an eye of me, I took the opportunity to make my hairdresser cut his head too! She had a little spare time as I wasn't having as much done as normal , and I persuaded him that in two weeks time it would be lovely "wedding hair" . One can't have a scruffy groom.

Pete had walked the dogs and they were well behaved ( makes a change ) actually that sentence is untrue , he only walked Beanie, because Jess feeling a little hot had gone AWOL, and was found cooling off in the irrigation pond . The ideal place if you've got a sore tail and stitches in your armpit... When Jack went and finally got her out, Beanie not wanting to miss out jumped in too, so they both got a telling off. ( they were unrepentant ) .

We just got back in time to see my doctor arrive, and although he has been kept in the loop , he hasn't actually seen me for a while. So we exchanged information. He said he has never been to a family home and everybody is so well organised, from my drug chart spread sheet, to the bed delivery, district nurses in place, medicine cupboard sorted ( Steph of course ) , sats taken at regular intervals, mostly by boys that like sticking a thermometer in my ear.

It was 6:40 by this time and I was wrecked, so a small supper and off upstairs to bed, the previous night I as asleep by 7:30. If I haven't slept in the day I can't manage beyond 7 ish.

Legs still very large ( as is bottom , give Kim Kardashian a run for her money, except mine wobbles with fluid.) leaking, (the legs not the bottom I hasten to add, but you never know what's next) , always a bonus.

The lung drain hole seems to be clean and healing, but it hurt like crazy yesterday to cough, I thought my lung has collapsed . I've got a needle stuck in my port with a dangly tube so the nurses can administer the daily IV antibiotic of teicoplanin ( one for you KB?!) it's the domestos of antibiotics.

The very worst time is waking in the morning, when my lungs have been in sleep mode , and then after a few minutes of waking up, they wake up too. It was pretty awful this morning, panic breathing, pain in the side every breath . Fortunately Bex came in at 5:3O and calmed me down, yet more morphine administered and I got myself under control .

I had a restful morning, so I could go to he airport and collect Tim ( annoying little bro) but it took Steve and Bex as my carers.

We stopped at Bonne Nuit on the way home and had a bacon roll and I was able to look at a view , lots of family around when we got back , and so I assigned each a job, Tom stayed with me and I was able for ten minutes or so just to potter in the kitchen a bit. It was funny as every time I sent Tom off with an errand ( he had the football on the TV ) they scored a goal. I think he missed three, his face was a picture.

Thanks to the girls for going shopping, and for Steph and Tom to cook supper .

I'll use the lap top tomorrow and I can post some photos .

Thanks Maria for beautiful Keep Fit card , and for Jean for her lovely card and oh to everyone ....

Love xx







SWcame round wth shopping, chatted to Pete

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