Back in for a (hopefully quick) hospital visit, but we've managed several hospital-free weeks and so feel that we have had a good stretch of quality time. My first week of not working has reinforced the fact that it has been a good decision. We have had a very unambitious schedule and have done minor outings and lots of sitting about drinking tea, but it has felt good that I have been here to drive and help and just be around. I have also managed to do many overdue jobs that didn't get done before because they weren't desperate (cut the grass/pair-up socks/feed the guinea pig.) I am also beginning to get a faint and tantalising sniff of what it might feel like to be in control of the house...
On to the important stuff: Mark had been feeling very tired for a few days and, as yesterday went on, he began to feel quite uncomfortable. We had a visit from the district nurses and we all steadily began to suspect that his stent was no longer working. After the familiar drawn-out round of phone calls to the emergency GP (who curiously decided to send another pair of district nurses to see us) we went down to A & E.at about 10.00pm. There was much waiting as the GP had chosen not to pre book us in(?!) but blood tests and scans proved the suspicions about the stent to be correct. By 1.30am we both felt I should get back, feeling that Martha's babysitting duties had perhaps been exploited. I left Mark in his little booth where he stayed waiting until about 5.30am when it clearly became a good time to move him onto the ward.
I went up at visiting time this afternoon to find that he was away having his kidney draining procedure done, so caught up with him again this evening, although, given the sleepless night in A&E and the operation today he was quite exhausted. The procedure had been pretty painful and unpleasant, not helped by the fact that he had been given a new morphine pump (compact and swanky but unfamiliar) and thought he had given himself an extra shot for the operation, but actually hadn't. It appears that, miserable as it was, the op has been successful so we are hopeful that a day or two of recovery should see him home.
It has to be said that we are nostalgic for Ward 31 with it's bespoke movable beds, dvd/tvs, air-locked doors, rigorous cleanliness routines and attentive staff. Ward 15is a more basic and stark environment and also feels much more casual which I find slightly unsettling.
I am off to Lightwater Valley theme park tomorrow with Naomi and her best friend for Naomi's 'birthday party', and Joel is spending all day with Nick and Pat (his sharing care family) for the first time, which will include them taking him to an N.A S.dance workshop (they are true gold!) Martha, I'm sure, will spend time revising and possibly manage to fit in seeing her friends... Hopes then, that tomorrow is a positive day for all, but especially that Mark stays infection and pain free and continues to make a good recovery.
