March 1, 2019

The Rehearsal


 You know how when you want to become really good at something and there’s an end goal in sight, like if you’re a character in a play and you’re looking forward to opening night, you need to make sure you get things right. If you have a huge cast in the play it can sometimes be difficult to schedule rehearsals to suit everyone. But the important thing is to make sure you can get the main characters together. When one of them “drops the ball” and calls in sick it can upset the entire event. A well as upsetting everyone this kind of thing usually costs a lot of money.

You might have latched on to the fact that I was pretty pumped at the end of the last post. It was all happening. Surgery was going to happen the next day, Tuesday. Well… Nah! I did get to see the inside of the surgery prep room, but when the team had a look at my arm all the smiles turned upside down. I have to say, I’m really pleased they decided not to go ahead ‘cause over the next forty-eight hours things really turned pear shaped.

Ever had a doctor or nurse ask: “Where is the pain on a scale of 1 to 10?” I’ve never really been able to answer that question with confidence, ‘cause I can’t imagine what 10 might be. (Maybe it’s childbirth.) But I think I know what a 7 is now. It’s when the pain brings you to tears, and that happened a couple of times over the next forty-eight hours. It’s now Friday and we’re just starting to get on top of things. They’ve been trying to keep me on IV antibiotics since the failed surgery attempt and they want me to stay on them up to, and after, the 12th. which is my new/old surgery date.

Anyway, we’re now on the fourth attempt to get them into me. We’ve gone from a normal cannula in the arm – that caused all the trouble - to one in the foot that worked ok for a while - to one in the outer Jugular that no one was happy with - to a PICC line that’s now in my left shoulder. Apparently, that’s it. If I bugger this up, I win a year’s membership in the “Pain In The Arse Patient’s Club.”




So now, this is me for the next twelve days. Fingers crossed I get there without causing anyone any more drama. I’m now considered a “high risk” patient and today they’ve started some new protocols. I’m sure you’ll be pleased to hear that this includes – no washing.






Aren’t you glad you’re so far away you can’t visit?

Poor Denise.









How it works is, every six hours I get tied up to a bag of fluid. It takes between half an hour and forty-five minutes to get the juice in, then I normally wander around the hospital for an hour or two looking for new and exciting toilets to get rid of it. I’m pretty sure I’ve still got a few to find. If I run out there’s quite a few indoor gardens that I could water. 






Anyway, it’s now Sunday morning and time for a walk. I might have to start doing movie reviews after this, çause I'm pretty sure things are going to get a bit boring for the next week and a bit. We’ll see how we get on.  


Remember…


2 comments:

  1. Hi Chris and Denise I tried to ring but you must be watering the garden! We have rain here to do that (finally). I am intrigued at the no washing, do they have bugs in the water or the soap? I go on board on Friday. I was told to have some vodka/whiskey every morning to prevent sea sickness, guess the idea is if staggering up the hallway or head over a bucket can be put down to being drunk. I am sorry to hear the pain is so bad already. I hope they are able to relieve it some. Lol xx

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  2. March 03 Hi Chris and Denise thanks for continuing to update us. I hope the writing gets some of the 'muck' out of your system and you're getting benefit from it. Sorry for all the extra troubles. Hope that's it now and the next days go along more smoothly. I do hope that you're successful in locating all the loos. How is the clot? Is it dissolving? Is that what all the liquids are for? Sorry about the bouts of pain and hope that they can at least minimise those. We ( oldies club) had lunch out today at a cafe under the "harbour bridge' in The National Trust building. Didn't know it existed and walked a couple of streets I haven't been in before. I'm going back on my own one day to explore the area further and get it into my head. I might even see what they actually have in the building. Can't think of any jokes just now. Love to you both. Marleen

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