Isolation Day 50

Like a steam train, our day gathered pace and thundered to midnight. It started very quietly, but then gained some traction with a sprinkling of hope; which turned into to waiting; then became reality; and JOHN IS HOME!!

Albeit the delight in being home was tempered by all sorts of not-so-nice stuff, with a diversion on the way back as the A452 was closed, and then a brace of nurses which was waiting for John as we pulled up outside the house, to administer the nightly dose of intravenous antibiotics – and the news that they’d be back at 7 a.m., 2.p.m., and 9 p.m. daily for the next ten days. And not only that, he’d had a frustrating day. So, euphoria was not the first emotion he felt as he stepped over the threshold.

Being cooped up in a room on his own for six days, had John climbing the walls. And then there felt nothing worse than one of the medical team telling him they were preparing everything to send him home today, only to find that the preparations were at a snail’s pace and took nearly nine hours after the initial alert, before the release looked like a reality.

Anyway, at 8.30 this evening, I got the call, and I shot off as soon as I could to pick him up. We arrived back home just after ten and the nurses were already waiting, so we bundled into the house and into a very messy dining room, where the nurses fought their way through the bits and pieces on the table to set out their medicine stall and do their stuff. By eleven o’clock they had left, and it was time to hit the bottle and relieve all those pent-up feelings.

Whilst John had a frustrating day waiting to be let out, my day was mild and gentle until tea-time. It was like this….

As John always says, jobs aren’t always as simple as you think they are in the handyman trade and, if a customer said, “I just want….” then you knew you were in trouble. Well, I just wanted to paint the windowsill in the porch.

I had bought some chalk paint to slap onto the windowsill, minimum effort. “Give it a light rub down.” John advised. So, I got my sandpaper and rubbed. Ha! The varnished peeled off like sunburned skin, leaving a bit here but nothing there, like a patchwork. Hmmmm….. ‘OK’, I said to myself, ‘no worries, I’ll use John’s electric sander to sand it down to the wood. I think you can slap chalk paint onto bare wood.’ John’s sander is now my new favourite toy. Did the job a treat.

Then I read the instructions on the paint tin. Oh. It’s not chalk paint at all. It’s satin paint. Needs an undercoat. Grrrr…… I could hear John’s words in my head…’not as simple as you think!!’ Anyway, the job is started but not finished.

It’s not finished because I had a little break at tea-time. Well, intended to have a little break, but it turned out to be a big break because Mum had a ‘turn’. We had just sat down to eat our tea, and Mum had enjoyed a few mouthfuls when she suddenly said she’d got a pain in her chest, and she started rubbing just along the breastbone. “I think I’ve got a bit of indigestion,” she said. She started to sweat. Then the pain transferred to her lower chest and she felt breathless. Then her left arm felt funny and hot. I took her blood pressure and it was a bit high. “Are you sure it’s indigestion, Mum? Do you want to walk round the kitchen to see if it’ll ease?” She took two steps and put her hand to her chest again and said no she couldn’t manage that. I phoned NHS 111: “Feed her with four of the aspirin tablets you’ve got, crushed up, and we’ll send the paramedics.” Oh, OK.

As it turned out, of course, she was absolutely fine. Under normal circumstances they’d have whisked her off to hospital for blood tests, but with COVID 19 around……..

As the paramedics arrived about 7.15, John was phoning to tell me he didn’t know what was going on with his release as the drugs hadn’t arrived. He’d been told that they were on the porter’s trolley and the porter was working his way, numerically, round the wards; and John was on Ward 26……. my calculations were 10 minutes per ward, which meant that it’d probably be four hours later before they finally got there! And would John come home today after all?

Thank the Lord, he is home. Just got to look after him properly now……

I couldn’t wait to get him back. So much so, that I left Mum on her own while I collected him. Gave her the landline and told her to dial 999 if she felt unwell. Hoped for the best. And all was well when we got back. As if it wouldn’t be, of course!!

And, goodness me, I didn’t watch any news today and have hardly thought about the poor souls who have been infected with the Coronavirus, or died from it, as we have been wrapped up in our own drama. However, for consistencies’ sake, the figures, without the context of having listened to the briefing today, seem to read as follows: 4,406 people are infected, and 693 people have died. Someone put me right, if I’ve misread these, please?

And….breathe……peace be with you all.