Fun from a hospital bed

John is still languishing in hospital, much to his chagrin. It hasn’t stopped him from enjoying himself, however, and he joined in this evening’s Quiz Night on Zoom. He was even with it enough to offer answers to some of the questions, which no-one had any argument with, and he proved to be right.

I thought he has looked much improved all day today. Not quite so grey about the gills. And not so out of breath when he talked. The medics are going to hang on to him for a few more days yet, though, because they want to give him ‘a good week’ of IV antibiotics before sending him home with antibiotics in tablet form. They are also keen to keep an eye on the kidney function which, to my relief, has now stabilised. Unless they find anything bizarre in the next day or two they will put the drop of function down to dehydration and… dare I say it?…… the aging process. He might be home sometime over the weekend, or early next week – as long as he keeps up the current good behaviour.

For my part, I was spurred into action today because the window cleaner was coming. Pleased the window cleaner came, of course, but it made me actually look at the windows. Pretty grubby on the inside as well as the out. Normally, we are so busy with one thing and another that windows are my last job. Anyway, stung by the obvious neglect, I set to and cleaned our bedroom windows and the mirror doors on the wardrobes. Having nice, shiny windows in our room highlighted, of course, the dust in there…….. oh, gawd, housework!! It’s never-ending isn’t it?

Washing, ironing, dusting, sweeping, changing the bedsheets, cleaning the bathroom – all of that was on the agenda today, but I did enjoy myself too. I potted up the lovely bulbs I got with my flowers yesterday. And, all day, I have been admiring my flowers and enjoying their scent. The hyacinths and the narcissi in the bouquet from Linda and Brendan are heavenly heady.

I also sat for a few minutes after lunch, on the sofa, and ate chocolate. Bliss. And after tea, I sat upstairs in our sparkly room and did some meditation whilst soothing my eyes with an eye mask. Lovely.

This evening then, it was the quiz and I acted as quiz master. I was a tad nervous because my track record originally wasn’t great and, with John in hospital unable to guide me, I felt exposed being all on me own. However, it wasn’t too bad and we had a laugh as well some stretching of the grey cells. I do enjoy these evenings. Long may they continue – lockdown or no lockdown!

Not only was the quiz enjoyable for its own sake, but we had entertainment from John’s hospital bed. We’d not long got started when a healthcare assistant came in to offer John a cup of tea. “Oh, yes, thank you,” he said, “milk, two sugars. Biscuit? Oh, yes, please.” We were all rather jealous of his bourbons.

A little while later, it was tablets. Then after that, another healthcare assistant came in and said, “You’re moving.” What? “You’re going to Ward 10,” and she started packing up all his things. Honestly, they take no account of how a patient might feel in these circumstances at all. John looked and sounded upset. “What’s Ward 10?” he asked. “It’s gastrology.” she replied. Ah – well, perhaps it’s a renal clinic too. But puzzingly, the doctor that both John and I had spoken to earlier in the day had made no mention of having to move. John said goodbye to us and logged off.

We hoped to see him later, but I wasn’t holding out much hope as I thought he might be very cross. Anyway, ten minutes later, John logs back on again. “Nice to have you back,” we all chorused. “Where are you, John?” Malcolm asked, ” You look like you’re in the same room.” John grinned. “I am in the same room. They wheeled me to the end of the corridor and said, ‘You are Christopher XXX, aren’t you?’ Nope. So they wheeled me back again.” Pffff…….

• 9,938 people tested positive for the virus today
• 442 people died in the community with the virus in the last 24 hours
• 131 people died in hospitals on 22 & 23 February
• And it’s Day 49 of Lockdown 3; Day 337 of Lockdown 1; and Day 345 since we hunkered down

Whilst I do count my/our blessings, I’m still a bit miffed to be in lockdown. It’s Paul’s 40th birthday on Sunday. But how will we celebrate? Don’t really know, but thank goodness for Zoom. I shall certainly be opening a bottle of bubbly to toast our wonderful and dearest son, if nothing else. Full-on celebrations – maybe next year? (Any excuse).

Take care everyone. God bless.