Merry Hell

I went to bed late last night – pottering about doing a few jobs. Half an hour after I got into bed, I heard John get up and go downstairs. I didn’t think too much of it, but after a while, I could hear him moaning and groaning, so I thought I’d better check up on him. It turned out that he wasn’t feeling very well at all. And so it started….

We dialled 111 for advice. “Not us – try 999,” they said. So we dialled 999 and the paramedics obligingly took John off to Warwick Hospital.

John arrived at the hospital at a quarter to five in the morning. I arrived soon after. Of course, there were no staff, were there? I fretted and fumed as I tried to get a doctor to look at John and do something. It was over three hours later before a doctor was actually assigned to John and even then another half an hour before they turned up at his bedside. “You chose the wrong day to come to hospital,” said the consultant, “the doctors are on strike……” Oh….ah…..

Once the day staff were on duty however, they got on with it and did several tests to see if they could pin down the medical problem. John had woken up from a short sleep in the middle of the night, unable to catch his breath. This happened several times and caused him to panic a bit, naturally. And then it was a vicious circle of panic/unable to breath/panic etc.

The consultant finally concluded that much of what John was suffering from was high anxiety – however, they didn’t rule out a blood clot in the lungs and did a blood test accordingly. The result came back showing some raised level of whatever they were looking for. So it’s blood-thinning injections (administered at home, eek!) and a CT scan of the lungs tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Meanwhile, John was very unwell but they deemed him fit to come home, so we arrived back about three in the afternoon, having been up all night and not had a bite to eat. John wasn’t hungry however, and picked at the soup and bread I offered; and refused William’s birthday tea of Frankfurter Hot Dogs.

We are very, very tired and John continues unwell – for which he apologises, bless him. Healing prayers and get well thoughts much needed if you are so inclined.

Take care everyone. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. Let’s hope it’s not more merry hell. God bless.