Still languishing….

John is still in hospital. The weekend discharge is difficult, apparently. There are not so many staff on duty; the community team has stood down; equipment can’t be delivered…… and so we wait.

John has been stoic and accepted his stay in hospital has been extended. We were hopeful, however, that he might be discharged on Monday. We wait and see though because, since Friday, there’s been a couple of changes to the circumstances.

On Thursday, after John had had radiotherapy, it looked like things might be going well and the treatment had worked. The doctor was cautious. “How long can we expect the effects of the radiotherapy to last?” we asked. “Everyone is different.” he replied. Ha! That’s an answer we get a lot!! “Sometimes, it’s 24 hours, sometimes a bit longer, sometimes a few weeks.”

Hmmm…. well, it might have lasted longer than 24 hours if John hadn’t fallen down and jarred himself. Landed on his bum and made himself a bit sore. “I’ll be alright,” he reassured me. But, in reality, the jarring seems to have set up the pain in John’s back again. Perhaps undoing the good that the radiotherapy had done.

The doctor had explained that not only was a weekend discharge difficult for all the logistical reasons explained, but they thought they’d like to keep an eye on how John responded to his radiotherapy treatment. Which is why we are wondering whether discharge will happen tomorrow or not.

The hospital bed has been ordered, we believe. The delivery is scheduled for tomorrow, perhaps. If it arrives, the medics at the hospital may be comfortable with the discharge. If it doesn’t, then another night’s stay might be on the cards. Watch and wait…..

In the meantime, I have been trundling over to the hospital to visit John, of course, but yesterday I had a bit of a headache and left late afternoon rather than staying on. “Go home,” John insisted, “get some paracetamol and some rest.” I didn’t need telling twice. I came home, knocked back a couple of paracetamol and went straight to bed. At five o’clock in the afternoon.

I still had a bit of a headache today so I decided I’d better check that I wasn’t going to transport Covid to the hospital. The test came back clear, so perhaps the headache is stress-related. Can’t think why that might be?

Anyway, the family came round today to do some furniture-shifting in readiness for the hospital bed arriving; and the children helped decorate the porch with Halloween stuff. Well, actually, as Freddie said, grinning, “We didn’t do the decorating. We just played with it all from the box.” The grown-ups did the decorating….. the kids just had fun! Hehe!

It was good to have the family round though. My headache seemed to ease after they’d been. And, in the end, Paul was keen to visit his Dad this afternoon, so I was given a day-release ticket and was allowed to stay at home. Double-helping, eh?

Andrew arrived home not long after six o’clock. Having been at a concert in Leeds last night and having the half-term week off, he’s come for a relax. Ha! Ha! Little does he know……. might have a few jobs lined up for him…..tee-hee!

Take care everyone. God bless.