A Midnight Dash

So, we had a Midnight Dash last night! John became increasingly unwell as the evening wore on and was sickly just as he went to bed. I had gone into the computer room to do my Blog when I heard a thump! on the floor. When I went into the bedroom, there was John in the ensuite, on the long white telephone….. poor man. He felt terribly unwell.

The service from 111 was not too bad. Everyone was kindness itself. There was only one issue and that was when the Out-of-Hours doctor from the Badger service tried to phone. What a crazy system that is! They phone you but there is zero sound when you pick up. The first couple of times, I missed the call and it went to my answer machine and I couldn’t hear a word that was being said.

Eventually, the 111 operator advised me just to hold on when the call came in. Which I did, of course, to no avail and text messages arrived severally: ‘Hello, We’ve tried to reach you but you weren’t available. Unfortunately your appointment with Badger has been cancelled.’ When I was available the messages pinged in as the call cut off after 12 minutes of holding on. Grr….. just what you don’t want when you’re tired and anxious!

Anyway, eventually one of the doctors did get through and, having listened patiently to all the symptoms and listened to John being sick for about ten minutes, he advised that John go to hospital. “Dial 999 and get an ambulance,” he said. Ha! As if I was going to do that! We know where that takes us. Over to Walsgrave. And, although they are very good over there, they don’t know John’s history.

On asking the question, the doctor agreed that it would be OK for me to take John across to Heartlands, if I felt confident enough to do so. Well, I did. So I did.

Poor John. I made him get out of bed, get dressed and trundle out to the car at half past midnight. Bless him. By then he was a bit muddled and really felt bemused at being transported across to Birmingham at that time of night.

Nevertheless, we made it and I dropped him off outside A&E and went to park the car. The only trouble is, it’s been a long time since we attended A&E and the entrance I’d dropped him off at, wasn’t an entrance at all. It was the holding bay for all the patients who’d arrived by ambulance and were being attended by the crew.

Rammed, it was. Not an inch spare. And John nowhere to be seen. “You’ve come to the wrong door, love,” said one of the paramedics, when I finally got up there. He ushered me out and gestured that I should go down a steep hill, up a lot of steps to the new A&E reception area. Oh, my heart broke. I imagined poor John trying to make that journey feeling so ill and I wept for him.

He wasn’t there though, was he? The receptionist was doing something else when I arrived and didn’t leap up to attend to me. I hovered, and then paced about, searching for John among the hordes of people in the waiting room. He definitely wasn’t there. Finally, she looked on the computer and told me that John was over the other side. Yep! That’s right. From whence I had come.

When I finally caught up with my errant husband, he was entertaining a very nice young lady at his bedside. And they seemed to be getting on like a house on fire. I was definitely de trop. Mostly. It transpired that some of the things John was telling the doctor were not quite accurate. “Have you been off your food?” she asked. “Oh, no,” said John. I coughed. “That’s not exactly right though, is it?” I said. “You haven’t been hungry for several days and haven’t been able to finish your dinner?” Oh… that! Well, that was nothing.

Anyway, the upshot is that the ol’ man has been admitted to hospital for intravenous antibiotics and rehydration. The fainting will have been due to the infection apparently, and the sickness may have been due to a reaction to the oral antibiotics.

John spent all night and all day in A&E because there were no beds, and is exhausted. Finally, this evening just before nine o’clock they transferred him to the respiratory ward, so fingers crossed that he starts to improve now. He’s still a bit muddled and very, very weary.

I am due to go to Ragdale Hall tomorrow for a lovely, long, relaxing weekend….. now there’s another story, but it’ll have to wait.

Take care everyone. God bless. Prayers appreciated……