Isolation Day 54

The day has run away with us today at times, then stalled a bit, then run away again. Mostly feeling like it was hurtling downhill with no way of stopping it. But we’ve slowed as bedtime beckons and we’re (hopefully) now pulling into a siding for a breather. Are you ready (and got time for) for the ride?

It’s always an early start now as the nurses arrive to administer John’s antibiotics at 7 o’clock in the morning. This morning, though, John was up to dealing with it all himself, so I stayed in bed, drinking tea until about a quarter past seven. I got up and planned to spend a few minutes doing ‘Mindfulness’ meditation before settling down to a bit of yoga. I’d just started when John rang me from downstairs. Oh, blimey! What now? It turned out that the District Nurse (medic number one) wasn’t able to deliver the antibiotic because there was/is a kink in the line in John’s arm – and she didn’t feel competent to insert another canula as it’d been two years since she’d done one, having been on maternity leave.

What should we do? She made some frantic phone calls. There was no-one on duty with the competence to insert a cannula at that time in the morning. Best bet? Let’s get a non-emergency ambulance crew to come along and do the job. OK then, we’ll wait.

A ‘nee-naw’ turned up, paramedics pounding down the path, just at the same time as Malcolm was dropping off a spot of shopping – can’t stop to talk…… “What’s your problem, then?” they (medics numbers two and three) kindly asked. We explained. “Oh. We thought we were taking you down to Warwick Hospital.” Oooh, no…. don’t want to be trundled off to hospital if we can help it, thank you very much. “Well, we’ve never had a request like this before. Don’t think we can fit a cannula and just leave – that’s not what we do.” They checked with their seniors who looked in the rulebook. No, that’s not what they do, and they can’t leave the premises having left a cannula behind in someone’s body. And, anyway, they are an emergency crew – is there any such thing as a non-emergency crew, they wondered?

Ah……what shall we do now then? More frantic phone calls. The ambulance crew could take John to Warwick A&E and they’ll fit the cannular there? We weren’t keen. “Anne, you could take John to Heartlands A&E and they’ll fit a cannular there?” We weren’t awfully keen on that option either but, if necessary….. Still more phone calls, and they finally plumped on the option of them fitting the cannula, another District Nurse (medic number four) turning up to administer the antibiotic, and then the ambulance crew removing the cannula before they left. No leaving cannulas in anybody’s body at home by an ambulance crew.

It was a hectic morning, and we were both still in our jammies underneath our clothes. We decided against getting dressed just yet and sat out in the garden to soak up the sunshine and try and breath in some peace and quiet. We did do just that, the only interlude being a delightful ‘virtual picnic’ with Freddie and dear Paul. Oh, what a pleasure, that was. Freddie is getting more and more charming on the phone as his little piping voice tells me what he’s doing. A bit of a life raft in an otherwise choppy sea this morning.

John rested a bit while I sorted out Mum’s weekly ‘big wash and brush up’, which always takes a while because of setting her hair. But she was a bit confused today and struggled to think where the bathroom was. No sooner had I finished sorting Mum out than it was lunchtime and food prep was needed.

Lunch was a very pleasant affair, and John and I enjoyed sitting outside together. Mum, meanwhile, had gone upstairs to get a cardigan because she thought it would be cold. We had finished our lunch and I was wondering where Mum had got to, so went on a hunt. She was in the loo – ahhh, OK. But when she came downstairs again ten minutes later, she was minus cardigan. Clearly, she’d got upstairs and wasn’t sure why she was there!!

At about two o’clock another District Nurse (medic number five) arrived – this time a competent cannular fitter. So now John has two lines in…..

At about three-thirty another District Nurse (medic number four again….) arrived, just at the same time as the specialist groceries from Ocado – over which she had to step to get into and out of the house. She administered the antibiotic. All good this time. Phew.

A little bit of rest for John, then tea-time, after which he was still exhausted and went to bed. Mum hadn’t helped – nearly having a ‘turn’ at the tea table, which went off quickly, fortunately, but she decided she didn’t like lasagne after all…… I think, in what had been a long day so far, that was the last straw and John thought to absent himself for a while in case he said something he might regret.

Anyway, the evening District Nurses arrived just before 10 o’clock (medics six and seven) and busied themselves getting ready for the infusion – only to find that the cannula couldn’t. A great balloon of fluid manifested itself in John’s arm and so that attempt had to be abandoned. No worries, the nurse said cheerfully we’ll find another vein. Ha! Ha! If only John’s veins weren’t shot, we thought. Attempt number two: another ballooning of fluid. Eeeeeh, dear. Finally, and fortunately, attempt number three seemed to be successful and he is now pumped full of antibiotics. Whether the cannula will behave tomorrow we’ll see, But, it’s been one hell of a ride today.

Obviously, though, our ride has not been as bad as those who have contracted and been hospitalised with COVID-19 (3,896 infected as at 9a.m. this morning according to the official figures) or who have died (346), but we’d rather not have another day like today tomorrow please. We are ‘Cannula-nackered’.

God bless.

P.S. I never did get to do my ‘Mindfulness’ meditation or yoga – maybe tomorrow? Please?