It’s a Merry-Go-Round

Early Blog. The reason? I am going to bed early. Oh…… you mean, what is the reason I am going to bed early? Ah….. well, we had a middle-of-the-night-dash-to-the-hospital last night…… so just a few hours of snatched sleep.

John’s chest and his breathing were bothering me. Might have mentioned it yesterday. Once or twice. Anyway, once I’d done all my nightly chores and put the bins out, I got into bed at around midnight and sat listening to a musical concertina next to me. The concertina was really struggling to take air in….. and push air out…..I couldn’t help myself of course, and patted John to say, “Are you alright?” He was irritated; he’d been asleep. Of course he was alright.

Well, there ensued a debate for the next hour as to whether I should take him to hospital or not. His vote was for waiting until the morning. My vote was to go now. He turned over, intent on going back to sleep. I got up and packed his case. Just in case.

I woke him up again and told him his breathing (or not) was worrying me. “Oh, alright then,” he said, “Phone 111 and see what they say.” The health professional on the other end of the phone on 111 was very good and very patient. Asked a lot of questions and then said, at the end of it, “We’d like you to go to a treatment centre, within the hour, given your symptoms. I’ll try and book you in.” We balked at John being booked in anywhere other than Heartlands. There’s always such a kerfuffle when he goes to any other hospital because they don’t know his case. “That’s fine,” she replied, “If you can get over to Heartlands within the hour, please do.” She repeated: “within the hour.”

So we set off. Got there just after 2 o’clock in the morning. “You can’t come in,” said the receptionist, motioning me away. However, John was so out of breath that she couldn’t get a word out of him. She reluctantly took his details from me. “Knock on the nurses door,” she told John, “and the nurse will see you.” The nurse motioned John in…… “but you can’t come in,” she said to me, wafting me to one side. “I know,” I said, disappointed – and then I added as afterthought, hopeful, “John’s hard of hearing.” OK, that’s fine, we can deal with it, now just go away, relatives are not allowed in.

I waited outside in the cool middle-of-the-night air, chatting to a robin who had come to play at my feet. I asked the robin if he knew it was nearly three o’clock in the morning? He said, yes, but he’d just thought he’d keep me company for a bit. How nice. Actually, it was nice. I enjoyed watching the robin hopping about, putting his head first on one side, and then the other; turning over bits of what-might-be food. At that time in the morning I was grateful for the distraction.

After an hour of kicking my heels in the cool night air, I thought I’d give John a ring to see what was happening. Oxygen, IV antibiotics and hooked up to a heart monitor. “You’re staying in then?” Yes, sounds like it. But he didn’t want all the packing I’d done. He didn’t want pyjamas, underpants, socks or dressing gown. Are you sure? He was adamant.

Rued it this morning though, didn’t he? He was phoning me up asking me to bring them today. Which I did, of course, plus the Kindle he hadn’t wanted, and a pen and some paper and some fruit. He was pleased to have all of that today.

So there we are. On the Merry-go-Round again. Poor John. So frustrating. He’d only been congratulating himself the other day that he’d got through January without having to go to hospital. Well, we’ll see what tomorrow brings and what advice they’ve got for him this time. Keep the prayers coming please.

For those of you who may be interested, the respiratory nurses did phone up early this morning. They had clocked that John was in hospital and were pleased about that. “That’s what we would have told you to do,” said the nurse, “there’s not a lot we can do when it’s got to that stage. Better to get the doctors to check him out.” Boom!

I really haven’t taken a lot of notice of the news today. Funny that. However, I know that the cases of COVID are steadying, so I’m keeping hopeful. John has strict instructions to keep sanitising his hands…..

• 12,027 people tested positive for the virus today
• 533 people died in the community with the virus in the last 24 hours
• 209 people died with the virus in hospitals on 17 & 18 February
• Today is Day 45 of Lockdown 3; Day 332 since instructions were issued to stay home last March; and Day 340 since John and I stayed home voluntarily.

Thank you to everyone who have sent good wishes and were fully aware of John’s predicament. Love is all you need – and I’m feeling that.

Take care everyone. God bless.