Heart attack

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Another Hot Day

It rained in the night. (Friday into Saturday) We were told on the BBC1 weather forecast yesterday evening. I wasn't aware of it. It clouded over during the evening and I thought it was suddenly going to pour, but it decided against it. But when I got up this morning and peered out of the bedroom window I noticed that the grass in the garden was sprinkled with drops of what must have been rain, but it had hardly dampened the ground. The road outside, having opened the bathroom window when I was shaving, didn't so much as appear damp. I took Alfie our for his early-morning walk (if you can call it a 'walk.' I do the walking and he does the running.)

I went to the One Stop shop in Garraways after 9 o'clock this morning to use the Post Office within the store as I needed a First Class stamp to put on an envelope as I had to post off a form which came from Carol's work, from the salary office. I don't know what it's about, but something to do with her no longer getting S.S.P. (Statutory Sick Pay) and it had to be posted off fairly promptly. I had fun looking for an envelope, but remembered a pack of them which were tidied away when we took the books off the old bookshelves at the time we replaced them with the new IKEA ones a few months ago. All the books were put into various containers and then deposited in the spare room. Fortunately the envelopes were in one of these containers.

Then a shopping trip to Sainsbury's. A need to pick up something for my evening meal, together with milk and a few other items before I went to see Carol on Ward 22.

I decided to walk to the hospital. At least I would be saving on the cost of parking. At the weekend the Macmillan unit is closed so you can't get your parking ticket clipped so you don't have to pay when you leave. It costs at least £4.50 a day to park which soon adds up, so the fact you can park for nothing if you are a cancer patient is something of a relief.

When I got into the ward, Carol said I was just in time as she was going for another M.R.I. scan. Or, at least that's what she thought. There seemed to be something of a mix-up and none of the nurses were sure whether it was booked. Generally you aren't supposed to eat within 3 hours of a scan, and Carol hadn't had breakfast. Then one of the nurses discovered that a scan wasn't booked, which was annoying. We want this done fairly soon because Carol's temperature is now stabilised and the doctor on the ward said that it had to remain stable for at least 48 hours before they could let her be discharged. They needed to see the scan of the infected area in her abdomen before discharging her. Thinking about it, she could have gone home, as she was told she could return home but return to the hospital for the scan and another check-up. A bit of a waste of time, considering she's been in hospital for nearly 4 weeks.

Then a nurse came in to say that, yes, Carol would be having the long-awaited M.R.I. scan. But it wouldn't matter whether she ate, which pleased her somewhat. It seemed to take some time for her lunch to arrive.  Everyone else seemed to have their lunch on the ward well before Carol's arrived. Some people had even finished theirs by the time Carol's arrived.  When it eventually arrived it was a sandwich of some sort, possibly ham, and soup. I don't personally think I could eat hot soup in this current hot weather. I had bought a sandwich from Sainsbury's, along with a bag of Popchips, a flapjack bar and an Innocent smoothie. Carol said that the soup was tasteless, so she had to ask one of the nurses for some salt to put on it. I don't think it exactly improved the taste.

Then the porter arrived with a wheelchair and Carol was whisked off to the M.R.I. scan, not more than a 5-minute ride across the road. The whole procedure took around 20 minutes and I waited in the waiting area.

It was back to the ward after the scan, by which time it was time for me to walk home. I just hope Carol's temperature remains stable and nothing too nasty shows up on the scan so that she can at last be discharged as she really longs to get out of that hospital ward.

Fortunately it hasn't be as roasting hot as of previous days, although the weather forecast says that we're going to get even warmer weather. We do desperately need rain, as the lawns and grass all along the grid roads around Milton Keynes look so parched and brown.

When I got home I thought I'd treat Alfie to another walk. I looked at the post and another letter had arrived asking for some paperwork for our benefit application. I'm now confused as to which address I have to send the form from the salary department, so I scored out the one I had already written on the envelope and put the address they had on this new letter and when we went out for the walk across Eaglestone Park I posted it in the letterbox just along from our house. Alfie was really keen on his jaunt around the park and all told add a few steps on my total for the day, which is now 7712.

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