Heart attack

Friday, July 06, 2018

N.H.S. 70th Birthday

Today will be the fourth day Carol has been on Ward 1. She still hasn't moved and I don't see her moving to Ward 22.

Yesterday it was as hot as ever. When I got to the ward at around 8.30, having walked there as usual, there was a change of staff as well as patients. They seem to come and go at a regular basis. It's like a railway depot, with beds coming and going. Not a lot different today (Thursday) to yesterday, to be honest. When I arrived on the ward it was a change of scenery, patients and some staff I'd never met before. Carol's blood sugar levels had come down considerably. But for some reason, they began to creep up slowly as the day progressed. She had been on insulin drip and they had put her back on metaformin. She is type 2 diabetic. This is the medication she had been on since she was diagnosed around three years ago. She had been able to keep it under control with this medication and with careful monitoring of her blood sugar levels, using a blood sugar monitor which she used first thing in the morning and sometimes late at night. But, unfortunately, when she was diagnosed with cancer of the bowel last year, the diabetes seemed to go out of the window. Because they used glucose as part of the chemotherapy, it seemed pointless to keep taking the diabetic medication because it would be affected by the sugary glucose. It now seems crazy that no-one flagged up the fact she was diabetic at some point over the last seven months since the chemotherapy started and the fact that she wasn't still taking medication to keep it under control. Which is where we've got on this journey.

I didn't walk to the hospital today (Thursday). I went by car and parked in the carpark near the oncology department. The idea was that I would walk in where we usually enter the hospital, through cardiology and then go to the Macmillan unit to get the parking ticket clipped. No problem on all counts and then on to ward 1. It has taken a couple of days to get my bearings and find my way to Ward 1, managing to see how it fits into the route I'd need to take from either carpark, the multi-storey or the ground level carpark, some of the route going along what they call the Fire Road which is where the M.R.I. scanning unit is based.

But unfortunately Carol's blood sugar levels began to climb at the day progressed. As a result, there was absolutely no way she was able to be discharged. Which is what we both wanted, as it's not the most pleasant experience to be in hospital, regardless of of good the care is, because you can't fault the care given, the dedication and hard work of all the doctors, nurses and other professionals who work for the N.H.S.

Carol has been on several drips during today (Thursday) not only insulin, but also antibiotics and paracetamol, which I didn't realise could be administered via drip. Carol said that, during the night, she felt shivery and cold, which one of the nurses said was the fever coming out. Worrying, when you think how dangerous to get any sort of infection if you're on chemotherapy. It didn't last and they said it must have been the fever coming out.

By coincidence, today, 5th July 2018, is the 70th birthday of the N.H.S. We didn't immediately see that there was anything going on a regards any sort of a celebration. At lunch time I went to the restaurant to get something to eat. The patients get lunch. I noticed that there was going to be some sort of recognition of the fact that it was the N.H.S. 70th birthday. There were tables set up in the courtyard which is outside the restaurant (and actually directly opposite Ward 1 where Carol is currently.)

As I write this, I'm watching BBC1's 'Look East' programme, which is coming live from Milton Keynes University Hospital, rather odd when I'm sitting only about 200-300 yards from the hospital and even more peculiar that the place is so important to us at the moment and we know it so well, although, under the circumstances not something we'd really want if it were possible. I have set our SkyQ box to record this so I can show Carol when she gets home. There were some parts of the live television programme from the courtyard where the celebration was being held.

Carol texted later in the evening, telling me that some of the doctors and nurses had birthday cake whilst she had some disgusting soup to eat. We couldn't find her mobile, which I'd taken in yesterday. We weren't sure yesterday whether she was going to be discharged, and we began to pack up her belongings on the off-chance that we could leave the hospital and she could come home. I had intended to walk home as I had walked yesterday and would go home to get the car, but then Carol suggested we call a taxi and have a porter push her in a wheelchair to the front entrance of the hospital, but, as it happened, she didn't get discharged and as a result the mobile got mislaid, but the later discovered at the bottom of a bag.

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