Forgotten Medication

When Carol was discharged from Ward 20 on Friday, she was given a carrier bag full of all the medication she needed to manage her condition. A nurse had sat on her bed and went through a list she had of everything. But Carol has been in more pain since being at home. We were hoping that, having had the operation to unblock her bowel and having been in hospital for very nearly three weeks (together with several days when she went in and was on Ward 19.) the pain would be more under control. But it seems that two lots of medication, antibiotics, were left off this list. Most likely because of this being left out, the pain has not been reduced. Just annoyed that someone didn't deal with this to then avoid more pain, distress and for me, a lot off annoyance, and as it turned out, inconvenience. I realise that the nurses (and other healthcare professionals) were over-worked and put under a great deal of pressure on Ward 20, but to forget or 'mislay' some of Carol's medication does show a certain lapse of, I don't know, concentration on someone's behalf, or at least, not being up to scratch in some respects, which has left myself and Carol feeling a bit let down.

 I went to church on Sunday, but when I got home, I hadn't changed my clothes or taken my shoes off before Carol told me that I'd have to go out again. Someone had telephoned from Ward 20 to say that Carol needed these two extra medications and that they had a prescription made out for these two medications. I had to go in and pick them up immediately and have them made up. You can imagine that I wasn't exactly over-pleased as I was about to sit down and spend the rest of Sunday afternoon relaxing. So I had to get back in the car and drive to the hospital, park in the multi-storey carpark and then walk all the way to Ward 20 (something that is incredibly exhausting as it quite a way.) I soon got to the ward and the nurses knew exactly what I was there for and then I had to decide which pharmacy would be open in order to make up the prescription. I decided to drive to the shopping centre at Kingston as there is a Boot's chemist as well as a pharmacy with the Tesco Extra which is also there. If one wasn't open, or couldn't provide the medications on the prescription, surely the other would have them. Fortunately I didn't have to pay anything to park. I had taken a ticket from the machine when I drove into the multi-storey carpark, and when before I drove out I put the ticket in one of the ticket machines and it showed 'no payment' which was at least a relief as I was expecting to pay something, but I imagine because I hadn't been there for much more than 20 minutes, it hadn't registered a payment. I then drove out of the hospital campus and decided to drive towards Kingston. I have to say I went considerably faster than was probably wise, but, as I was keen to get the prescription made up for Carol, I wasn't that bothered. Just a good thing there are no speed cameras or no police around at the time. 

I got to the Kingston Centre and found it was very busy. No doubt people doing their Christmas shopping. Hardly able to move. I went into Boots (fortunately open, together with the pharmacy) and handed over the prescription. I was told that they had both medications and that it would take 10 minutes to complete. So I went away to kill the time, having a browse in Next, and then into another shop further along the parade of shops. Home Sense, which is full of an incredible range of furnishing items.

I returned to Boots to find they'd completed the prescription. I had to walk across the carpark to return to the car. It always seems to me, whenever I've been to the Kingston Centre, that it's not designed to make your life easy as there's no path across this carpark. For some ridiculous reason they had to put barriers in your way, fences and hedges which mean you can't get a clear path to get from one side to the other. They obviously intend for you to walk right round and this takes far too long. Well, I eventually got back to the car and then, having driven out, I then had to spend around 15 minutes standing still in the car because of a very long queue of vehicles also leaving and back to Chaffron Way. Other drivers getting very annoyed, but, lets be perfectly honest, they only had themselves to blame. What were they expecting, in the build-up to the festive holiday, with other people doing Christmas shopping. Sunday has become very much like any other day of the week, since they relaxed the opening hours of shops and other businesses. I eventually got over the roundabout at Tongwell Street (one of the busiest roads in Milton Keynes) put my foot down and shot across as I made my way home. Thank goodness I'd completed my mission and was able to get back with the medications which I'd gone to get for Carol.

Swimming and Shopping

The weather forecast for this weekend had said it was going to be wet and cold. Nothing like that this morning. It has been almost spring-like. Infact, one could probably say we are in the spring. There are  daffodils and other spring blooms opening all over the place, snowdrops, crocuses as well as the odd daffodil. Also, trees are showing the first signs of new leaf.

We went to Nuffield Health at around 9.15 and found the place was virtually empty. A couple of people in the swimming pool, so I was able to do quite a few lengths. I sat in the sauna for around 10 minutes. It was a good deal warmer than it has in the past, and then into the steam room. You could barely see your hand in front of you in there, due to the steam. It certainly does me good. I returned to the swimming pool and in total I did 20 lengths of the pool, but by then it was getting crowded. We both sat in the jacuzzi for another 10-15 minutes and then it was time to get out, changed, and go off to find something to eat. We drove to  the Kingston Centre and visited Marks and Spencer. We had lattes and chocolate gateau which we shared and then visited Home Sense, which is part of T.K.Maax. An amazing selection of all manner of items, furniture, storage and even books. You have to keep visiting, as you do T.K. Maax, as their stock is changing almost daily. If you see something in there you have to buy it almost immediately, as otherwise it will be gone. They only ever seem to have one or two of the same item, for example, in a particular size. We bought two Dorling Kindersly books, one on Fashion which Carol liked and another on one of my favourite subjects, William Shakespeare. The book on Fashion was reduced to £9.99, the full price is £30 and the Shakespeare one was £7.99, reduced from £16.99. These Dorling Kindersley books are so beautifully produced, with excellent photographs and graphics. We have several others in our bookshelves, several on history and art.

We returned to M and S and bought food for tonight. Pizza, salad, potatoes etc.