Latest news
All the tubes and wires have been taken out of me and the support vest I have to wear until my sternum heals no longer looks like a suicide jacket and more like a police hazvest or, more correctly a haz crop top. I ache all over, particularly the legs where they took the veins for the grafts and the hip joint. Not being allowed to lift anything or push with my arms makes things difficult but the staff are wonderful and helping me all the time.
I had to move to a different part of the ward because they needed another man closer to the door where they could keep an eye on him. His medication was leaving him confused and he kept trying to go for walks forgetting that he was connected to several drips and monitors. During the move my bed stopped working. We could raise and lower the head but not the feet or change the height of the bed. So, when I went for an x-ray, they found me a new bed and I got on it after lunch and a visit from the physios. I needed to lie flat after they removed the last drain from my chest and the drug line from my neck. All was well until it was time to sit back up when the bed started closing itself up with me in it! The nurses managed to stop it before I could be hurt me but after it had tried to do it twice more before they could unplug it, they got me off of it and I now have a third bed. The staff nurse said that if I anything goes wrong with this one I'll have to sleep on the floor.
During the night I had a migraine. The night staff? didn't seem to appreciate how bad this is and didn't give me any extra pain relief even though I was due some. If it had been pain related to my surgery or to the arthritis in my hip it might have been a different story but this was just a headache, wasn't it. I managed to get to sleep before it got too bad and when I woke up the day staff had taken over. The staff nurse is a fellow sufferer and quickly got me meds, an eyeshade and earplugs. Aftero a few hours more sleep I was feeling better again.
Still nothing definite about when I can go home. The cardiac team saw me this morning and said I should be ready for discharge on Monday. But the physios want me to have several days of rehab because at the moment it takes two people to help me stand up and need to regain my abdominal strength before I can be trusted to go home. Rehab could be here, Southampton's other hospital or Winchester. Good news is that once I've had the rehab the physios won't need to see me until I have my hip op.
Hopefully I'll be able to get to my appointment with the endocrine team on Friday and the one for my eyes the following week. Meanwhile I will try to get in touch with the orthopaedic team to see when they can offer me my hip replacement.
Apologies to my Facebook friends for not fixing the link sooner, but you should be able to see my other posts from hospital by following the links from this one.
I had to move to a different part of the ward because they needed another man closer to the door where they could keep an eye on him. His medication was leaving him confused and he kept trying to go for walks forgetting that he was connected to several drips and monitors. During the move my bed stopped working. We could raise and lower the head but not the feet or change the height of the bed. So, when I went for an x-ray, they found me a new bed and I got on it after lunch and a visit from the physios. I needed to lie flat after they removed the last drain from my chest and the drug line from my neck. All was well until it was time to sit back up when the bed started closing itself up with me in it! The nurses managed to stop it before I could be hurt me but after it had tried to do it twice more before they could unplug it, they got me off of it and I now have a third bed. The staff nurse said that if I anything goes wrong with this one I'll have to sleep on the floor.
During the night I had a migraine. The night staff? didn't seem to appreciate how bad this is and didn't give me any extra pain relief even though I was due some. If it had been pain related to my surgery or to the arthritis in my hip it might have been a different story but this was just a headache, wasn't it. I managed to get to sleep before it got too bad and when I woke up the day staff had taken over. The staff nurse is a fellow sufferer and quickly got me meds, an eyeshade and earplugs. Aftero a few hours more sleep I was feeling better again.
Still nothing definite about when I can go home. The cardiac team saw me this morning and said I should be ready for discharge on Monday. But the physios want me to have several days of rehab because at the moment it takes two people to help me stand up and need to regain my abdominal strength before I can be trusted to go home. Rehab could be here, Southampton's other hospital or Winchester. Good news is that once I've had the rehab the physios won't need to see me until I have my hip op.
Hopefully I'll be able to get to my appointment with the endocrine team on Friday and the one for my eyes the following week. Meanwhile I will try to get in touch with the orthopaedic team to see when they can offer me my hip replacement.
Apologies to my Facebook friends for not fixing the link sooner, but you should be able to see my other posts from hospital by following the links from this one.
