Down the road

The continuing retrospective saga of three weeks in hospital...

The day began badly, with J distressed and me quite angry about problems which arose overnight which I won't detail here but which took far too long to resolve. However, she gradually settled and eventually slept for much of the morning, then was hoisted into her wheelchair for almost three hours, where she enjoyed browsing Facebook with me then watching Superman and Lois on BBC iPlayer. It was always very difficult to position a screen so that she could see it properly in bed, so she was really happy to have her communication tablet, which is also a PC, mounted on her wheelchair. 

While she was watching, a nice student nurse sat with her for a while so that I could go for a short walk. This time I turned down the road, in the opposite direction to the park, and beyond the many hospital buildings found Victorian terraces of houses with small shops and takeaway food places below, on a street busy with buses, cars and cyclists. After thirty months of pandemic spent in our rural retreat, this bustle and noise felt very novel, and although some of the buildings were looking rather unloved, many of the shops appeared to be thriving. There were some nice architectural details: the photo shows the curved corners of the blocks, which were repeated along quite a long stretch of road, and the arched and ornamented tops of the doors and the first floor windows, most of which remained intact. It was a warm, breezy day and, as always, good to stretch my legs and see something different.

Evening brought the next step in J's journey towards home as, in the usual sudden, unannounced rush, we were told to pack immediately for her move from the high dependency unit to a ward.