Always on mind...

Backblip


The plan was D would head to the hospital early with Alan's wheelchair incase the physio wanted him out of bed.  He would then return around noon to have lunch and we'd then go back to the hospital together.  As ever, the best laid plans....

The physio didn't appear till the afternoon and he did want Alan up in his wheelchair.  It's a bit of a faff as it's the hospital's hoist and D and Alan's team are not allowed to use it, so the nurses have to get him up.  It's a complete farce as they're not used to hoisting patients so don't really know what to do so D and the team have to give instruction but can't physically help! 

Lots of chest physio done and it's certainly loosening the gunk.  Ideally they would then suction the gunk away but he won't let them put the tube in his mouth so it's reliant on Alan coughing but he's so tired and sore, he's not keen to cough either.

D eventually got home to pick me up and some more supplies for Alan at 5pm.  Headed back up thinking we would stay till 9pm then come home for dinner and a sleep.

When we got there Alan was clearly in some distress.  Lots of heavy, fast breathing, sweating and heart rate of 140.  Called the nurse.

Long story short, nurse came took his BP, temp, oxygen sats.  She called the Junior Doc in charge of the ward.  He said to call the physio as Alan was clearly struggling with horrible gunk stuck in his throat that he was finding difficult to get rid of.  He also decided to take bloods to check infection levels and increased his oxygen.  Of course Alan was so agitated it was impossible to get bloods from him.  At one point I was in fear of the doctor's health as the way he was standing trying to get the needle in Alan's arm put him right in the firing line for a knee in the nuts if Alan had chosen to give as good as he was getting!  Lucky for the doc poor Alan's weak as water at the moment!

Physio (the on call physio not the one he'd seen earlier) came and worked on his chest again and tried to suction him.  They'd managed to get a really thin tube to attach to the end of the suction tube that could go through the spaces in his teeth but he was still resistant and she only managed to remove a little.

The Jnr Doc called the Registrar to come and look at Alan too.  By the time he arrived things had calmed down a little.  He said the bloods weren't necessary as Alan's temperature was an indicator that that infection is still present.  He prescribed another antibiotic.  This one is just administered once as a boost.

Things went quiet for a while then the physio returned and said she was going to get him into bed and try suctioning him again.  She suggested we leave the room while this was happening.  They had a little success but not much.

By this time the shift had changed and the night shift were on duty.  The named nurse Alan had last night was back on.  He's fantastic.  Alan was still struggling so he decided to give him a saline nebuliser to try to soften all the secretions.  Alan wasn't keen on the mask but wore it.  When the five minutes were up he coughed and was quite sick but it got rid of loads of gunk.

He settled a bit after and we sat with him in relative peace.  He keeps looking at me with such pleading eyes as if saying please make it better mum.  It breaks my heart.  

We decided that David would stay the night with him (was supposed to be Vicki) as we felt he needed the emotional support.  The team are amazing but they're not mum or dad.  

David ran me home at 10.30pm and I made him the world's fastest omelette as we'd had nothing to eat since lunchtime.  

He headed off to face a night of sitting on a hard chair.  At least in HDU they managed to get him a recliner.  No such luxury in this ward.  
 
I headed to bed pray to every God than might exist for some relief for my poor boy.

All that I can offer for my blip today is a painting that I did this afternoon to keep my mind and hands occupied.  It worked for a little while.