… this morning – (cue Blues introduction here) – in a deep dark depression.<\/p>\n
And the only thing that has changed during the course of the day is that it’s gone worse and I have slipped even deeper in.<\/p>\n
The only surprise here is not that I’m in a deep dark depression but the fact that it’s taken as long as this.<\/p>\n
So having to contend with not only the regular ointment in my eyes but also an uncomfortable catheter in the back of my left hand, I’ll tell you all about it.<\/p>\n
It all began to go wrong last night at about 21:30 when a nurse came by to check the catheter port in my chest.<\/p>\n
She pulled out the catheter and went to fit a new one. And then she pulled it out because she said that it wasn’t working, fitted another, still couldn’t get it to work. She said that she’d have to go off and see the night nurse.<\/p>\n
At some point I must have fallen asleep because I awoke at 03:30 with the headphones still on and the old-time radio on the computer still going, and still no night-nurse.<\/p>\n
A couple of hours later I started to worry about the night-nurse knocking off so I pressed my bell.<\/p>\n
An orderly came along followed closely, surprise surprise, by the night nurse. She said that she knew nothing whatever about the problem and suggested that maybe the person last night had contacted the specialist catheter unit.<\/p>\n
By now it was too late for me to go back to sleep. The alarm was set for 06:30 and it wasn’t long before it went off.<\/p>\n
After breakfast the doctor came to see me and it really was the wrong kind of day for that to happen but it was rather too late to worry about that.<\/p>\n
She told me nothing that I didn’t already know so I launched into my usual spiel. When I reached the bit about the trapped nerve and my leg she RAN AWAY – actually ran away from me out of the room.<\/p>\n
There was nothing left for it but to turn to my social network to vent the spleen that I don’t have any more. That in itself led to a lengthy discussion and a subsequent chat with Liz which was very nice.<\/p>\n
Much of the rest of the morning was spent asleep and then, as I expected, the afternoon simply dragged and dragged aimlessly and endlessly.<\/p>\n
Tea was delayed while a nurse took out the catheter in my arm and fitted a new one in the back of my hand, leaving me to bleed over my hummus butties. Luckily the cute little 1st-year student nurse was in the store across the corridor so she brought me a beautiful smile and a plaster.<\/p>\n
Apparently this afternoon she’s working on the other end of the ward so I told her to ask for a transfer.<\/p>\n
Later in the evening the doctor came back She told me that as my catheter port in my chest was redundant they were going to operate on me tomorrow morning to remove it so I must go into famine mode at midnight.<\/p>\n
And she cleared off really smartish-like before I had time to tell her that now that we both know that this story about not doing an operation on my while I’m full of virus is total tosh, what’s her excuse now?<\/p>\n
We’ll probably not have the answer to that tomorrow but we can at least try to find out.<\/p>\n
My betting is that we’ll get a “this is a different kind of operation”.<\/p>\n
What’s your bet?<\/p>\n
