Monday gradually improving

The physiotherapist arrived here at about eleven, just after I’d had a good wash and clean-up. She said she’d shown me everything I needed, so now it was up to me to get out of bed two or three times a day and go for a short walk. I would be fine on my own. So no sooner had she cleared off again than I put my bathrobe on and went off down the corridor. Somehow, don’t ask me how, I could just FEEL that something wasn’t quite right. It didn’t become obvious until I got back to my room and went to open the curtains. Suddenly – whoosh! There was liquid pouring out of a feeding tube and I had no idea where it belonged. I pushed the panic button and two nurses turned up. But this was too much for them. The repair of this job needed a doctor, so they went in search of one. She patched up the problem but now I’m waiting for somebody from the gastroenterology department to turn up and fix it properly. It’s a catheter that has come loose and no-one seems to know how deep it should go or how it should be anchored.

All my cleaning myself up was a waste because now I had yucky stuff everywhere. Nevertheless, all this cafuffle had made me late for my x-ray, so I had to get wheelchaired down there first. That was a performance in itself, getting decent x-rays of me in a standing position while holding two dozen tubes and cables off-shot.

Once that was done, I was wheeled back and am now waiting for the gastroenterologist to turn up. The doctor from the pain unit has arrived in the meantime and, following the Professor’s instructions, removed the thorax drainage tube (without question the most painful thing I have EVER had done in my life), then boosted the painkiller fluid up by 50% in strength. Most the pain has gone now. Still a bit stiff over the right-hand shoulder-blade but much better than it has been.