Ups and downs

It is amazing how quickly things can change in a single day. Yesterday (Saturday) morning, I went down to the park for my usual walk and very soon wished that I hadn’t. On the way back to my room, I almost fainted and had to lean against a wall for a while to recover. From then on, for the rest of the day, I felt as weak as a kitten. Every single movement, no matter how small, needed a supreme effort. I couldn’t sit straight to use my computer. Going to the toilet was a major challenge.

The reason for all this weakness was clear enough. The hospital hadn’t fed me all day on Friday nor on Saturday, the reason being that I hadn’t been to the loo the normal way since before my operation. That, in turn, had caused an internal infection which was being treated with antibiotics. But the theory was that until I managed to clear myself out properly, there would be no further food. All the laxatives they were pumping into me were doing no good at all.

When the Professor came round for his morning visit, he could see how rough I was feeling. He then decided to have the throat tube, which had only been removed last week, put back in again so that I could be fed through that, and to increase the dosage of laxatives.

Being a Saturday, the operating theatres were busy and understaffed and replacing the throat tube couldn’t be done until the evening. The stronger laxatives were taken at one o’clock. By the time Danny arrived with Dean at about 5 o’clock, they still hadn’t made any difference.

At 8.15 yesterday evening, the dam broke. After 13 full days, I finally had a decent clear-out.

At 9 p.m. they wheeled me down to the operating theatre to have the throat tube back in. That painful process lasted until 10.15. I was fed overnight and woke up feeling considerably better this morning.

It is now Sunday lunchtime (well, for those people who can eat!) and I’m feeling relatively well. The Professor dropped by and I managed to get him to answer a few questions, which is quite an achievement:

The dreadful accumulation of foam in the throat, mainly overnight, and the accompanying cough, could last for another 2 months. It could take my voice up to a full year to recover fully.

Still, every day that goes by is another day closer to being done with all this aggravation and disruption.