One Week On

Can't believe this time last week we were travelling down from the vineyard to check in at FMC Operating Theatre. My, a lot has happened in one week.

This morning I arrived at HDU at 7:30am to a patient with one less drain (catheter was removed at midnight) & having a better night sleep.

The first medicos on the scene this morning were the medical home team. They were very pleased with Anthony's progress & announced that one of the chest drains could be removed by the nurses this morning. Then came the team of Anaethatists who again checked all the pain relief & wanted Anthony to  transition to oral medication. Time to come off the Ketamine. 

By then it was time to take out the first of the chest drains. This was a procedure that required two nurses & we had the trainee physio as an observer. She stepped in to be photographer as well - nothing like multi-skilling. 

Rob Padbury, the head of surgery at FMC, was the first to visit today, he came down from his office for a quick catch up. 

"Mother Teresa" was the next to visit in her official uniform. Nurses were unsure how it would go down. It was very funny. 

I left Anthony with Teresa as I headed back to work. 

The next bit of update is now via word of mouth - 

Teresa took Anthony with his mobile trolley for the longest walk visiting many patients & nursing staff I believe on all of level 5.

Hi Guys, Gen here now updating how the afternoon went...

There were a few visitors throughout the afternoon to keep dad company and also another visit from the dietitian, the physio and one of Prof assisting surgeons to check up and see how things were going. They were all very happy with the progress, and suggested another drain may be able to come out tomorrow if dad's lucky! There is a few conflicting opinions on this however, so it may be a few days before this realistically come out...but here's hoping! 

Dad was able to have a cup of soup which was his first dinner since last week. He smashed it, and drank the whole thing...just...at one stage he thought it might come back up. We had a quick reminder from the suregon just how small dad's stomach is now and that is probably why he was feeling so uncomfortable.

I arrived at the hospital at about 7pm and shortly after we were told that we were being demoted...they had a patient that needed the penthouse suite so we were bumped back to the 4 bed ward...however, dad's strong persuasion skills came in handy and we managed to sweet talk him into a bay window. 

While the nurses were getting the new spot ready we decided to go for a quick walk...we got half way across the floor, when the nurses came running after us...we got told off for trying to do a runner, and had a little lecture of how serious the repercussions would be if something had happened - we were essentially carrying his lung around in a container, and if the drain came out, we would have collapsed both his lungs...lesson learnt. It was back to the room to gather up dad's belongings and head to the new room. I don't know how he has accumulated so much stuff in just one week...but it took mum and I three trips to get everything over to his new room!

Now we have settled into our section of the room and have made the place home very quickly with all the lovely flowers and posters. It's now 9:15pm and time to move my car (you would think parking inspectors would have better things to do on a Friday night, but probably not worth the risk to find out!) Hopefully dad will have a good sleep tonight with a few less tubes to distract him! 

Goodnight! 

Gen & Sylvia