Day 11 - Just like Christmas

Saturday 19th September 2009

My first night on the ‘firm’ mattress. I did get a little bit of sleep but not a great deal. The mattress was slightly better than the other two but it was still aggravating my back.

It had been over a week since the pain in my back started and I was still no further forward in getting any decent pain relief. I knew that I had to give the morphine time to work but it was so demoralising. I tried not to think about it, but that was easier said than done especially when the slightest bit of movement hurt.

After lunch (two small bites out of an awful sandwich), I was so tired that I went back to bed. I knew that my back would hurt but I was sick of sleeping in the chair. I eventually got myself comfortable on my right side and tried to get to sleep. I woke up at 1.25pm and saw two nurses were quietly making their way out of my room.
“Sorry, did we wake you”, asked one of them.
“No”, I replied.
“We were here to change your dressing and take your blood pressure but you looked so comfortable that we didn’t want to disturbed you”.

They changed my pressure sore dressing and took my ‘obs’, then left me to go back to sleep. I knew that visiting time was from 2pm and that my mam would be there soon after that so decided just to remain in bed until 2pm and then get up.

I woke up at 2.15pm and noticed a pair of legs sitting on a chair. It was my mam reading a booking She had arrived just after 2pm and seeing me asleep decided not to wake me.

I noticed this morning while I was washing myself that I had developed a ‘hospital’ smell. The cocktail of all the medication I was taking (48 tablets per day) must have coming out of my pours. I hoped I wasn’t smelling…

John arrived in the evening with a bag load of goodies for me. It was just like Christmas. In side the bag were: a pair of soft headphones for my MP3 player. I listen to it every night when I can’t sleep and the original headphones were digging into my ear while I was lying in bed; a new radio so I wouldn’t be spending all day with ear phones glued to my ears…. The radio was small enough to sit on my table or on the top of my locker, and it was battery operated so no cables to worry about, and more importantly, it didn’t have to be safety checked by one of the hospital electricians, which would have taken weeks to arrange.; John also brought in some ‘contraband’ food - a big bag of assorted crisps, some biscuits and some sweets.

Food and drink are not allowed on the wards. They usually turned a blind eye to it but I hid it in my locker and ate it when no one was around. John had also bought me a new pair of slippers. My old ones wouldn’t fit anymore as my legs and feet had swollen up terribly. Instead of my usual size three, I was now wearing a size eight. Even then I still had to modify the left slipper as it was still too small.

My mam smuggled in some homemade lettuce and cheese sandwiches during her afternoon visit. I was beginning to feel hungry, hardly surprising as I hadn’t eaten since I had been admitted, and I knew that I would enjoy her sandwiches.

Because food is banned, the only time I could eat them was late at night when I knew I wouldn’t be disturbed. I had them at 11.30pm and they were wonderful !!!!