Day 24 – Oozing again

Friday 2nd October 2009

My first night since my operation without my line in and it was wonderful. I didn’t sleep right through the night but I had one of the best nights sleep since I’d been in hospital.

Noticed though that my elbow was hurting again. I wondered if it was the way I had been lying in bed or was it because I was walking more and putting pressure on my elbow. I made a mental note to mention this to the physios.

Doctor Zara and the young Russian registrar doctor were sitting at the computer on the nurses station outside my room. Zara knocked on the window which looks into my room.
“What are you doing”, she asked, noticing I was doing some needlework.
“Come and have a look”, I replied.
“That’s beautiful”, she said, admiring the tiger cub I was cross stitching (I had abandoned the needlework cushion as I was getting bored with it. I wanted to do something what stimulated me).
The Russian doctor who had been peering through the window, came into my room.
“It looks just like a painting”, he said.
He then explained what the elderly ladies in Russia did in the way of needlework. It seemed to be similar to large tapestries.

Young Natalie, the second year student, promised she would take me for a shower this morning, and good to her word, she did. I couldn’t describe the joy of having clean hair. It wasn’t very pleasant having not been washed for nine days – yuck !!!

When I got back from the shower I noticed the wound was bleeding quite a bit, which wasn’t a good sign. Natalie patched up the dressing and said she would change it as soon as the dressing room was free.

Half an hour later I had a clean dressing. Natalie had a good look at my wound and although it was leaking blood, the actual wound didn’t look infected. However just to be on the safe side she took a swab.

Norma came into tell me that she had made a referral for me to see the Occupational Therapist. It should have been done several days ago so she wasn’t amused. Neither was I as each delay was stopping me going home.

In the side room next to mine I could hear a woman talking on her mobile phone. Since 7.20am she had been phoning her friends telling them how her hip replacement operation had gone; that the doctors and nurses were so pleased with her; the physios were so impressed with how she was walking – they had never had a patient get up and move around that quick. She ended each call, which took about fifteen minutes, with ‘I’ll have to go as I don’t have much money on my moble’…. She even told a friends husband, who didn’t know who she was, the whole tale.

When I was doing some exercise with the physios they mentioned that the lady in the side room had fainted that morning.
“There was a huge commotion”, said Lisa, “did you not hear it”.
“No”, I replied, “I must have been in the shower”.
No doubt she would be phoning all her friends and telling them what had happened – and she did…

Lunch today was baked potato and cheese. Although the potato was slightly on the hard side, I ate it all. That was the first clean plate I’d had in hospital.

Shortly before afternoon visiting time John, the young male Auxiliary nurse, walked with me to the loo.
“Marie !”, shouted Natalie, “you’re flashing”.
“I’m what”, I replied.
“As you’re walking I can see your knickers”.
John, bless him, started to blush.
“Pull her t-shirt down”, she ordered John.
The look of horror on his face was priceless.
“Don’t worry”, I said to him, “I’ll do it”.
He waited outside the loo for me then walked behind me as I made my way back to my room.

Kermit and Sister Clarke were standing at the nurses station waiting for me to come back from the loo.
“You’re walking really well”, he said, “I’m really impressed”.
I explained about my wound bleeding that morning. He told me not to worry too much about it as this some times happens.
“We’ll give it another few days”, he said, “hopefully by then the oozing will have stopped”.

I pleaded with ‘Him upstairs’ and my Guardian Angel to please make it stop…