Day 49 – Upsetting day

Tuesday 27th October 2009

Had a massive leakage from the drain dressing when I got out of bed.

Sister Charlton was opening my curtains when it happened.
“I’m leaking”, I said to her.
“Don’t worry”, she replied, “the draining bag will collect it”.
“It’s leaking outside of the bag”, I said.
“Yes”, she replied, “it’s supposed to leak into the bag”.
“No”, I stressed, “it’s leaking outside of the bag – look”.
“Bloody hell”, she said, as she noticed the blood stained bed sheets and the huge pool of blood on the floor.

I shuffled myself on the chair next to my bed, trying not to avoid the wet floor as Sister Charlton dashed off to get another dressing bag.
“This was all I could find”, she said, showing me the bag she had found, “it’s meant for colostomy patients but it will do for now”.
I stood up. The absorbent pad which I always had on the chair was covered in blood, so too were my bum and thighs.
“It looks like the original hole, where the oozing was coming from has closed”, she said as she had a look at my wound, “it’s now coming from the bottom of your scar”.
No sooner had she attached the bag to my skin, it started leaking again outside the bag area.
“I haven’t time to do anything else with it now”, she said, “try not to move too much and I’ll get one of the day-shift nurses to come and have a look at it later today”.

Big Mouth was complaining, yet again, about how long he had been in hospital. Normally I would have just ignored him but he was really starting to get me down.

Just after lunch, Doctor Richard popped in to see how my leaking was doing. He explained that if the leaking didn’t stop, then I would need to have more surgery.
I jokingly asked him if I would be home in time for Christmas.
“We’ll see”, he replied.

I think it must have had something to do with how low I was feeling, but as soon as he left the room I burst into tears. I had promised to pop into see Mary before afternoon visitors so tried to act as though nothing had happened. It didn’t work, as soon as she asked if any doctors had been round to see me that morning, I burst into tears again. Louise, one of the auxiliary nurses, came to take our obs and took one look at my face, which was bright red and puffy, and asked what was the matter.
“Doctor Richard said she might not be home for Christmas”, replied Mary.
“Oh, Marie”, she said, giving me a huge hug.

I was still a little upset when my mam arrived. She demanded to know what was the matter, so I told her.
“Don’t be so stupid”, she said, “of course you’ll be home for Christmas”. My mam was never big on sympathy….
When she was about to leave her departing words were, “cheer up, will you”. Tactful as ever !!!!

Last night I had asked Sister Charlton if I could have something for thrush, as the new batch of oral antibiotics I had started taking yesterday had upset things ‘down below’.
It finally arrived at 9.30pm…