I’ve been home 5 days now and have begun to realise the attractions of watching paint dry.  Firstly, it is infinitely more exciting than watching Formula One!  Secondly, it is less traumatic to watch than The Jeremy Kyle Show.  I’ve got to the point now where I’m trying to guess the date of Top Gear re-runs on ‘Dave’ from the length of Hampster’s hair.

The highlight of today was the district nurse coming around this morning to change dressings.  I am having the clips taken out on Wednesday.  I had a similar job done late last year and it wasn’t particularly painful.  The bonus is that I should be able to have a ‘proper’ shower.  Subject to the nurse being prepared to waterproof the drain and wait for me to have the shower.

I’m almost afraid to temp fate by saying I’m feeling a little more like myself, (albeit I realise there’s a fair way to go yet), but on my scale of ‘wellbeing’ I feel about 6/10 at the moment, compared with 4/10 when I came out.

I was looking for some link info to the blog earlier on and came across this old article from the ‘Echo’ last November.  (Businessman sets up project following illness).  They got my birthday wrong and it’s got a couple of minor inaccuracies, but it’s not far off. 

It seems so long ago now, I can’t believe so much has happened since.  Blimey. it’s only just over a year since we went to Brazil!  Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

Having come from a family brought up around drink and at times being someone who has drunk too much too often, it might come as a surprise that I would protest about alcohol abuse.  Better perhaps not to mention it lest I draw attention to my own short-comings.  However, there is a huge difference between even heavy ‘social’ drinking and the culture of drinking that we are led to believe we as a nation are now gripped.

I believe that we, (and by that I mean the ‘we’ referred to, but rarely identified, in the media),  are completely misrepresented and wrongly targeted in the search for a solution.  The trigger for the whinge is an advert I have just seen from Tesco, advertising 24 cans of Lager for £10!  In my book, that’s not a bargain, it’s totally irresponsible.

Let’s just focus on that word, ‘irresponsible’, ‘without responsibility’ for therein lies the rub.  When people in their youth are first introduced to alcohol, in a family environment, there is with it, a responsibility, (or at the very least, an opportunity), upon the adult to demonstrate a sensible approach.  In a Pub environment there is a similar responsibility upon the landlord, and indeed fellow drinkers, to moderate and show guidance.  I know this sounds idyllic and acknowledge that there are exceptions, but stay with me for a moment.  Force, or make attractive, an alternative to this responsible introduction and you end up with youths drinking irresponsibly and taught to do so by their peers.

The emphasis in this latter scenario, is not so much on the ‘social’ aspect of drinking, but rather on the effect of the alcohol itself.  To be drunk.  With no responsibility, no education and easy access, there is inevitably going to be a disaster.

The whole attitude to drink has totally changed over the years.  For hundreds of years, the Public House has been seen as a centre for the community, a meeting place and a place to enjoy good quality beer.  With that came some degree of control and in my opinion ‘adequate’ control, inasmuch as the purveyors had both social and legal obligations.

However, things changed, and very rapidly too.  The introduction of the happy hour, city centre late night clubs and a breakdown of the family unit could all perhaps be attributed to the change.  For me however, it was the availability of cheap supermarket ‘booze’ that was and is the killer.

What has made things worse are the solutions that have been used to resolve it.  Firstly, there is a lack of understanding of the core problem, secondly, the targeting of ‘responsible’ drinkers alongside the irresponsible drinkers by application of punitive taxes, and thirdly, by not acting to the full extent of law for those who abuse; both drinkers and providers.

The most dangerous of these three points is the taxing of drinks.  Anybody with half an understanding of the real world will tell you, drink abusers don’t buy the bulk of their drinks in pubs.  They buy cheap beer and spirits from the supermarket and consume that prior to going out.  The pub sells them a few drinks and suffers the consequences along with ‘sensible’ patrons.  The pubs take less revenue and people stop going because it’s too expensive.  Meanwhile, the ‘problem’ drinkers simply continue to use supermarkets for cheap drink.  For goodness sake, stop putting the price up for pub goers, stop supermarkets selling ridiculously cheap ‘booze’ and start prosecuting anti-social drinkers.

Britain’s pubs are part of Britain’s heritage and are to be proud of, not ashamed of.  This is what CAMRA has to say.

With the most recent Beer & Pub Association report highlighting that 39 pubs are closing every week, CAMRA has to do more than ever to support local pubs through these difficult times.

CAMRA’s own research shows that 84% of people believe a pub is as essential to village life as a shop or post office. Despite their popularity pubs are still under threat and need our help.

It’s all well and good being back home, but there’s only so much Jeremy Kyle the brain can take in.  I am itching to get on with things but I am still blowing hot and cold at the moment so I have to take it easy. 

I tried playing my old EKO acoustic this afternoon and it’s far to heavy for me to use at the moment, so it makes sense to get a new one sooner than later.  I have been making a mental list of stuff to sell on eBay in order to justify me buying the new LAG Tramontane 222 acoustic I’ve got my eyes on. 
(Click the image to see one seriously nice guitar!)

I am looking forward to being able to relax a bit more with Karan over the weekend, instead of her having to run the business, shop, clean and look after me.  D & S are coming round for tea & bickys tomorrow evening for a while and that’s something to look forward to as well.  I hope to catch up with Ivan on Skype sometime too.

I’m back home!

To be honest, I was not expecting it today as I had a bit of an upset stomach first thing this morning.  They are pretty hot on that sort of stuff but I was okay after about an hour.

I did a bit of prep work, washed hair, had shave, best clothes on, loads of ‘smellies’.

The Doctors came round, took one look and said “You’re going home”.  I’ve had to take the drain with me, but we’ll deal with that later.

Tomorrow, I shall spend a bit of time responding to all those posts I haven’t been up to responding to yet.

Please don’t stop your comments coming.  They are invaluable to my recovery.

We all know the rules.  Low, (not no), volume output, light in colour.  Okay? Agreed?

No!

Woke up this morning, (as all good blues singers do), and looked at my drain. Nothing, nada, ziltch, empty!

One of the doctors who does his rounds solo came around at 8.00am  ‘How are you doing Mr Nuttall’? ‘Very well’, I said, pointing at the empty bag. ‘Yes, but we will have to wait until it is clear’, he replied.  What?  Oh forget it!’

9.30 and the main team came around.  Basically, they are very pleased, but want to see what happens during the day.  Then tomorrow, it’s either, The drain comes out and I go home 6 hours later, or, they shorten the tube, give me a new bag, and let the district nurse look after it for a month.

Both I can live with, (no pun intended), but the first option is best for me.  The second one whilst seeming okay but has the drawback of removing the drain after it has been in so long.  The drain is a 3/8 inch tube entering at the waist and threading internally into the liver. It cannot be removed under anesthetic, local or otherwise and therefore something you don’t want to do very often.  When it has been in the body for some time it starts to integrate itself and is that much more painful to remove.

Patience is the name of the game.  It is played with two teams, ‘The Pros’ and ‘The Amateurs’, theoretically they are both on the same side but the ‘Pros’ have the advantage of being able to reposition the goalposts at any time.  They also have the whistle to signal the end of an otherwise undetermined length game.  Finally, they get to name the playing field.  A game best to avoid!

Bloody big setback today. The infection is no longer an issue. It turns out that it’s a ‘bile leak’.

The Doc said, ‘We just need to be patient’, which is a euphonism for ‘You’re not going home’. They have to wait until the drain slows down to an acceptable rate, (not far off), but most importantly, the colour must lighten considerably. If this hasn’t happened by tomorrow, then it’s a camera down throat. Then either keyhole or full surgery to repair the leak.

Not what we all wanted is it?

Sorry I’ve not been posting much new stuff. To be honest, I’ve not been up to it.

I took a bit of a nose-dive a couple of days ago and have been feeling pretty sorry for myself. I keep going dizzy and light-headed and breaking into a sweat.

They took me off the epidural on Friday and replaced it with Paracetamol and Oramorph, (Oral Morphine). Unfortunately, the Paracetamol is dispensed from the drugs trolley when it does the rounds. The Oramorph has to be requested by me and is then prepared by the sister who then dispenses it personally when the workload permits. Annoyingly, nobody told me this until this morning. The consequence has been that I have undergone one 12 hour period with Paracetamol as my only pain relief.

I have had all my tubes removed now except the large drain from the liver. It appears that I have acquired an infection in the site of the operation on the liver and they are monitoring that to see when the drain can come out.
However, I have been looking at a release date of around Thursday, but Karan asked the Ward Sister when I could be home. She said that providing that the Liver drain is clear, I can come home tomorrow. I was gobsmacked. In reality I think that Tuesday is more likely.

I’m looking forward to my own bed and my own telly and Karan’s cooking and sitting in the summerhouse, (the shed), and playing my guitars, and phoning all my mates up. In a funny sort of way, I’m also looking forward to looking at what has just happened, to be able to evaluate it all and to look to the future. One thing I can promise, it will be different.

They called a registrar out and even he struggled to get a line in, 2 attempts.  He took the bloods and the nurse got  the antibiotics in.  I’m boiling so need to get temperature down again.  No sleep tonight then…

Here we go again.night shift. New regime. New attitude.

Still no new canular, still no bloods taken. Both these should have been done before 8pm by the last shift. The new doctors came around about 10.30. First thing the man in charge said, ‘Good news, you bloods have come back clear’

I pointed out that I have not had any bloods taken. He said ‘ I meant those from your operation 2 days ago. I said it was on Tuesday, he said, ‘Yes, the 19th’

I pointed ot that the canular and the bloods still had’nt been dome

They changed my epidural anb now that has all but failed because they didn’t give me the paracetamol suppliment.

My temperature is back up through the roof and I feel like shit.

A nurse just came round and failed the most painful canula injection I’ve ever had.

I’ve slept pretty well the last couple of nights which is great. I’ve also been pretty much pain-free as well, which is even better.

I was allowed liquids this morning so I sent out for couple of pints of lager for me and one of the lads. (Alright I’m lying; blame it on the drugs). By dinner time I was eating. This afternoon I went for a walk with two nurses, by teatime I went for a walk on my own. (The nurses were washing their hair).

During the day I’ve had a small line and the central line removed from my neck. Two canulars inserted in my arms and both removed again because they failed.

There was one successful one inserted in my wrist and attached to the saline drip, which then removed an hour later because I no longer need a saline drip. They came to remove the canular and I said, please leave it in, you may be able to take bloods because it is a good ‘Pink’ line. So they took the canular out anyway and came back 30 minutes later to take ‘bloods’. Unfortunately, two attempts failed and I am now eagerly awaiting a senior blood taker. You couldn’t make this up could you!

One funny thing happened this morning. One of the doctors whilst doing his round, managed to trip over my catheter, (that’s the one that drains the… well you know…, we laughed! Later in the day, a nurse was washing me together with a nurse that had been with the doctor in the morning. She was relating the tale o the new nurse. We laughed. The new nurse commented, ‘What an idiot’, turned around and fell over my catheter line. We laughed

As you might expect, this weeks whinge is hospital related, but not quite the way you might expect. It’s all about those damned annoying beeps of monitors.

Now I understand that they are necessary to monitor people and equipment, but there seem to be two rules. Rule one: beep when there is a problem. Rule two: Beep continuously until a problem occurs. Clearly there is an obvious problem of conflict and confusion.. But it goes deeper than the obvious, so let’s get them out of the way first. How can they be distinguished between each other? Frequency? Tone, volume pattern of sound? Well, believe it or not, all of them.

One of the most common beeps is the drip that most patients have linked into their cannula. This can be anything from pain relief, to a saline drip and depending on the reason, these can be very important to the patient and even the simple saline drip can also be carrying important salts to a dehyrated patient. Or pain relief can be vital to the patient’s comfort. They are important, So when a pump starts beeping to signal the end of a drip, the nurse has no way of knowing what has finished, especially at shift changeover. So why is it okay to leave it for 45 minutes? (I say 45 minutes because that is just how long I have just waited). Oh, I nearly forgot, do that too many times and the cannular fails and you need a new one, painful!

Now let’s consider the continuous beep. There is the beep that monitors heart rate and so on. Vital. But there is another sort of beep that has no other function than to signal that the equipment is working. Now who thought that one a good idea? After a while, you start blanking it out if you are staff, and it starts to act like chinese water torture if you are a patient. So in the case of staff, they don’t hear it go off, especially if they are out of the room when it stops.
In the worse case, staff have been known to turn it off because it irritates them. So what’s the point? Well actually, there is an important reson, to alert people that their attention is needed for somebody who is ill and in their care..

Scary Stuff!

Hello again,

Went up to see Roger today and was very relieved to find him looking reasonably well and in quite good spirits, all things considered.  I knew he was going to be okay when he said “I’ve got my Whinge of the Week sorted”. 

However, when I returned after the visiting break, he was not happy.  The line in his neck which was used to take bloods and give all his medication through had stopped working and was leaking. This meant he has to have another canular put in, which he hates (they hurt and they don’t last two minutes).  His line would have lasted days, now he will probably be having several canulars put in.

But, the good news to end with is that the Nurse said that he would be going back onto the Ward tonight.  We were both surprised as last time he had two nights in HDU.  She reassured us that they would not put him back if he was not well enough and said he was ‘doing very well’. 

He’s given me several pages of notes to add to the 17th August entry of all the mishaps when he arrived but they will have to wait for tomorrow, sleep beckons.

Oh, Roger has just telephoned to say that he is now on the Ward and guess what, the canular that was put in earlier has not worked and they had to put another one in!

He also said he is reading his Blog at this moment so Roger, “Get some rest and and see you tomorrow!” XX

Hello,

Just to let everyone know that Roger had his operation this afternoon and came out at 6pm.  The Staff Nurse said he was comfortable but still sleepy from the effects of the anaesthetic.  I will leave him in peace tonight and go up tomorrow.

Roger was thrilled to find he has Internet access from his hospital bed and intends to update his Blog as soon as he’s back on the Ward, he’s obviously never heard of ‘Rest & Recuperation’.  He’s already got a few ‘stories’ to tell you from when he arrived yesterday.

He has asked me to say a BIG thank you to everyone who’s posted messages to him on the Blog, it really cheered him up (don’t stop!).

I too would also like to say a big thank you to everyone for your well wishes and support.

Karan

This is getting very silly.  The Doctor finally arrived last night at 11.30pm.  At 12.30am she returned to insert a (very painful) cannula.  She took bloods and left. (BTW she was very nice and no problem).

At 1.30am they woke me for an X-ray.  I told them that I had recently had X-rays; a CT scan and most importantly an MRI scan specifically of the liver in anticipation of this.  They did not have them, hence the X-ray.

I was surprised when a nurse came round to take observations (obs) and told me they had still not found my notes, lost about 7pm, 2 hours after admission.  They still hadn’t found them at 7am, 12 hours later.

Then, for me, the biggy.  The doctor, who had originally taken bloods last night, came round at 7.30am to take more bloods.  I asked if there was a problem with them.  "No" she said, "They’ve lost them".  By this time, my confidence is through the floor.  I am seriously considering discharging myself.  If I do, I die in 4-16 months.  If I don’t, then I am putting myself in the hands of a system that can’t keep control of a piece of paper, my obs, and my bloods.

The Doctor returned after 20 minutes and said she had traced them in one lab, but the other lab wasn’t answering.  I had a long talk with the Doctor and felt a little better.  Then I saw the Anaesthetist, who did reassure me a bit more with the pain relief.  Finally, Sister (Suzanne) came and had a chat.  Okay, I am going ahead with it.

I do not believe this!  The second lab has lost my bloods.  I have had to have them done again.

It is good to have some nice nurses about, but it still amazes me how quickly and how easily things can go wrong.

I arrived at 5pm and after a bite to eat an auxiliary nurse started my admission registration.  At 9pm the doctors were supposed to arrive.  It’s 10pm and I am still not registered in.  They have lost my papers!  I’m not being picky but so far every time I have been in hospital they have lost my records.  My medication to relieve anxiety has started to wear off and I’m getting quite nervous again.

Unfortunately, the nurse says that the doctor cannot prescribe because I’m not on the computer yet!  I brought my own tablets to take but I’m not allowed to because they need to be prescribed by the doctor whilst I am under their care.  I pointed out that strictly speaking I’m not under their care yet.  I’m not on the computer, I haven’t been formally admitted and I haven’t seen a doctor yet!  So, if I take my tablet, what will happen?  Will they pump my stomach?  "What is it?" she asked.  I showed her and she said "okay".  It doesn’t give much confidence in the system though does it? 

God these places are so depressing.

On a lighter note, a massive big thanks to all you people who have left me comments.  Brilliant!  You can’t imagine how much it matters and makes a difference.

Well I finally got conformation this morning that there’s a bed for me later today.  My operation is scheduled for tomorrow.

I’m terrified but need to get it over with.

Pray for me please.

It was nice to see the MacMillan nurse, Diane again this morning.  Even if it was a 8am!

Not a lot to report although it was suggested that I put down in writing the issues I had with the after care last time and seek assurance that everybody would try to avoid a repeat.  I’m not convinced.  When I mentioned the issues verbally to the surgeon last time we met, he said he couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t happen again. Great bedside manner!

I am getting quite anxious now so I think it’s about time I had some tablets to help me over the next few days.  I don’t like that approach, but if you have a broken leg, you need a cast on it for a while…

I’ve got a workshop to deliver for a client tomorrow in Stockport.  It’s a job I enjoy for a client I like, so I hope I can lose myself in that.

Accepting all the forthcoming surgery and recovery would have been a lot easier if I actually felt ill.  It is hard to accept that I am choosing to submit myself to all the invasive procedures and the pain that follows.  If I were in pain or felt sick, couldn’t walk, had difficulty breathing or anything else that you associate with being ill, then I could look forward to the relief from those symptoms.  But with nothing to look forward to, I find it difficult to justify what I am doing.

I am risking my life to save my life.  I am undertaking pain to stop pain that hasn’t manifested itself yet.  I am going to be made to feel physically sick in order that I don’t feel sick at some time in the future.

Weird.