Tales From The Crypt - Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd November 2021

For the second time in the history of the Universe (or at least this infinitesimal and insignificant part of it) I am writing another post that covers two days.  There are several reasons for this, including the fact that there's not much I can say about Sunday and also because Monday has been so full-on and completely different to my plans for the day that it's knocked things off kilter.

Sunday was mostly spent on the south coast, which turned a fair bit colder than it had been on Saturday.  A very enjoyable day with a Robert Dyas experience thrown in for good measure.  I arrived home in the early evening to find that E was settled and tired but with a cough that was sounding less good. 

On Monday morning I got up full of plans for the day, including my return to live yoga after several week's absence.  Little did I know. During the first carer call, Kay and I were concerned that E's cough had got noticeably worse.  I immediately messaged the Community Matron (CM) asking her if she could visit, whilst also checking E's O2 level which was at 88%, a little on the low side.  

Since I knew no one would turn up before 8:30 a.m. I decided to go for a walk in the crisp Autumn sunshine. When I got back there was a message from the CM informing me she'd drop by in the morning, so, disappointingly, it was time to cancel the yoga class after promising I'd be there.  Since I'm also expecting the community nurse / DN to come here and give me my Covid booster, then it works out well, I guess, much as I'd've liked to have gone to yoga, seen everyone and shown off my moves. 😂😂😂

During the second carer visit, after E had been moved, I checked her O2 again and now it had reached 91%, which was better but not brilliant for her.  

Not long after that the CM arrived and checked E over - she'd not been here more than a couple of minutes when she decided it was time to call an ambulance via 999 service. I was getting worried I'd not be here when they nurse came to do my Covid jab when two further Community Matrons arrived - yes, three CMs in one house at the same time, an apparently unheard of occurrence (no prizes are awarded though) - to give me my Covid booster.  It was my third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and so they stuck around for 15 minutes to check I didn't keel over whilst the first CM left, having ordered E an ambulance.

The ambulance came within the hour, as promised, and after the usual transfer palaver, E was installed in the ambulance and I was ready to make the journey to hospital in the back with E.

On arrival at hospital we went into triage in A&E where we sat for a while, though E went off for a chest x-ray not long after getting there. A lot of time passed before we were admitted to the Acute Medical Unit where after much pain and anguish, they finally managed to get an IV line into a vein, with the aid of ultrasound (third, or maybe fourth, time lucky). I will spare you the details but suffice it to say it was best part of 8 hours after arriving that I could leave having spoken with both a physician and a consultant, explaining the history of the day, E's communication difficulties, medication details and more. I got home around 8:30 p.m., over 13 hours since the whole journey started with me taking an O2 saturation reading.

When I left hospital the situation was that E was being treated for a lung infection and on oxygen and antibiotics. She is definitely staying in overnight, maybe for several days. The only good thing is that we caught the infection before it took hold.

Whilst I was out son #2 organised a takeaway as neither of us felt like cooking by the time I got in.  My chilled and relaxing day turned out to be anything but. No time for meditation, nor much reading, nor much else. One of the few highlights was watching the end of the Frank Zappa documentary while eating dinner, unusually accompanied by alcohol (unusual for a Monday night).

Had a call with a friend later on and then sleep, perchance...I go to bed wondering what the next day will bring.

[So far no side-effects from the Covid jab]

St. Vincent / 'Surgeon' / 'Strange Mercy' 

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