Freedom road

Mum is out of hospital and back home and very relieved about it she is to. More to report after I visit her on Wednesday.

I'm Jake the Peg, diddle-iddle-iddle-um

Tuesday was Mum's birthday and she was getting a bit fed up with still being in hospital. It has been over a month now since she was admitted, see blog entry: Not a very good Mother's Day. Dad and Ian went over; they dressed her in normal clothes and "smuggled" her into the staff restaurant for a birthday meal.

She is getter steadily steadier on her feet, she has progressed from a zimmer frame to crutches. Getting up and down stairs is, apparently best done with one stick and the bannister. But you need two when on the flat, upstairs and downstairs. So you leave one stick at either end and use a third while in transit, picking up the other when you get there.

When Mum heard she was getting a third stick the nurses wondered what was so funny. It was that in her head she could hear Rolf Harris singing "I'm Jake the Peg, diddle-iddle-iddle-um, With my extra leg, diddle-iddle-iddle-um".

You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)

Mum has now moved to the "fast track" physio ward. This means she will get more exercise than she was wont to do. They say that anything she could do before the op she should still be capable of after. However it must be said she was not noted for the amount of exercise she took before. Maybe she will end up fitter after than before!

As an aside: one good feature of Frimley Park Hospital is that she has a direct phone line to her bed-side so I can keep in touch on my travels. The down side is that every time she changes ward (this is her sixth) she gets allocated a new number and I have to keep re-programming my phone.

* You Know My Name (Look Up The Number) by The Beatles

Upstairs, downstairs

Mary and I called in to see Mum yesterday on our way up to London. The latest is that the medics expect her to be in hospital for about two more weeks. The swelling caused by fluid retention has almost completely gone; her legs are back to their normal shape - more or less. The bruising on her left arm has started that interesting rainbow cycle that healing bruises go through on their way back to skin colour. The plan is to move her to a "fast track" physio ward where she will get more intensive physiotherapy to get her fully mobile again. Key to that is that she can get up and down stairs since my parents do not live in a bungalow.

It's getting better, growing stronger

Steady improvement in Mum's condition. Most of the stitches are out, only a few to go. She spends most of the day in a chair rather than lying in bed. Getting herself in and out of bed. Regular physiotherapy to get her walking.

Haven't spoken to Mum for a couple of days, partly because her direct line doesn't seem to be working and partly because I am running a training course in the US. What with the flight and the time difference it is difficult to find the conversational window.

Take up thy bed and walk

Mum walked from Acute Dependency to a general ward today. This is definitely downgrading to "Condition Blue". Now it is a case of getting her well enough to discharge. Her arms are very bruised where the medics used her as a pin cushion - apparently her veins are hard to find and of course they needed to take regular blood samples. Eventually they stuck a Dracula tube in her neck with several small bore tubes fanning out to taps on their ends; that put an end to the voodoo doll approach.

Mary and I are off to Italy for the Easter weekend so this is me signing off for a week.

Monday, Monday

Got to Frimley Park Hospital at 5pm to discover that Mum had been moved from ICU to an Acute Dependency Ward (one down from High Dependency) with 1:4 nurse:patient ratio. Great to see continuing improvement. She is now on pureed food, although she does say that liquidised ricotta and spinach lasagne is not the most visually appealing meal. Well, what she actually said was "It looks pretty disgusting" :-)

Had a brief chat to a charming (and very young looking) doctor who confirmed the details of the operation and that she is - now - doing well. Particularly circulation in the legs can be a concern but not here.

About 6:30pm the food trolley arrived with something brown and pureed, with a scoop of mashed potato so I left her and Dad to it.

BTW I should introduce my parents by name: my Dad is Michael, my Mum is Geri. Her full name is Margery and all her life she has been Gerry. Then a couple of years ago she announced that henceforth she wished to spelled Geri - like the spice girl! A woman of character my Mum.

Friday on my mind

Friday night it was just a short visit as I was in transit from Heathrow to Avon Cottage. I do not feel like a particularly dutiful son just popping in "en passant" but with both Mary and I working abroad - in different countries at that - I *also* feel the need to get home to Mary most speedily.

Anyhoo, Mum was much more alert and chatty, telling us the full details about the day her legs went (only two weeks ago yesterday!). Ian and Sarah were visiting as well. It was my first visit to the Intensive Care Unit, just like in the movies with monitor screens and electronic boxes that go "ping". Mum gave us a jiggle of the legs to show us they are working. She is off intravenous feeding and was being fed some kind of slurry through a tube up her nose. I learned just now from Dad that she ate some porridge the last two mornings and some mashed potato last night. So they are starting the proccess of weaning her back onto solids. All good news :-)

And finally... Spring is here. We had our first al fresco breakfast of the year. Wonderful to sit eating sausage butties in the sunshine and admiring the garden.

Aorto-Bi-Femoral Bypass

That appears to be the correct medical term. Google "aortobifemoral bypass" for more. Plus a blocked aorta in the chest as well. Both unblocked now. Just spoke to Jane who just got home from visiting. Mum is a feeling lot better. The surgeon who operated is on holiday this week so will will not be able to quiz him until then. That's all for now.

BTW she is at Frimley Park Hospital, the same place she went for her mastectomy in January. Some year she's having so far, eh!

Curate's Egg

Mum's legs are doing OK, it is the digestion that is causing concern. The reason she and Dad did not make the meal a couple of weeks ago was that she choked on a piece of steak. The subequent distress to the throat was exacerbated by four hours of an oxygen tube down her throat. This has meant that she has been unable to take solids since the operation. Together with fluid retention means she has not been improving as we would hope.

So the doctors decided to move her back to the High Dependancy ward while they work out what to do. HD was fully occupied so they put her in Intensive Care (fortunately not because her condition demanded it). It is a bit like flying and getting bumped to business class: you get more personal attention, a better bed and real china cups :-)

According to Dad, this afternoon she is in good spirits and even asked him to bring in a book from home - a sign that she is feeling better. I still await a full medical update, Jane is hoping to speak to the consultant soon.

Blue condition

Saw Mum twice over the weekend and I am glad to report she is improving but FWIW I would still consider her "Condition Yellow". Intensive Care was definitely Code Red and then High Dependancy, Condition Orange. When I got there Friday evening she was full of tubes, pain killers and Heparin (an antithrombotic). She was fairly pale and still on Nil-By-Mouth after a week. Even so it was good to see her for the first time since it happened, hold her hand and tell her I love her. She had not been fit to visit last Sunday because she was only just out of surgery so this was the first time I had been able to visit her since it happened. My brother, Ian, was already there and left shortly after, Mary arrived about an hour later. We did not stay long because Mum tires easily (all the painkillers probably add to that).

When we went back on Sunday afternoon the tubes were out and she was looking a lot better. They had even had her out of bed on Saturday and semi-vertically walking with the aid of some contraption. That must be good to improve the blood circulation to the legs. She is in a small side ward with a good level of staffing. They still check on her every two hours so she is not ready to go to an open ward and Condition Blue. Zurich again this week so I will get further reports by phone.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, Take these broken wings and learn to fly *

Frequent telephone calls to Dad and Jane and Ian over the last 48 hours. The most recent to Ian last night. Mum was well enough for Ian to spend an hour with her. They have removed the oxygen mask and some of the tubes. He felt her toes and they were nice and warm :-)

On a lighter note I saw one of nature cliches this week. Mrs Blackbird on the grass pulling a worm out of the ground. A classic image but I have never *actually* seen it with my own eyes before. It was just as it should be: long thin worm at 45 degrees from ground to beak with the little fat end flopping out the other side of the beak.

* Blackbird by the Beatles

Not a very good Mother's Day

She is OK now, my Mum (OK being a relative term). Out of Intensive Care and into High Dependancy. Due to transfer to an ordinary ward tomorrow.

I was in Dublin spending the weekend with Mary and phoned my Mum to wish her Happy Mother's Day (as it was this Sunday in the UK, I understand in the US it is later). Left a message and my father rang back just as I was about to leave for the airport to fly back to Zurich. In a piece of mind-boggling understatement (state of shock, probably, being calm for himself and me; I mean no adverse judgement) he said

"Your mother is not having a very good Mother's Day".

By which he meant

"She is currently unconscious, in surgery, starting a four hour operation for a blood clot just below her navel and the worst case scenario is that they cut off both her legs".

F**k!

Straight to the airport, next ticket back to Heathrow, taxi back to the parental home. Dad arrives 10 mins later to say she is "fine" and back in the ward. For which read (in my mind) "Not dead! Still alive! Thank God!".

I went out with a nurse once (Matron actually). She brought to my attention the risks associated with a general anaesthetic. Don't do it if you can avoid it. If you ever have to go under ask them to whip out your appendix while they are in there. Saves having to having to go under again if your appendix ever goes.

Spoke to my Dad and sister after their visit yesterday. She is doing well. Her legs are warm and pink. They are talking of moving her to a normal ward today so the signs are good.

Life is too short to drink bad wine

This year I will take a leaf out of Mary's sig "Life is too short to drink bad wine".

More quotes to set the tone for 2004:

"Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal" - Kathie Snow
"There is no future but what we make" - John Connor
"You cannot change the past but you can shape the future" - Rick Dalvano

Watch this space...