The Day Hospital revisited

At the day hospital, the first person to approach was a girl with a badge saying "Student Nurse" .



Now you fans of ER may remember (I think it was during the very first episode) when Dr Green kicked backwards his wheeled chair from the desk in order to look in amazement at what was approaching,



It was Noah Wyle in a lab coat so starched and white it was amazing, and also obvious that it was his first day.



So I asked the Student Nurse if it were her first day out from the university. Oh, yes it was. I was almost blinded by the whiteness of her top, and I bet the starch doesn't last too long.



Nice girl, and she was being sent round to interview all us old ladies. Good practice.



I also saw the physio again in the afternoon, where we did some balance assessment. She was a bit 'hyper', explained by the fact that she had just bought her first house. It is in the next village along from the one where TBSITW lives.



I have learned that there can be gaps when nothing is happening, so I take a book. I think I am going to sound like a bit of an intellectual snob here, so the book is carefully selected. It is a historical novel, but could at a glance be mistaken for a historical romance. It is about Lady Jane Grey. I am ashamed to say that I didn't really study history at school, sticking to maths and the sciences as well as the obligatory English, French and geography.



I am finding the Tudor times fascinating and have been learning about all King Henry VIIIths wives

This morning I got a telephone call to say that the Day Hospital was cancelled as the roads were so bad, with more snow forecast.

I have really made use of the unexpected free time and have been de-cluttering my filing cabinet. I need to get the contents of a 3-drawer one down to fit a 1-drawer one, so masses of shredding has been going on. I have lost track of the number of times I have emptied the shredder and taken the contents to the paper bin in the refuse room.

I think that is me beat now, back to the books and the jigsaw.

By George, She's Got It!

The jury's still out, but I think I have cracked it. In the first instance I think part of the problem was being offered an option of a wifi connection which delivered very limited access. I committed that cardinal sin of not documenting what I did each time to establish a pattern for success or failure. The secret involved going to properties on the Tesco broadband icon and changing one which looked as though it might work.

Now all I need for the laptop is a 4-way USB adaptor so that I can load all my backed-up files from my PC - and for my dear TBSITW to grovel under the desk to sort out the mess of cables for me.

So here I am. Second day at the Day Hospital and today the main event was the assessment from the physiotherapist.

I am so impressed with this place and the standard of service. An excellent and thorough medical assessment and the best ever nursing assessment on Tuesday. The physiotherapy assessment was excellent too and established my areas of weakness, most of which I was aware of and some of which were relatively new to me. I was a bit taken aback to be asked to try a 3-wheeled walking frame.....

In the afternoon I had a further sitting and standing blood pressure and I asked the staff nurse how the stay would continue. Apparently after about 6 weeks they have a case conference to decide whether I would benefit from more input, and if so what.

I have also been given several helpful booklets to read, and it was discussed whether I would wear special pants containing hip protectors. I was told to be sure I would wear them before they would order them for me as they are expensive. This is a seriously difficult decision. I know how valuable they are for preventing neck of femur fractures, but this is a serious blow to my body image.

An apt tale at this stage is that, ironically, I nearly had another fall when I got home as I half tripped over the leg of my typing chair.

The Day Hospital

Well, as informed by letter on Saturday, I was collected just after 9.30 by ambulance to take me to the day hospital which is part of the District General Hospital.

I confess to mixed feelings, part of me thinks that this is another step down the slippery road to decrepitude and another part is very pleased that some attention is being paid to my falls. The ambulance (or hospital bus really) collects about 8 of us from one area of the town and others collect more from more widespread parts.

The ward looks like a ward but there are several different areas
serving different purposes. We all got settled in on our chairs in groups and tea or coffee and a biscuit was offered round. The staff/patient ratio would be the envy of any hospital ward with three sister/charge nurses, 4 or so staff nurses, I lost count of the number of nursing auxiliaries, never mind physio, occupational and speech therapists.

There was a good atmosphere and the staff were solicitous. The new arrivals all had a good assessment by the staff nurses and the doctor including observations and blood tests as required. This time I had a junior doctor doctor take blood and he made an excellent job of it.

We all had a menu to choose lunch and the quality of food was pretty good. The split pea and ham soup wasn't as good as that of TBSITW, but I would not be ashamed to offer it as my own, the egg mayonnaise and salad was fine, though I shall give the potato croquettes a miss from now on.

The ambulances arrived back at 3.45 and off we came home.

Thank goodness for better weather, if only for one day.

BTW - With the laptop now pretty well set up, I have one major outstanding problem: I have 2 different email addresses, but can't remember to log in to either.......