Sunday, 26 December 2010

Christmas - Same old Shit different day.


We didn't get Christmas this year, yes there was the 25th December but no Christmas dinner for us, no lazy day stretched out in front of a cozy fire, drink in one hand remote in the other.

Lets back up two days to Thursday. The GP called to say that Hubby had yet another UTI a nasty little bug this time called Klebsiella and the only treatment hospital strength anti-biotic. She very kindly scratched her head to find us a solution where he could get treatment at home rather than in hospital. The district nurses would come and give him an injection in his rear in association with Lidocaine for the next five days. Okay we said we are up for that. So on Thursday they came and gave said injection. We had a terrible time during the night if our nights are not bad enough already Hubby's legs were so stiff I was having extreme difficulties dealing with his spasms which I normally sort by straightening his legs to relieve. So in the morning we rang the doc and because he was screaming out in pain she sent an ambulance. Bit of a waste of time as we can not travel in an emergency ambulance. After much arm twisting we head to A&E in our own car.

The joys of our new hospital in Peterborough, unusually I got a parking space in the extremely dangerous for wheelchair users disabled car park, everyone must have decided xmas eve was not the day to be sat in a hospital. Well we sat in various parts of A&E for over 6 hours until they decided that our GP was right and Hubby needed to be admitted so that he could get IV antibiotics.

The found us a single occupancy room, barrier nursing had to be enforced, in the Cardiac unit. What a nightmare for me trying to get him settled in unfamiliar surroundings and on top of that it was bowel day so I had to persuade the staff that as it was now 7pm it was urgent that I get him seen to, before anything else that they might deem to be important. I am a bit of a pain in the neck for staff I know but I have to be forceful or else Hubby suffers from their ignorance of his SCI condition. Got Hubby settled in bed after doing the business then we realised that he could not maintain his body temperature having got really cold earlier in A&E, the room was way too cold for him to safely recover, especially in the nude as he sleeps with minimum covers because of his spasms. So up we get him again in his wheelchair wrap him up in his blankets, get the nurse to give him his antibiotics and start negotiations as to our best course of action.

No additional heating was available, so we told them for Hubby's general well being he would need to go home where it is warm. So a plan was hatched, we were to return 3 times a day over the next few days to get his IV and then return home where I can better manage all his other medical problems. So on xmas day we returned to the hospital just after 8am, then again at 2pm and 8pm.

CHRISTMAS WAS CANCELLED FOR US.

Boxing Day same routine again....

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