Retroexposure

LOROS

Wednesday 1st April 2009
April Fool's Day? What a joke (!) Well, I'm in no mood for laughing today. Yesterday, Mum went back in to hospital. Only this time, there weren't any beds available at the Royal's Oncology unit, so the Doctor got her a bed at the LOROS Hospice.
Mum hated the idea of going there, "Once you go in, you don't come out!" she cried.
"Don't talk like that," I said. "You're going there only because there aren't any beds available at the hospital. You'll be there 5 days, just to get re-hydrated. Then you'll be back home."
I don't mind confessing that I am scared at the moment for the exact same reasons that Mum has. But I'm not going to tell her that am I?? The Hospice is a fantastic looking building. The doctors and nurses (well, those I've seen or spoken to) are very friendly, and very supportive too. My only gripe is that the Hospice is on the other side of the city to where I am, and where my friends like Anne and Peter also live. We need to fundraise to have a hospice built on this side of the city too!
On a separate note: I tell you now, Anne and Peter deserve to be recognised for what they do. They help so many people and never expect anything from anybody. Maybe a nomination for the Pride of Britain awards or recognition from the Queen!

Saturday 4th April 2009
Well, Mum's still in LOROS at the moment. She had a bad day on Thursday, but since yesterday, she's had a syringe driver attached to her. The syringe is filled with anti-nausea medication, so hopefully it will quell her sickness.
Today was the Grand National, and for the first time ever all five horses that I bet on, on behalf of the family, all crossed the finished line!! So we won the princely sum of £3.75! Ironically one of Mum's horses that were in the top four was called My Will!
Also today was Jade Goody's funeral. Sky News decided to show the funeral. Well as much as they could, from what I understand. I just saw the tail end of it. As Jade's coffin was being processed out, strands of "You Raise Me Up" could be heard. Never fails to make me emotional. Daft though it sounds, I may have that for Mum's procession. Hear me out. I know it's wrong to think so pessimistically at the moment, but I can't help it. And if my emotions during this whole battle are anything to go by, I haven't cried yet, and I want to be able to feel something. And if I have to resort to "You Raise Me Up", I'll do that!
On a separate note, the occupational therapist, Rachel, was able to find out the code to our key safe on the front of the house. Turns out that the previous owners had a LOROS care package years ago, and Rachel was able to find their records of the safe. So now I feel reassured that if I was out of the house and unable to be there for the district nurse or something, they'd be able to let themselves in.

Wednesday 8th April 2009
Mum had a very tough weekend. Her breathing has been very difficult to control. She had a nebulizer, thinking it was asthma related. It didn't help. On Sunday the doctor took some blood to run a test, of which I don't know what the results were. But it must have been a poor result as Mum was pencilled in for a scan at Glenfield General on the Monday. The scan was to find out whether or not she had a blood clot in her system.
When it came to the Monday, Mum was sent to Glenfield at about 12:45pm. I raced to see her, maybe catch her before she went over, but I got there at half 1. I was sad that I just missed out on going with her, but naively thought that Mum wouldn't be too long as Glenfield is literally 5mins down the road from the LOROS hospice. How wrong I was!!
I kicked around the hospice for about 4 hours! I made more use of Mum's room TV in that 3 or 4 hours than Mum had over the week she had been there! I'd just about given up that Mum wouldn't be back in time to see me, and had texted Anne and Peter, when an ambulance pulled into the car park – and Mum was in the back of it!
Admittedly, Mum didn't know that I'd be there, so she was glad to see me. Turns out that when Mum got to the hospital, the staff couldn't get a canula into her, or didn't have that right size for her, or something. So because she needed an ambulance, due to the syringe driver hanging off her, she had to wait for one to become available. Which took the most length of time! If it wasn't for the syringe, I'm sure someone's relative or a LOROS volunteer would've gone and fetched her.
So it was agreed among the staff that they would canulate Mum the following morning (Tuesday) to aid the staff at the other end. Well, Tuesday arrived and the doctor – no less – put the canula in himself. Turned out to be a waste of time as Glenfield had forgotten to rebook her in. At least I think that was the story. So she was booked in for 10:30am today (Wednesday).
I didn't have my regular lift today, so I had to rely on LOROS's volunteer driver service. I booked the driver for 12pm and a subsequent session with a counsellor at 1pm.
12 o'clock arrived and no sign of the driver. Ok, I can understand that, my road isn't easy to find! Half 12 came, and still no sign of the driver. I phoned them to ask what happened, explaining that I had a counsellor's appointment at 1pm and that it was apparent that I would be very late for it.
At a quarter past one, the driver arrived. I got to the counsellor appointment at about 1:45pm. If this was going to take a while, I'd be late to see Mum, knowing that the volunteer drivers finish at 4pm, my visit would be shorter than I hoped. Well the appointment lasted about forty-five minutes. I have another one booked for next Wednesday. I can't wait (!) Who suggested I do this again?? Oh well, I'm in for it now!
Mum's day was a much of an unmitigated disaster as mine! Mum's canula in her arm, that the doctor had put in yesterday, had blown, so they had to put one in her foot! I'm surprised that other veins like that hadn't been considered for use before! Well, Mum finally had her scan and had to wait for an ambulance again. Apparently she didn't get back to the hospice till 2pm! I was there ahead of her, and didn't know it. A couple of parishioners, current and former, decided to come and visit Mum. Which was nice of them. Mum was having a belated lunch, which she didn't finish, so the parishioners visited a Sister who was in the bay ward around the corner. The Sister happened to be a former member of our parish too, but is so revered by everyone that whenever visitors visited Mum at the Royal, they had been, or were going, to visit Sister. And now, with Sister at LOROS too, it's likely that the visiting roundabout may happen again!