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I managed to slip over on 6-November-2015 and fracture the femoral head of my right hip. This blog is just to keep friends and relatives up-to-date with my recovery. It also will show where the NHS is good and where there is opportunity to improve. If you click the images tab (above) there are a few images of the break before and after the repair.

Update 10-June-2016 - sadly the femoral head has avascular necrosis and a total hip replacement will be carried out on 15-June-2016

I am home in Stoke Bruerne

Monday 30 November 2015

Day 25

Goodness me here we are into another week.  Where does the time go to?  I am hoping that today we get to the bottom of the Vitamin D issue - it's a week day so everyone who can make decisions should be available and we can cast the thought of the 5 day-a-week NHS to the side for the next 5 days - I hope the proposed junior Doctors' strike can be averted but if it does go ahead I don't think the effect will mean any changes for me.

Nothing much in the schedule for today other than Physio and letting the hip get on with the all-important job of getting better.  I think my friend Ray Thorpe from Coventry may visit - makes me feel quite humble when I realise that Ray is prepared to drive that distance just to see me.  An e-mail from my sister overnight - she tells me she reads this blog every morning (NZ time) and wished she could come over and see me - I'd love to see her but it is an awful long way from the summer and lovely long days of NZ to the cold and short days of the UK in winter so the answer is she must stay where she is.  She can't influence my progress by being here. Meantime those who can and do visit more easily give me huge pleasure - thank you. There have been a couple of e-mails overnight from a very good friend which I hope will influence the clarity as to what the future holds.

Just jumped out of my skin.  The nurse on duty knocked (an understatement) and came through the door at the same time.  I must have looked a bit shocked because she said it was polite to knock - I agree but knock and wait; don't just knock (the door down) and fling it open.  In the 11 days I have been here no one else has knocked but they have been quieter!

Well I have just asked about the towel I have for showering - it is tiny and it's had a fair number of days of being used.  How do I get it changed I asked - oh you have to ask they said.  Why? Surely a towel should be changed as a matter of course.  Now I have asked we'll wait and see if it is changed. It all comes back to the fact that no one talked me through the processes and how they work here. I have struggled to make my own bed over the last few days because by 12:00 it is still unmade and I really don't want visitors to see my bed in a bit of a state - I am not sure, when I am reliant on one good leg and one fairly poor one that I should be playing storks and making a bad effort of making my bed. 09:30 - bed made and two new towels - I wonder if it depends on who is on duty?

I will wait with interest today to see if anything is done about my Vitamin D supplements. I am running a book in my mind and at the moment it is about 9 to 1 on that nothing will happen - I do hope I am wrong.

Just seen Ram the physio - he says I am progressing very well with the crutches (possibly putting a bit too much weight on my bad leg) and the only thing that is going to hold me back are my stairs. That's sounds really positive to me but I do understand the challenges of my stairs.

12:00 - Just had a lovely visit from my friend Ray Thorpe from Coventry - Ray thank you for taking the time to visit - it is much appreciated.

A bit more on the Vitamin D issue.  Apparently it has been crossed off my list of 'drugs' despite me being verbally told I need the supplement. No one knows why so I have asked the duty nurse to request the duty doctor comes over to explain the current situation.  Seems like another blood test may be the best answer.

Still nothing on the Vitamin D issue - not a jot. There will be nothing on the Vitamin D issue as all the Doctors from Cliftonville are covering the strike of Junior Doctors - what a fine mess we are in. I have had an e-mail from my insurance broker reminding me that the cover on my house and contents reduces to almost zero if no one stays in my house for one nigh in every 30 - we are on day 25 now. It's the kind of corporate clap trap I can do without at the moment but if someone stays just one night then it's roll back to zero and the count to 30 starts again - sounds like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to me.  I have asked how I prove someone has stayed there - will they just take my word?  The lights come on, no water is stored, the heating is on - but I suppose rules is rules and anyway they can wriggle out an insurance company will.

I chatted with PALS today (Patient Advisory and Liaison Service) about the future. They are sending Amanda back to see me again tomorrow (I don't like seeing someone like this without someone else being there but they can't, they say, give me a time).  It still seems that the critical date is 14-December but I have still have no idea who makes the decision and if it is made at the fracture clinic or if there is a subsequent meeting later that week (oh probably not because it is too close to Christmas) - the admin really is a bit of a mess. It is also difficult when they ring me when I have visitors - no privacy - seems the cards are all stacked in the hospital's favour.

Anyway very pleasant visits from David Daines, Roy Sears and Roger Hasdell this afternoon.

My friend Ray, who came to see me this morning has sent me a lovely image of Towcester - owned now by Julia Cook coming out of Blisworth Tunnel sometime before the repairs started in 1984.

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