Day 37 - Saturday 4th June - Part One
Awful Night
Karen had an awful night. She had a temperature of 39'C. She was sweating so much they had to put her back on an intravenous drip of saline. Generally a very uncomfortable night.
When I arrived (8am), she was ringing wet through. I kissed her on her forehead and it was just moisture. Her sheets had so much sweat on them they were soaking. First Job was a bedbath. I asked one of the nurses to give me a hand, but in the end 2 of them came in and did it. They changed the sheets and her nighty and she felt and looked so much better after the wash. Her temperature was down to 36.6'C.
She has an infection and until the bedbath they were unsure of where it was, but it was clear after the bedbath that she has an infection where the staples were that run from the left to the right hand side of her body at the bottom of her belly. This was swabbed to see what kind of infection it is. She is on multiple anti-biotics to sort it out. We also took the opportunity to use Mum's MRSA lotion (Ultra). We couldn't use it on any of the wounds, but we could use it on her legs and arms.
The fan we had been using to keep kp cool had broken. We aren't allowed mains-powered fans for some reason (they spread the germs), but they don't seem to mind the little hand fans. I phoned Ronnie and asked if she could get a new fan.
No Breakfast
She didn't feel like any breakfast because she still felt hot and bothered.
The Sleep
After the bedbath and getting into a nice comfy position, kp fell asleep. I was a bit tired myself so I pulled up the chair bed and got it into a prone position and hopped on with a pillow and pulled it up to Karen's bed at the same height to form a double bed. As I did so, I banged kp's bed. Normally any banging like this gets a "tut", but when kp saw what I was doing (effectively lying next to her to sleep), she smiled :-)
Occasionally I would open my eyes and check she was ok. For a lot of the time she was asleep, her eyelids were open. It was very weird. She was kind of looking into space (in each eye to a different part of space also). I will mention this to a nurse.
Elevenses
After out joint snooze, the tealady came round and offered kp some tea. She got a big beaker of tea, and kp and I shared it out into 2 cups.
kp:- Let's have elevenses
dp:- Do you fancy some Maltesers and Minstrels ?
kp:- Yes please
Wahey. Karen normally turns chocolate down. But she was up for a cup of tea with hubby and some chocolate (courtesty of Lee + Tracy, yesterday's visitors). That was nice :-)
Her drip was then replaced with one that provided a higher supplement of Potassium.
Visitors
We had another snooze until Ronnie, Michelle and Adele arrived at lunchtime. They brought with them 3 mini-fans all of which sound like a plane taking off. kp wasn't keen to keep one switched on 'cos of the noise.
Ronnie, Michelle and Adele helped me get Karen into a nice sitting-up position when I made a real blunder causing kp a lot of pain. :-(
Before you move kp, you need to take the slack out of the sheets and I did this fine, until I came to the head. I pulled the sheet like I would normally do, but in doing so, I moved the pillow which must have scraped kp's head wound. It hurt a lot. Sorry Love :-(
I am back at 6pm. No more pain love I promise.
Karen had an awful night. She had a temperature of 39'C. She was sweating so much they had to put her back on an intravenous drip of saline. Generally a very uncomfortable night.
When I arrived (8am), she was ringing wet through. I kissed her on her forehead and it was just moisture. Her sheets had so much sweat on them they were soaking. First Job was a bedbath. I asked one of the nurses to give me a hand, but in the end 2 of them came in and did it. They changed the sheets and her nighty and she felt and looked so much better after the wash. Her temperature was down to 36.6'C.
She has an infection and until the bedbath they were unsure of where it was, but it was clear after the bedbath that she has an infection where the staples were that run from the left to the right hand side of her body at the bottom of her belly. This was swabbed to see what kind of infection it is. She is on multiple anti-biotics to sort it out. We also took the opportunity to use Mum's MRSA lotion (Ultra). We couldn't use it on any of the wounds, but we could use it on her legs and arms.
The fan we had been using to keep kp cool had broken. We aren't allowed mains-powered fans for some reason (they spread the germs), but they don't seem to mind the little hand fans. I phoned Ronnie and asked if she could get a new fan.
No Breakfast
She didn't feel like any breakfast because she still felt hot and bothered.
The Sleep
After the bedbath and getting into a nice comfy position, kp fell asleep. I was a bit tired myself so I pulled up the chair bed and got it into a prone position and hopped on with a pillow and pulled it up to Karen's bed at the same height to form a double bed. As I did so, I banged kp's bed. Normally any banging like this gets a "tut", but when kp saw what I was doing (effectively lying next to her to sleep), she smiled :-)
Occasionally I would open my eyes and check she was ok. For a lot of the time she was asleep, her eyelids were open. It was very weird. She was kind of looking into space (in each eye to a different part of space also). I will mention this to a nurse.
Elevenses
After out joint snooze, the tealady came round and offered kp some tea. She got a big beaker of tea, and kp and I shared it out into 2 cups.
kp:- Let's have elevenses
dp:- Do you fancy some Maltesers and Minstrels ?
kp:- Yes please
Wahey. Karen normally turns chocolate down. But she was up for a cup of tea with hubby and some chocolate (courtesty of Lee + Tracy, yesterday's visitors). That was nice :-)
Her drip was then replaced with one that provided a higher supplement of Potassium.
Visitors
We had another snooze until Ronnie, Michelle and Adele arrived at lunchtime. They brought with them 3 mini-fans all of which sound like a plane taking off. kp wasn't keen to keep one switched on 'cos of the noise.
Ronnie, Michelle and Adele helped me get Karen into a nice sitting-up position when I made a real blunder causing kp a lot of pain. :-(
Before you move kp, you need to take the slack out of the sheets and I did this fine, until I came to the head. I pulled the sheet like I would normally do, but in doing so, I moved the pillow which must have scraped kp's head wound. It hurt a lot. Sorry Love :-(
I am back at 6pm. No more pain love I promise.
posted by David Pollard at Saturday, June 04, 2005
4 Comments:
HI,
Were plesed the chocies help today, let us know whats your favourite treats are and we will gladly bring lots in next visit(that includes you David) Hope Karen has a better night sleep tonight. Take care Tracy & Lee.
Hi all,
David why cant you use the stuff your mam got even if it does no good it cant harm surely.Has Karen got MRSA again or is it the same infection.
Hope you are feeling a lot better by the time you see this Karen.
EATING CHOCOLATE well done keep it up girl.Margo
ARRRRRHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
can just see the two of you in bed(as it were ) haveing eleven's....very nice....
they do say the smallest of things make you smile.... well i did......
mind you...dont fancy the crumbs in bed....they get in to the most frightful places....lol still could be interesting....but enough about that...
ok kp hope you get a better nights sleep tonight...you too david...
goodnight and godbless you both
debsxx
kp has MRSA in the head, we don't know what the infection is elsewhere yet.
The head wound is quite deep, and she is always lying on her head and if I put any on, it could go deep into the wound, which could be a good thing, but I am not confident enough to do it, especially given the nurses have said not to until they check it out.
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