Sunday, July 03, 2005

Day 66 - Sunday 3rd July 2005

Before I forget, kp has submitted her quiz entry Ronnie. Clicking Here should get you to the answer.

Today has been an eventful day on the whole. Before Marie arrived there had been a fire alarm incident on the ward with a smell of burning. The Fire Brigade were called and ALL beds were evacuated very quickly. This kind of thing has happened before while kp was in the Intensive Care Unit, but the beds weren't moved, presumably because the movement risk outweighed the chance of burning to death. But today, they were all moved out and it was quite an exercise, one which kp told me they did very efficiently and quickly.

kp said she was sat outside in her bed opposite from a woman who was halfway through her breakfast. She had scrambled eggs all down her apron.

Woman in Apron :- I was in the middle of my breakfast.
kp:- I know, I can see you were having scrambled eggs. You can finish them off when you get back upto the ward.

When kp relayed this to me, mum and dad, we were in stitches.

The Fire Brigade gave the all clear and every bed was moved back. 30 minutes later, exactly the same thing happened again. They put it down to a faulty sensor in the sluice area and it got changed.

This meant the whole day was running late. kp didn't get her hair washed by the 2 nurses, instead Marie did it as best she could with a flannel.

Her morning tablets, normally taken about 9am, were taken about 12pm.

Today was Wimbledon's Mens Finals.

A bit of a one-sided match, but kp managed to stay awake through most of it.

Her first visitors were due at 5pm. At about 4.45pm, I had a wave of extreme tiredness come over me, and I just had to have a snooze. I went in kp's toilet (huge), laid out her bedchair and was out like a light. I didn't wake up until the last 5 minutes of Bernard, Lilly and Gillian's visit. Nothing personal !!! They had a good chat with kp who was in top form. They brought with them some photos of Karen as a teenager. Wow !!!! We are talking fashion !!! I will post to the blog over the next few days.

Then my mum and dad came. They could see a big difference in just a week. kp was much perkier this week having got over the infection that she was just starting at their last visit.

Mum told Karen that one of her friends (Betina) who is a nail technician by trade had said that when Karen is better, she would come up and give her a manicure. kp couldn't believe that she would come all this way to do that for her. Thanks Betina !!

A funny incident to relate :-

kp :- So how is your company doing John ?
John :- Very well at the moment. We have just taken an order for air dryers.......

Dad sells lorry components and an air dryer is used in lorry brakes.

The conversation veered away from dad's business for a few minutes and then out of the blue :-

kp:- John, why have you started selling Hair Dryers ?

Laughs all round !!


30 minutes after my mum and dad left, I started getting kp ready for bed. As I was doing her final turn to get her in a comfy position, I noticed a LOT of gunk that had gone all the way through her nighty AND sheet onto her gel mattress. Her cheek wound was leaking badly !! It was too much for me to deal with. It needed a nurse's attention as there was so much exudate.

When the nurse came, she took the dressing off. It had only been changed that morning. Her wound was constantly oozing sluff and there was also what appeared to be some string hanging out of the wound. It was saying "Pull me out" to me, but the first nurse quite rightly said that we shouldn't pull it out until we know what it is. The first nurse pressed over the wound and it just wouldn't stop oozing sluff. She also didn't know what this string stuff was. We both had a bit of a guess, but she decided to call the Sister. The Sister had a few educated guesses, and decided to call the Doctor. The Doctor referred it to the Orthopedic Doctor who pulled it out and came to the conclusion that it was hardened sluff. This whole investigation took place over 3 hours given that it is Sunday and the doctors are hard to come by.

It is likely that kp has another infection in this area and tomorrow they will take bloods to establish what the infection is, so they can treat it accordingly.

kp was knackered by such an eventful day and will definately sleep like a log.

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