Well, a lot changes over the course of 24 hours. Shortly after writing last night’s blog, I got a call from the hospital to say that Heather was being transferred to the Kent & Canterbury. Heather wanted me there with her, so I got in the car and sped off to the William Harvey to get her stuff. She was loaded into an ambulance, which I then followed to Canterbury. We got her settled into the Clarke Ward and I stayed with her until about 12:45am, when she had finally managed to drop off. I got home about 1:45am and went to bed about 2am. However, I tossed and turned until about 3am and got up at 6am, as she was having a procedure in the morning and I wanted to get there early.
I arrived and found that she hadn’t had a good night again. Not long after arriving, I was ushered off to the Day Room so that she could prepare for her procedure. She went off to theatre at 9:45am in good spirits. Her mum arrived about 15 minutes later and we both took up residence in the Day Room until about 12:30pm when they told us that she had been moved to Intensive Care.
On arrival, we found her hooked up to various pieces of equipment and drips and had more tubes attached to her, including a large tube in her mouth to control her breathing. I have to admit, it was an upsetting sight and I cried a little when I saw her like that. I always talk to her every day, even when she is on one of her business trips, but at present, I can only talk to her. She can’t talk to me, as she’s being kept sedated overnight. Her high blood pressure has been replaced by low blood pressure, but her other levels were OK. They then told us that we would have a leave for 45 minutes while they did an endoscopy to check out her heart (which I believe came back fine) so Heather’s mum and I went to find the restaurant to get some lunch.
After lunch, we went back up to ITU, but my car parking ticket ran out at 3pm. I decided to go home and collect some stuff and base myself at my Dad’s house for the next few days. That way, I can be just 10 minutes away in case she needs me, as well as getting much needed rest myself without having to travel backwards and forwards to Ashford. After all, I’m going to be no good to her if I’m exhausted, especially after only three hours sleep last night. My mum and my brother met me at our house and I filled them in with as much detail as I could remember while I packed some overnight things. I also offloaded some of Heather’s valuables, as she can’t have them in ITU and I don’t want them getting lost or stolen. After getting an overnight bag together, I went back to the hospital to stay with her for another three hours.
We spoke to the urologist and he filled us in with the details. Today, they inserted a stent into her left kidney to bypass the kidney stone and drain the nasty stuff out of her. This is what will take some time, as the fluids need to drain through her catheter. Once she is fully recovered, she can leave hospital, but will have to go back in a few months to have the kidney stone removed in some way. The last item on the battle plan is that she MUST lose weight. I think that is something that both of us will be doing together. We’ll have to plan some activities which will give us both exercise, but our diets are going to have to change to.
I had some lovely chats with the ITU staff who answered any questions I asked them, but had to duck out from time to time as they administered more treatments. Her blood pressure was still lower than any of us liked, so they gave her some stuff and within 30 minutes, she was showing increased blood pressure levels. That made me feel a little better as I said goodnight and made my way over the Dads.
I’ll call the ITU a little later for an update and will be going in at 8am tomorrow to be with her.
For information, if you have any cards for Heather, please could you send them to my house rather than the hospital, as she could move around at any minute. We’ll pick them up and bring them to her wherever she is. Also, please don’t send flowers to the hospital, as they don’t allow them due to allergies. I think she’d appreciate flowers more when she comes home in any case.
While she is in ITU, I think it would be prudent if visitors were restricted to family members only. Once she goes back onto the wards, I’m sure she’d like to see a few friends. I will let you know when that is.
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