The Hospital Drama......

Honestly you couldn't make all this stuff up. I'm used to watching medical dramas on TV and knowing that they've had to exaggerate stuff to make it dramatic and exciting but this time it was for real.

Firstly I will shout loudly that I think our NHS is wonderful, Ipswich Hospital has never let me down and all the staff work really hard under lots of pressures (mainly just not enough of them).

I mentioned early February that I had a headache, just before I had that horrid flu/virus/bug thing for a couple of weeks too and the cough turned into a chest infection, they all cleared but the headache remained (it's been six weeks now)! My GP and I were working on it and I had a CT Scan booked for two weeks time.

Well I'll miss out the boring part and go straight to..... I went into A&E at 8pm Tuesday with the worst head so far and NHS Direct told Hubby to take me straight in!

The Medical Bit....
Basically they've tested everything, head ct scan, lots and lots of bloods, bp hundreds of times, ecg, chest xray, urine tested for proteins, reflexes and back of the eyes! All results good/normal apart from very high bp which they think is the cause as I had a prescription change at the end of January and headaches started early February. So they are on the case and introduced another bp pill and I'm being referred to the dietician.

Very good news as at first they were talking about brain bleeds and tumours which they've thankfully ruled out, also with the tests one consultant suggested doing a lumbar puncture which I don't think is a pleasant procedure but phew they changed their mind on that. .......all enough to raise the bp even higher!

The full series all in one night.....
Episode 1
We arrived at A&E about 8pm to a very full waiting room, the signs said 3.5 hours waiting time but thankfully we were seen by a doctor about 10:30pm (no triage first). After a full examination we were told I needed to stay in overnight so I sent Hubby home for stuff  (hate hospital gowns) when I was sent for a Head CT Scan at 11:30pm, had a lovely nurse with me who was very chatty.

Episode 2
It was just after midnight when I was taken to the assessment ward, there were no beds only trollies and the nurse put a sheet and pillow on the one in bay 2 and I was told a doctor would come round to see me then I'd be moved into a ward,  so I sat in a chair. I mentioned to the nurse that I'd had nothing to eat or drink since lunch and been sick during the afternoon, the lady in the next bed overheard and said she was really hungry too so the lovely nurse brought us both tea and toast :-) Hubby arrived back and found me and left a bag of stuff, bless him!  The ward had minimal lighting and the staff were walking around quietly to encourage sleep but I'm wide awake sitting in a chair.

Sadly there was a woman just out of my sight who sounded very old and frail saying the whole time "help me, help me please, I need help" each time a nurse went over (very often) she was asked not to remove her oxygen mask and how can they help, but she never gave a proper answer so she must have been very confused, her name is Iris. Another bed nearby had a woman sleeping but every 15 mins the nurse turned her lights on and took ages to wake her and did all her obs.

About 2am the woman in the bed to my right got up and went to the toilet right beside me, then obviously had a problem and pulled the red cord. It was impressive how many members of staff arrived instantly and all piled into that little room, I could hear everything and they worked as one team! She seemed ok once they had her back in bed and the ward settled down again, a little quieter too as Iris had been moved out.

Episode 3
4am and I'd still not seen a doctor when a porter arrived and moved me to the observation ward, so there I got undressed and into bed hoping to get a little sleep. That's when I discovered where Iris had been moved to, opposite my bed, and still removing her oxygen mask and calling out all the time.

In the next bed to my right lights went on and lots of noisy help for that elderly frail lady who had pulled out her cannula and was covered in blood, they changed everything and sorted her and all was calm for a very short time until she broke her catheter which took a lot more noisy help and clearing up and the poor patient called Jean was not being helpful as she was obviously confused, all this time they had pulled my curtain half way for her modesty I think.

About 5am and the doctor comes to see me, tells me what's what and prescribed a pill. I lie down again then very soon after just as I'd got comfy again a hand comes round the curtain and Jean fell on me! I hit the alarm button and held onto Jean who wanted to carry on her journey when she was obviously unable to stand. Jean was put back into bed but I then felt that I needed to keep an eye on her and twice more talked her back under her covers before she attempted more escapes!

Each time I've got comfy, this time around 5:30am the nurse gave me tablets.

6:15am and it woke a couple of others so would have woken me had I been asleep, there was lots of male shouting and swearing down the corridor, definitely sounded like a male patient being very aggressive to the staff, it went on for a while then sudden quiet so either security had removed him or the staff had resorted to the tranquiliser dart!

7am lights on and tea came round and yet another bp check.
It was declared morning, but typically both Iris and Jean stayed fast asleep lol
About 8 to 8:30ish and all the beds were being changed and people given help washing, but I did say I'd only got in my bed 3 hours before so they just tidied it when I went to the bathroom to wash myself.

Episode 4
8:40am I came back from the bathroom and was told to gather my stuff and hop back into bed as I was moving to another ward. Sent Hubby a text as he was coming early. Had to send someone back to find my shoes and socks left behind, one nurse collected them then another nurse reported back that she couldn't find them, hmmm seems a lack of communication there! Thankfully breakfast came round on the new ward, breakfast hadn't arrived in the old ward and I hoped I hadn't missed it as my belly was rumbling and if you've had no sleep you need food more than ever.

10am a consultant, three doctors and a nurse gathered round my bed. The consultant knelt beside me and explained everything really well, although he did scare me a bit suggesting some invasive tests he thinks I might need.
10am and Hubby also arrived but didn't know whether to come through the curtain or not so didn't and I repeated it all to him when the doctors left.

Can you see I had nothing better to do than clock watch, even the batteries in my phone were dying so I couldn't play in case I needed to ring Hubby (thankfully he brought my charger).

Episode 5
Stopped clock watching now I had company lol
Next pharmacist came round
Next was taken for chest xray
Next was the ECG which nurse said looked OK
Hubby went outside to put another parking ticket on the car and text our children as he had no signal on the ward, my lunch arrived so I text him to eat before coming back. What did we do before mobiles?

All done by lunchtime but I never saw another doctor and I kept mentioning to the nurse that I needed discharging.

Episode 6 finale
The rest of the afternoon was playing that classic married couples game with Hubby of "what shall we talk about next / you think of something to talk about / no you think / but it's your turn / no I started the last conversation".

5:30pm finally discharged yaay!


So eventful and very tiring (you must be exhausted just reading all this) and a lot of times funny and surreal, but all in all a worthwhile two days to get so many good results, as my GP and I were dealing with it but while it was bearable there didn't seem to be any rush. I'm actually glad it became urgent or my doctor sending me for each test one after the other could have taken forever!

So fingers crossed this new bp pill is the magic one, but if it is or not I'll keep you up to date, but no more dramas eh?
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Theatre: Shadowlands......

Shadowlands is the stunning drama written by William Nicholson that poses classic questions about religion, pain and love, through childhood innocence and the wonder of late-flowering love.

Starring Stephen Boxer (Humans, The Iron Lady, Doctors) as C.S. Lewis, Amanda Ryan (The Forsyte Saga) and Denis Lill (Only Fools and Horses and The Royal) this West End and Broadway hit is the love story of C.S. Lewis - Oxford don and author of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters - and American poet Joy Davidman.

Lewis is comfortable in his life at Oxford University, smug in his convictions about God and His plan for the world until Joy and her young son enter his life and the bewildered theoretician of love in the abstract finally confronts its direct presence.

This powerful drama raises questions about religion, humanity, society through a gripping story of love, belief and pain.

Following on from its original incarnation as a TV drama then subsequent stage adaptation and finally a film starring Anthony Hopkins, the play has gone on to win multiple awards as well as the film adaptation picking up multiple BAFTA and US awards.

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This was such a moving story. Brilliant script for brilliant actors. Doubt there was a dry eye in the house at the end!
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Camera never lies, a matter of perspective......

O was here with me the other day and as a short distraction from him playing on screens all the time I showed him a short promo video of Dynamo the magician showing how some of his illusions are created.

We were both keen to have a go and these were our first attempts....

Trying to look like standing and holding something too heavy up in the air. 

We talked about blue-screen backgrounds, which he already knew about. 

Drinking from a giant mug. 

Talking about perspective. 

Able to stand on a mug (but we didn't get the background

 height right so you can still see his back leg. 

Tiny boy peeping through giant flowers. Again wrong 

background as the photos on the wall gave O scale, 

might try this in the garden when it's warmer. 

Giant boy pointing at mini photos. 

There's a very tiny boy kissing a giant hama bead head. 

He's walking up the door (sort of)

We obviously both need to have a good think about backgrounds and collect some objects to try again another time. Good fun though!
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Theatre: Last 5 years.......

Recently a major motion picture, The Last Five Years is an award winning musical from Jason Robert Brown. Starting and ending with the beginning of a passionate love affair, the unique style of storytelling and infectious score makes this one of America's best modern musicals.

The lovers are Cathy and Jamie. Actress Cathy’s story starts with the end of their relationship following their tale backwards to when she first fell in love with her young talented lover. Novelist Jamie’s story begins with their first passionate encounter and heads forward towards heartache.

The Last Five Years stars Katie Birtill, who took the title role in Sweet Charity last autumn with a talented live band creating Cathy and Jamie’s world as it crumbles and reforms around them.
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This was a matinee on a cold and wet afternoon when I'd be doing little else, thankfully, as it really wasn't one I'd recommend.

The two performers were very good, their singing voices are excellent and they definitely had a brilliant connection between them.........but the story was boring, many missed opportunities for instance when he sang that this relationship is breaking his mother's heart but didn't really explain why, only because I'm Jewish did I pick up the slight hint that he was marrying out of his faith, but it was such a subtle hint that I'm sure most others would never have noticed. Also none of the songs were memorable as they were just singing dialogue they could have spoken.

The two friends I went with felt exactly the same as me, however it looked like nearly all the seats had bums on and the final applause sounded like everyone enjoyed it.
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And out the other side (almost)..........

Whatever that bug/virus/lurgy was it certainly took its toll, but it's almost gone yaay!

Recently I've been getting back to normal and I've managed lunch out with x-work friends, although I had to choose a starter to have when they all had main courses as my appetite was still poor.

Last Thursday I went to art group having missed the one two weeks before so that was good.

Saturday a friend of more than 40 years celebrated a big birthday with a tea party at her house and we felt really honored to have been invited, so I was thrilled that we made it and thoroughly enjoyed it. They were also very pleased that we'd thought to take our big urn which saved them lots of kettle boiling.

Sunday was mother's day of course and Daughter came over with O and E and she cooked dinner for us all, which was yummy and a real treat. Son not only sent my card in time (very unusual) but phoned me that evening for a long chat which was lovely.

And yesterday was the monthly coffee morning. A small one this time with just seven of us.

Today I'm pottering around the house, waiting for my GP to ring (can't book appointments in advance but we can book a phone call, odd eh) as after the bug thing I've still got this persistent headache :-(
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Under the weather.....

.....understatement! In fact under-a-blanket for nearly two weeks!

So many people around me are dropping like flies, all symptoms sounding similar, some mild and others more severe.

I'd been coughing for a few days, just a dry irritation, nothing more than annoying. We managed a lovely family meal out lunchtime for Hubby's birthday on the 14th, sadly O was ill that day so he and M stayed home, he was ill the next day too then better. Son also told us he had been ill all the week before, which started just as his fiancé and her mother were recovering. That Tuesday Daughter and O were off to Baylham Rare Breeds Farm to cuddle the new lambs and I went with. O was thrilled when we arrived as his best friend was there, so they had a quick play together before they had to leave.

It was so bitterly cold that day! So a lovely cuddle then a quick walk round half of the farm and headed to the tea rooms which were packed so we came straight home stopping to buy cake!

Tea, cake and chatting in my toasty warm house, then after they went home the shivers started! For the next week I've had sweats, shivers, coughing non stop, loss of appetite (actually lost 7lb in 7 days!), going to bed at 8pm some days but coming downstairs onto the sofa at 3-4am most mornings so my coughing didn't keep hubby awake. I've had a splitting headache that has made wearing my specs painful so couldn't even amuse myself online. Plus at the same time I'd managed to culture a nasty fungal rash which was very sore.

All this time Hubby seemed to be developing a sore throat and cough but ignored it mostly as he had some important charity events he needed to get through and look after me of course.

I'd had to miss a theatre matinee, an art night, a meal out with friends and my first physio appointment  :-(

Eventually got an appointment with my doctor who confirmed I had a chest infection and started me on antibiotics, also prescribed a strong cream for the rash and assured me I wasn't contagious so I braved out Wednesday evening as my friendM was having one of her famous music nights. The buffet was amazing and I managed to eat a little.

Thursday three of us were meeting up with a fourth friend we haven't seen for ages and we'd booked the restaurant months ago, but on the day she phoned to cancel as she'd been struck down with this dreaded lurgy too!
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Theatre: End of the Rainbow.....

AHEAD OF UK TOUR!
London 1968 – and Judy Garland is about to make her comeback… again. Battling a tornado of drugs and alcohol, she undertakes an exhausting series of concerts at the Talk of the Town in order to re-claim her crown as the greatest talent of her generation.

Some famous tv names in it that I immediately recognised are Lisa Maxwell, Gary Wilmot and Sam Attwater.
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This was absolutely brilliant, tragic, hilarious and very sad.
Lisa Maxwell brought Judy Garland back to that stage and has the most amazing voice I never knew she had. She'd captured so many of her mannerisms too. Gary and Sam are both exceptional actors and the three together bounced off and supported each other wonderfully.

I highly recommend it if you're near Colchester, Essex before 20th February or if it tours anywhere near you.
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Small, medium, large.......

......or one size fits all :-)

Last night along with four female friends we joined a very packed hall for an evening with Ryan Gooding, physic medium. I've been to a few of these before, first time with this guy, and I always come away not knowing if I believe or not.

I think deep down we all want to believe and would get great comfort from a direct connection with lost love-ones, in fact then they wouldn't be lost at all. However last night even though Ryan definitely made an impact on some of the audience, giving them what sounded like specific details of people, past or future, most of it could relate to many of us. Like asking older people if they had a parent in spirit, most said yes but when someone said no he said oh it must be your grandfather not your father then that's here with me now.

A couple of funny moments came, one when he told a lady that one of her close friends is having an affair that nobody knows about yet and Ryan said she would meet the secret boyfriend and even gave her the boyfriend's name and said she must warn her friend to be honest with husband and secret boyfriend as she will be found out! Made us all wonder if her naughty friend was in the audience, that would have been awkward!

The other time we all laughed was when he spoke to a lady about her being pregnant and she said it was all his fault as she'd seen him some months ago and he'd told her she was pregnant two weeks before she found out herself. Ryan is so obviously gay and saying it was his fault was even funnier :-D

He actually picked me out to speak to but said nothing specific. When I said "yes I suppose so" to something vague he said maybe it's more for the lady next to you! He then said he'd tell her something privately at the end. He came back to me to give me good news about a future for someone close to me (think he needed to end on a positive) but then said "...this will finally restore her confidence as she'd lost her way for some time", to this I shook my head as the person in question has always been the most confident person ever......he quickly moved on!

At the end, quietly at the front of the room, he told my friend that sometime in the future she will suffer with "women's problems". She came away quite worried, although what percentage of us older women will suffer the same?

Meanwhile, three of our men had spent their evening at the snooker hall, said they'd had a good time and joined us afterwards so we could all have a drink together. We had plenty to talk about lol.
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Coming together to say goodbye.......

As I've mentioned many times, we live in a great Close of just 27 houses and between us we all know each other with most of us knowing most residents because they've/we've lived here a very long time. Hubby and I moved in when the house was just 4 years old and that was 33 years ago! We have a strong sense of community.

A neighbour sadly died on new year's day and today was his funeral. 15 neighbours attended which made up nearly half the congregation! Giving love, support and offers of help to his widow........I always feel grateful for living here!
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Happy Anniversary.......

Hard to believe the first month of this year has finished already, however the first Monday of February is when we started holding a monthly coffee morning for our neighbours, four years ago now! So today was a happy fourth anniversary.

Eleven of us today and conversations round the table were varied as always.....
- Who was going to the funeral this Friday of another neighbour and car sharing.
- The sad news of Sir Terry Wogan's death and remembering so many celebrities that have died already in just 31 days of 2016.
- The new baby born to a lovely young couple who have lived in our Close for about two years now.
- The sighting of an Estate Agent at a house which is currently a rental now being sold.
- First discussions of a street party we want to arrange to celebrate the Queen's 90th birthday.
- Holidays booked or planned.
- A future arts and crafts sale being held locally in April and did I want to book my own table.
- Solicitor's meetings to finalise a divorce settlement.
- And Hubby passing on to other aircraft enthusiasts how he spotted a Russian plane over our house being escorted by a British plane and how he tracked its journey online to eventually being escorted off of British air space. Don't think it was anything more than a training exercise.

I love our coffee mornings!
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