Thursday 29th of October 2020 - Daily Trials with Coronavirus and of course Mother .... Wow I cannot believe it is over 10 days since I last blogged, as it feels more like months!! Don’t worry I am not going to bore you with a day by day account of what has become a joint struggle against the national virus. However I can tell you that I am laid in hospital in my very own Lepper room while Gary lays on another ward, although he came in before me. Yes sadly after Gary’s positive test things went downhill, although we did try and isolate from each other that was quite difficult in a small bungalow. Plus after spending two nights sleeping in the spare room, barely sleeping, Gary crept back into our bed and the rest is history and before I knew it I was off my feet too. Our lovely little house becoming Zombie Central as we tried to look after each other, knowing nobody could call to help us out other than on the phone especially Mother!! In the first few days I think Mum rang five or six times usually to ask how we were but also to make mad suggestions like making sure we got every vitamin under the sun as that would help us!!! Did I have a temperature and if so Ice cream was very good for that, I am sorry but my reply was “What?!! Wearing it or eating it?” To which my Mum replies I think you’re more poorly than you realise, maybe you should ring the Doctor. While my head felt like it would burst open and my mind was saying “No shit Sherlock but the trouble is when you catch Coronavirus, you suddenly become public enemy number 1 and no bugger wants to talk to you, until Track & Trace finally ring us both over a week later then you cannot shake them off!!” Listening to endless information on phones before you actually get to speak to someone, but having followed all the online advice we rang 111 last weekend in the hope of getting help. I have to say the 111 operatives were very helpful, straight to the point and getting help to us asap. Plus after nearly a week of my Mother’s suggestions and questions about who would sort her out and telling me she wouldn’t isolate, we were definitely ready for some sane conversation!! My sister Michelle has been amazing checking up on us by phone each day and more importantly buying Mum a new microwave because apparently her old one bought earlier this year, never worked and kept arcing but that’s another story!! Plus having to put up with trying to help Mum operate the new microwave as Mum doesn’t read instructions, you have to show her then write an idiots guide out for her!! Mum that is not Michelle! I do sympathise but admit I have probably been a bit short of sympathy especially this last 10 days. I even lost my rag with Gary for repeatedly open coughing everywhere instead of into a tissue or his elbow to prevent germs going everywhere. I reckon if I had an ultra violet lamp that showed all the germs our place would look like a purple blood bath!! Sorry for the image but I honestly don’t know how we will start on that when we have to go home to convalescence but hey ho I am sure we will manage. Plus no doubt my Mums calls will start again, if she told us to keep eating once I must have heard it a thousand times!! The trouble is you lose your appetite and you struggle to make anything even a boiled egg, which almost became our staple diet. Sorry but I would almost faint just trying to make breakfast which I couldn’t taste anyway as I lost my taste and smell quite quickly and yes I did end up taking a test at home which proved positive. Ironically on the day the ambulance picked me up!! The trouble is if you don’t eat and only drink which we managed just! You get weaker and unable to fight the virus which hits every weakness or injury you have ever had, while you writhe in agony. Until Monday Gary’s breathing was so bad he begged me to call 999 and was soon whisked away to hospital. Leaving me to sob my heart out that I hadn’t been able to look after him, then relax on the settee and have the best days sleep I had had in weeks! Selfish I know but boy I needed it and thought I had turned a corner when I went to bed. However the next day my body felt otherwise when I started with excruciating chest pains and after two hours of struggling decided it wasn’t time to talk to Mum for a solution but ring 111 who kindly sent an ambulance. That was only two days ago although it seems ages ago, I spent Monday apart from my selfish sleeping, worrying what was going on with Gary as he apparently had no signal so didn’t get in touch until he had been in hospital for 12 hours!! Thank heavens for our sons who harassed the hospital until they got the answers bless them and arranged delivery of Wild Cherry Lucozade and gluten free meals for me. Plus my lovely sister in law brought round a chicken salad - salad really?? I had no appetite before but salad in October? I know Sarah meant well and eats so healthily she probably thought it was a good idea, but the gluten free lasagna won! Or at least half of it did as with no taste it was the weirdest meal ever. No I didn’t follow Mums advice of trying a baked potato or some soup. I swear if I never see any more Heinz Tomato soup it will not bother me!! Another staple meal that failed. I knew I was poorly when Mum started leaving her calls till after 2pm so she didn’t disturb me but even that was too much sometimes.
I have to say the ambulance men were tremendously cheerful, nothing was too much trouble and the drugs cocktail they gave me of aspirin, anti sickness medicine, cocodamol and morphine amongst other stuff, which was the best Cocktail I had had in ages and lasted a good 6 hours which was just as well as the second part of A&E after the reception area was like Hell on earth!! Obs were taken but I struggled to get a drink of water or pain relief let alone any more pain relief, I can really understand why the Government is worried about the NHS becoming overwhelmed!! I felt overwhelmed just being there so goodness knows how the staff feel day after day! What with a gruff old lady in the next room shouting for the Nurse every 10 minutes, so much so that I end up ringing my bell (she obviously cannot find hers) to let the Nurse know as she constantly needs the loo or so it seems, but her shouts drive me wild! Then the one time I don’t ask a nurse if they had told him I am Covid Positive was the one time he did not know! Just as he came to take yet another Covid test. I have to say that when the poor young man apologised for having to stick the swab in my mouth and then up to the nether regions of my nose, I truly thought he was searching for my adenoids!! Then he looked astounded when I said I had had a home test and only had the result back the same day. I don’t know what the answer is but maybe in hospital you should have to wear a purple wristband or something so staff can see straight away. I know it would probably be against someone’s human rights but this virus takes everything you have and royally screws it up anyway, so that’s the least of your worries!! I do think it would help protect staff and though I was of course wearing a mask, everyone is!! Most of the staff I meet have had the virus but the male nurse I met obviously hadn’t and tried not to look at me much after that but there again I knew I looked pretty hideous! No colour, hair all mused and no partial denture in as my mouth has been too sore to wear it. Thinking about it he must have thought Halloween had started early! Although I think my worst experience was when I was moved from A&E to the Medical Assessment Ward, expected the nurse taking me to ring a huge bell as he shouted close all your doors and look away, Covid positive patient moving out of the ward!! I just hung my head as it felt so shameful! Thankfully my initial hospital nightmare ended when 3 o clock the following morning I was moved onto Ward 3 and was received by such a gentle calming nurse, sorry I don’t know her name but she was an absolute angel. I thought I had gone to heaven when my long awaited pain relief was given and I could at last rest and sleep, if only to the next round of Obs at 6.30am do these people not realise there is only one 6.30 in a day?! However at least I was beginning to calm down and feel safe again. The chest is a funny thing, it can look clear on x-rays, as mine often does but play up in the most unusual ways! Although I was more concerned what my heart had been up to, the trainee doctor in A&E assured me I had not had a heart attack. I told him I didn’t think I had but someone was busy crushing what felt like a rubber ball in the centre of my chest. To which he asked if I had any medical knowledge through my work or had I been reading the Internet? I think he soon realised how I felt as I almost grabbed him and said through gritted teeth that I was just describing my symptoms and told him only fools look things up in the Internet! I think he got my gist as his eyes showed signs of a nervous smile behind his mask. Then I thought that’s obviously why my Mum always rings me for medical advice as I must sound like I know, most unwittingly!! I suppose after years of NHS admin you pick some things up but not intentionally and I never profess, unlike Michelle my sister who has had nurse training, to know everything.
Anyway I won’t bore you any more, as I am sure you have heard enough although I should say while Gary is disappointed he didn’t go home as he hoped to yesterday, he is a lot better, now off the oxygen and feeling good so hopefully on the up. I too came off the oxygen last night and I am glad Gary is not at home struggling alone, I still feel guilty that I couldn’t take care of him well enough. Although rather ironic that my darling careful Gary was the one to bring the Covid curse into our little house and cause hell and misery for both of us. As I write both our sons have tested positive, Scott less poorly but possibly caught it at ours and I worry that Olivia may not stay Covid free having seen us at the same time. Gavin our eldest Is Covid positive too, who I am sure thinks he caught it from Scott. Although I know Track & Trace say different as Scott only saw him the day before he fell ill. I am worrying about Gavin as he seems to be following my track and with him suffering with Sleep Apnea I urge him to wear his C Pap mask more whilst resting as he needs the oxygen, he originally said it helped but know he now sounds like he is wearying but needs to get help which I have told him today. Anyway I will sign off, hopefully Gary and I will be home soon and hopefully our energy will soon return too. There is no way this is a bad case of Flu, definitely not as you know it! I keep telling my Mum that having worried for the last 10 days that I might have inadvertently passed it on to her, then I remember Gary’s last words when we talked about Mum, we will be dead before she is!! I honestly thought his prediction would come true this week but thankfully we are on the mend and Mum is tireless in every way!!!
