Another week has passed, and once again my dad seems less ill than he was a week ago. He’s now managing on only one litre per minute of additional oxygen, he’s still eating two cooked meals a day, he can now move himself around in his bed quite easily and is having physiotherapy to try to build up strength in his legs again, and is generally cheerful and in very little pain.
A couple of days ago, we had a discharge planning meeting with about a dozen people present, including our wonderful district nurse, nursing staff from the oncology centre, and people from the local “care in the community” division. The current plan is for my dad to come home on the 27th. We’ve cleared pretty much everything out of our dining room and it will be refitted as a hosptial room, complete with oxygen extractor and (we hope) an electric hospital bed. We’ll be having lots of external support too - teams will come in three times a day at first to help us out, and we’ll be making use of a special laundry service too. People often grumble about the National Health Service, but it’s been nothing short of superb in its handling of my dad’s illness.
And we are really busy. We have dozens of things to do over the next week to be ready for my dad’s discharge. My sister and I have become whirlwinds of activity, and I’m confident that everything will be ready. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon putting together an entertainment unit for the room too - he’ll have CD player, radio, VCR and a nice LCD tv to keep him occupied while the rest of us are busy. We’ve also been cleaning and tidying the house because we have an inspection by social services in a few days. We also had to get a prescription for the oxygen machine this morning. Tomorrow, we have to take this prescription to a pharmacy to arrange delivery of the machine. I’m not sure when the bed, hoist and commode are going to arrive. Meanwhile, my mum is having a crash course in being a nurse - and she’s picking it up really fast.
With a little luck, things should become much less hectic in a week or so, and then I’ll probably be able to find time to catch up on everything that’s been on hold recently.
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Good news,
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been keenly awaiting an update.
Hooray for the NHS - and fixed prescription charges!
Let me know if there's any heavy lifting to be done,
Barney