Wed 19 Mar 2014: The beginning of the monotony...

Not much happened today.  Pam stayed home and we didn't do a great deal to speak of!  Well we'd had a busy time recently, and you can be overdoing things!!

I want to tell you about my companions in HDU at the weekend.  Picture the scene in a busy unit with several 4 bed sections.  Across the end of each bed was a huge chart for the nursing staff to record all their observations.  It was quite a major project and the chart must have been at least A1 sized, mounted on an angled board like draughtsmen would have used.

The other three beds in my section were occupied with three men, all older than me, who had had various brain operations!  Next to me was a chap who had been rushed in following a bleed of some description.  He was pretty confused, didn't really know what was going on, what day it was, etc.  then when his family came in he seemed to perk up loads and had a normal conversation with them!  The doctors and nurses use the standard series of questions to assess your level of comprehension; "what's your name, when were you born, where are you, who's the prime minister?"  It gets extremely monotonous and maybe that's why he was being difficult!

Diagonally opposite me was an old chap who was even more confused, having been in the unit for over a week.  He didn't have much control of his legs and he kept flipping the covers off and almost falling out of bed.

Then, straight opposite me, there was the most irritating patient in the world.  He'd had meningitis and had been having intensive care nursing for almost 2 weeks.  Thankfully he was on the mend, but it was going to take a while!  He spent a lot of the day sleeping and wouldn't eat his food very well.  Then, just as it was time to sleep he'd come awake and would start asking what time it was.  The night nurse had obviously spent several night before I arrived, telling him it was ten past ten, time to go to sleep now.  Five minutes later, "Nurse, what time is it?" She'd tell him it's just 5 minutes since you asked, its a quarter past ten now. She'd encourage him to settle down, but it was no use!  He kept that routine up all night!!  Then when it was time for breakfast he'd fall asleep.  I am sure he wasn't trying to be difficult, but those nurses have the patience of saints.  It must be tempting to put a little sleeping tablet into their medication!!!

So that was what I spent 48 hours with, which was ... entertaining I suppose!!