Fancy footwork

Lockdown 2.0 - day 8

On a positive note, the surgery went well and during a very swift visit this morning, a doctor (not my surgeon) said he was pleased with the results.

Other than this, my treatment so far has been disgusting. The nurse on duty last night refused my pleas for painkillers; saying she’d get me some paracetamol. That was 9pm. By 12.30am I’d still had nothing.
One of the healthcare assistants whispered to me that she was notorious for this and I needed to demand meds.
She just kept fobbing me off, ‘you’re not on the system’, ‘the doctor hasn’t prescribed anything for you’. I went mad and eventually she gave in and reluctantly put up a paracetamol drip. The flush through my cannula was agonising, but she carried on anyway.
She wanted to do a covid swab but I refused. There was no way I wanted her to do anything else on me!
Yet again, there’s a dementia patient on the ward who is allowed to sleep all day. She spent all last night shouting obscenities.
Even though I was knackered from previous nights sleep deprivation and the general anaesthetic, I managed about an hour of sleep.
Physio came this morning to get me mobile but it was agonising and despite best efforts, I just couldn’t get going, so I’ve been given some bedside exercises to do in the meantime.

The standard of care here, compared to Blackburn is so poor. I’m still in my theatre gown. Nobody even offered me a wash. My bedpan spilt so they covered the spill with an absorbent pad, rather than change the sheet. The call buzzer doesn’t work and they’re clearly short staffed (or skiving) as there’s never anyone around.

The lady dishing up lunch (I could see her through the glass in the door), although wearing a mask and gloves, sneezed into her hands and carried on dishing up. Needless to say I didn’t eat lunch. I told a nurse what I’d seen, but the lady denied sneezing (I heard the achoo) and came to tell me she was just rubbing her mask as it was making her face itch.

The fire door on the ward is blocked with a trolley and various bags of stuff.

Nobody has told me anything about my ongoing treatment, I’ve no idea how long I’m going to be here for. While I admit I’m in the best place for my injury, it’s really not good for my sanity! :-(

DQ x