Wee Wee

Today was about 5 things:

1. Clean Bathroom
2. Renal Medicine
3. Handel's Radamisto
4. Literary Death
5. Chilean Miners

I'll cover items 3, 4, and 5 in tomorrow's blip and write up - I hope you don't mind (since I'm uploading it straight after this one there isn't much of a wait)!

1. Clean Bathroom. I didn't know what to do with myself in the morning, so while the computer burbled in my study (the only way we can receive the BBC News channel) I cleaned the bathroom. It's jolly nice. I put down our new bathmat and hung up the new towels. Lovely.

2. Renal Medicine. I went to see my very dear friend Scharwenka, who is (as you've gathered from the last few days blips) unwell in hospital at the moment. His full medical history is much too long a story for blip write ups, but his current problem is that his kidneys are not very happy at the moment, so he's an inpatient on the renal ward, which is about 1 minute walk away from my old office in the diabetes centre!

It was with great relief that I finally got to see him yesterday. He was on his way for an x-ray when I arrived, so I went along for the walk (he was being wheeled) and he got me to take a picture of the room while we were waiting. We discussed today's blip, and eventually, together, decided that the most representative thing was this wee containing device. Apologies to anyone who's icked out by it, but in renal medicine they get very excited about this sort of stuff. *I* think it makes a change for it not to have come from a cat and me be mopping it up!

Anyway, they'd given him a mass dose of diuretic to try to get rid of some excess fluid, and this was the result. The nurses were very keen to see exactly how much was there and took it off to be weighed at regular intervals. Since I'm blipping this the day after, I can update you and say that he's now been de-catheterised and had dialysis overnight last night as a blood-cleaning measure. Incidentally, if you think being catheterised might be uncomfortable, he reports that he had it done with a sizeable audience of young ladies & gentlemen present - medical students - all peering intently at a certain part of his anatomy! If you're ill, you can't afford to be shy it seems!

Anyway, once we'd finished discussing wee, playing with his bed (which is electrically controlled to do all sorts of stuff), messing around with alcohol gel & wipes, making his O2 SAT go up with the on tap oxygen, making my nose go cold with the same on tap oxygen, and all such small-boy-type activity, I had to go.

It was so fabulous to see him though. He was still essentially HIM, still mischievous, and still interested in everything and anything. He's also grumbling because he can't have a cup of coffee - no coffee allowed on the renal ward, just very weak tea! I also conveyed good wishes from several people who've been in touch with me, for which he thanks them.

Still keeping everything crossed that he gets better soon.