A&E again

I’m safely home again after yet another brief sojourn in hospital. As a few weeks ago, on Friday I got increasingly cold & shivery. By mid-afternoon I was becoming aware I was having increasing difficulty with my speech & memory. I checked my temperature 37.9. We were expecting someone to come to clear a blocked drain so I thought I’d wait a bit until he had come & gone. I continued to feel even colder. As soon as the drain was clear I checked my temperature again – 38.6. I concluded I’d best ring the emergency helpline. Sure enough they insisted I went to A&E with an overnight bag.

 

Once more I had further tests & X-rays for just about everything. Conclusion – chemo induced fever. We’d arrived at the hospital around 6pm. This time the Fox had concluded, after last time, that, if I didn’t come out almost immediately he might as well make his way home & get some food for himself.

 

So around 8pm I was told I could go home as my temperature had gone down. I hastily got dressed – I’d had to wear a gown for the X-ray - & phoned the Fox to come & collect me. I waited near the door. The doctor who’d been treating me, saw me waiting & decided to once more check my temperature. It had soared once more to 38.4. There was no way she was going to let me out with that sort of temperature. Instead she organised a bed on one of the wards. As the Fox came through into the A&E waiting room I hastily told him I was sorry but I was going to be staying overnight after all.

 

By this time I’d had some antibiotics & fluids. Throughout the night a nurse came regularly to check my blood pressure, temperature, pulse etc. By 3am my blood pressure was almost non-existent. She hastily got me on more antibiotics as well as paracetamol to bring down my temperature.

 

Saturday arrived. Mid-morning another bag of antibiotics was fed into my PICC line. Finally the doctor arrived about lunchtime. Yes I could go home but he was giving me a course of antibiotics to have for 5 more days 3 times a day.

 

I have to confess I think this variety of chemo isn’t suiting me. The first week of the first cycle had the same effect on me as this first week of the second cycle. On top of which my one week off between cycles had had to be increased to two weeks as my bloods were so poor. Unless I can take the chemo on a regular basis I cannot believe it stands much chance of being effective. I certainly don’t want to spend half my time rushing off to A&E & spending the night in hospital.

 

I’m now supposed to be “liaising with my oncology nurse” about my next step. I’m not quite sure what that means. I thought I’d have my bloods & PICC line-care done by the district nurse today, then ring the hospital on Tuesday unless they’ve rung me first.

 

 

 

Strange finds

I saw a patch of white on the lawn. Now what? I thought. I assumed it is was a miscellaneous piece of paper that had blown in. I went along to investigate.

 

You can imagine my surprise to find half a fish, a silvery round fish, perhaps a salmon. I couldn’t quite see how it had got here. It’s difficult to imagine a neighbour throwing it over the fence, especially as it was raw. Had a gull caught it & dropped it in? More likely. I picked it up by the tail & threw it in the bin.

 

This is the second odd find. Yesterday it was part of the nozzle of a hosepipe fitting, or possibly a water pistol. Either way, that too went in the bin.

 

I wonder what I’ll find tomorrow.

 

Brooding

Yesterday we popped over to Carnforth, to the supermarket. On the way back, when we were still a bit inland, we were stunned by the Bay. It was so dark, slate grey. 

 

At first I thought I was looking at the land on the other side of the Morecambe Bay. As we neared Morecambe & turned towards the promenade, there was no denying it was indeed the water in the Bay that was so dark. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so dark except at night, obviously, when it is black.

 

Admittedly it was after 3pm, & in this part of the country it is lighting up time around 4pm, especially on an overcast day. 

 

Looking up you could see the clouds were leaden, though in the far distance you could see a bright patch. But that just seemed to emphasise just how thick the dark clouds were. 

 

A strange day, full of foreboding, not helped by the sight of so many closed shops & businesses due to the virus.