HOME AT LAST

After a CT scan of his lungs showed Bill's lungs were clear, he was allowed to come home even though they wanted to keep him for another two weeks for rehab. He wasn't keen on this idea so I said we had our own physiotherapist who will do the rehab and our health fund will pay. So he was transported home in an ambulance as he is still not agile enough to get into and out of the car.

The ambos bring him right inside the unit and help him into a chair.

He was happy to be home.

I made him his favourite lunch. Continental frankfurters and sauerkraut because he had lost his appetite from the antibiotics. He enjoyed it but couldn't eat it all.

We bought a new chair which is easier to get in and out of as well as having a variety of positions. He's learning how to fly it. It actually stands him up.

Bill used to do all the cooking now there is a new cook in the kitchen. I have to learn all over again after he has cooked for the last fifty years. Chicken, mushrooms, spinach and egg noodles. Easy stuff for the beginner. Unfortunately Bill is still coughing but is walking on a walker a little better. Slowly, slowly getting better.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT IS AROUND THE CORNER

 It has been ages since I posted. A lot has been going on in real life and I haven't had time or inclination to post. On 23 July, Bill got up from the table and walked around the corner to his study when I suddenly heard him say, "What's going on ?". Then I heard his feet shuffling followed by a crash. I knew he had fallen. I rushed into his study and found him unconscious on the floor. He came to when I touched him and spoke to him. He was on his side and he rolled over and attempted to get up but I insisted he stay still and rest for a bit. His glasses were broken on the floor and his face was bleeding where they had dug into his head. His paper thin skin had been torn off his arms and bleeding. Luckily, it wasn't too hard to stop with a handful of tissues. While I was doing this his Apple watch was asking if he was okay as it had detected a fall. I knew he wouldn't be able to get up off the floor so I said let the watch do its job. So after 60 seconds the ambulance service spoke I answered and explained what happened and they told me how to stop the bleeding and sent an ambulance. 

Bill spent three days in hospital. They x-rayed his head to try to establish why he blacked out. Everything looked okay except they found a screw loose!!!(Hee Hee). The little screw that holds on the arm of his glasses had embedded in his head. So they dug it out and sewed him up and patched up his arms and sent him home with a change to his medication to try to avoid low blood pressure.

The next day his knee swelled up and he was in a lot of pain and couldn't walk on it. He was having loads of trouble trying to get around the house. Village friends lent us a wheelie walker and we hired devices to help him get out of bed and chairs and in the bathroom. Our daughter flew from Melbourne to come and help. She is an angel. However, the pain got worse and the skin went red so we had a video consultation with the doctor who suggested he went back to hospital in case it was cellulitis. 

Unfortunately, our favourite private hospital was full so he was taken to our local public hospital. After a week of investigations and intravenous antibiotics they transferred him to a private hospital where he still is today. He has been treated for gout (uric acid crystals) and pseudogout  (calcium crystals) in the knee. He is having more drugs and physiotherapy. Just as he was beginning to walk a little on the painful leg  he developed pneumonia so that was a set back and more intravenous antibiotics needed but all his veins collapsed when they tried to insert yet another cannula after a few days. So now he is on another tablet.

He had a terrible cough but it is subsiding now. The doc said his chest is clear but they saw a shadow on his lung in the X-Ray so now they are investigating that. Poor guy has had enough. He is sick of being unwell and of being in hospital. Our other daughter flew from Melbourne for a week to cheer us up and help at home. We are so lucky to have such fabulous daughters. They both flew home last Monday.

Hopefully I'll have some fun things to write about soon.

The public hospital had modern equipment, great nurses but too many people and not easy to communicate with doctors.

Learning to walk again but it was painful. In a private hospital, which is showing its age but he had a room of his own with a view and good nurses and a doctor who spoke with us every day.

Our girls come to cheer up their dad.

Then pneumonia strikes.