Crisis Meeting

Finally after a waiting a month for various medical people to come back off holiday we managed to have the crisis meeting we'd all been waiting for.

The aim was to make plans for my future discharge - my dad wanted me 'HBC' - Home By Christmas.
My surgeon said he did not feel I was fit for discharge and therefore wasn't ready for rehab, although plans could be made now for when I was ready.

But when would I be ready, I'm never kept updated about my condition, I don't know if my drains are working, not convinced the meds are working. I haven't eaten a full proper meal in weeks because if I do eat then I either vomit it back up or have urgent full evacuation diarrhoea. I've tried the high protein shakes which have only made things worse. Thankfully this bought me a little more time to not have a nasal-gastric tube reinserted. If I couldn't tolerate the shakes then I couldn't tolerate the feed!

Aside from the side-effects of eating, I'm struggling with meal times, my usual times at home would be breakfast about 10 am, dinner about 2 pm and tea about 6.30 pm but in here, breakfast is at 7.30 am, dinner at 12.30 pm and tea at 4.45pm or 5 pm. Now trying to eat at such an early time is beyond me, but when that breakfast consists of about 30 tablets on top of a single Weetabix, at 7.30 am, I think you'd understand my reluctance to eat at that time. As for a warm cooked meal at tea time, it was agreed that my husband and mum should bring something in a flask for me.

It was also decided that I should have a commode at the side of the bed to encourage me to get out and about! - I sat there thinking 'yeah right' they an't get to me quick enough with a bedpan never mind trying to find a commode, and they certainly wouldn't leave one at the side of my bed all day and night..... we shall just have to see how that 'pans' out!!

Finally, the doctors wanted me moved out of my side room and integrated back into society, so I was to give up my single room with lake view and be moved into a communal room with view of a brick wall!

So let's see how we get on with this then!