Quiet week....

It took the plasterers a couple of days to finish the job - ended up with three coats of whatever it is they use (or it might be three different types!), the final coat is very smooth, almost polished and quite impressive! I suppose I should think about getting it painted though I'm very tempted to do it myself if only to avoid the endless clearing up afterwards!

Although they did a fabulous job, as usual very little cleaning up was done - what a mess they left, all over the newly tiled floor. And they went away leaving the hole in the wall open between the kitchen and the new room. Very draughty! Made a phone call and at about 6.30 pm the builder and 'his boy' arrived and proceeded to clean the floors. Was relieved to see that the tiles were undamaged. Still can't fathom why the tiles went down before the plastering was done .........

The 'boy' arrived the following morning again and continued to clean - not just the bedroom and ensuite either - all the paths were brushed, scrubbed and washed down, rubbish removed (and piled up outside on the opposite side of the road!), but I was really impressed with what he did. I just have the back garden to tidy now which doesn't seem too bad, considering I thought I'd have to do all of it. We have to choose light fittings still and a unit for the bathroom, then beds, bedlinen and curtains. Not sure about colours yet. Hope the doors will be done this week, and the carpenter will fix rails in the walk in wardrobe (that sounds grand but actually it really is just an oversized wardrobe rather than a room!).

Derek has made really good progress this week. We visited the doctor again on Tuesday, adjusted his meds some more, though he's still on insulin and I really hope he can come off that soon - I absolutely HATE having to give that injection. Wish he could do it himself. He's getting a bit lazy again and stays in bed as long as he can in a morning. What worries me about that is that it really wrecks any prospect of regular meals (which he should have) and narrows the amount of time available to get all the medication in for the day. He just thinks I'm nagging him into getting up early for the sake of it.

Had a visit on Thursday from his sister and brother in law who are staying in their caravan at Oliva, having moved up from an appalling site between Villajoyosa and Benidorm. K. has type 2 diabetes like Derek but she is on insulin having reached that point via diet, then diet and tablets. She's well and quite happy. Spent a great afternoon together and we look forward to seeing more of them before they return to UK at the end of March.

Friday we managed to get to the market - YAY! We do love Fridays and managed to spend the whole morning out and about without mishap. Sat in the sun and enjoyed coffee at the market, which didn't have as many stalls as usual so obviously holidays are still being taken!

Great excitement today - I finally got my hair done! I went to Georgette's on the Moraira-Calpe road, recommended by a couple of friends. Very pleased with the way it turned out but have forgotten to take a picture. I really do need to hang my camera round my neck!

Couple of busy days ahead - our former neighbours D. and D. arrive on Tuesday for 10 days - need to get a few things done and out of the way before they arrive, not to mention a good clean up (yet again!). Will try and keep updating my blog though!

Will the dust ever end?

The plasterers arrived at 7.30 this morning. They needed a water supply and an electric socket - fortunately both were available in the basement, close to where they would be working. An amazing array of equipment had arrived on Friday and I was curious to see what it would all be used for. Unfortunately we had to go out for blood tests at the hospital so I missed seeing them set to work. It seems that whatever passes for plaster here is applied with a machine, I didn't see it working but the end result was weird and a tad worrying - lumpy and a dirty yellow! Thankfully that turned out to be the first coat. The second coat was smooth and grey, again applied with the machine. The machine has to be filled with the dry powdered 'plaster' and obviously mixed with water. The machine was positioned just below our naya, where I had three driers full of freshly washed sheets and clothes etc. Of course by the time we got back from the hospital there was yet again a thin layer of dust everywhere. I give up! Oh, and the plasterers seem to be of Easter European origin - it took me an hour or two to realise they weren't talking to each other in Spanish!

The visit to haemotology was interesting! For our first visit we were taken into the room where the blood is extracted without having to wait our turn. But the procedure is that you take a numbered ticket from the machine on the wall (a bit like the deli in Tesco's!), when your number comes up on the screen you go in and have your blood taken. Anyone having a Sintrom (Warfarin) test then moves round the corner to wait by the door marked 'Sintrom' (obviously) from which sometime later (anything up to half an hour) a nurse pops out with a sheaf of papers and proceeds to call out the names of the patients, each patient is handed their sheet which gives the following week's dosage of Sintrom. Some people need to be seen by the doctor, I think this must be indicated on the sheet because at first it seemed quite random - some stayed but most left the hospital after recieving their sheet. For some unknown reason, or maybe because it was our first visit, we waited well over an hour for Derek's results for which we saw the doctor. The INR was very low so the warfarin dose has been increased slightly. He's still anaemic so needs to continue with the iron tablet. We have to return next Monday. This particular clinic is open from 8.30 to 9.30 and it would seem to be a good idea to get there as early as possible. How successful we'll be with that is another matter!

Derek was so fed up with waiting so long, he insisted on going to the Ford dealership to look at new cars! The morning's excitement (!) and activity was enough to have him sleeping most of the afternoon.

And I put my feet up too - I had planned to clean the naya thoroughly but when I saw the dust was still flying around from the plaster machine I decided it would be a waste of time - I'm no fool!

I promised to tell you about the hospital food and the Spanish families visiting the patients. The food in that hospital is dire...... I was never there at breakfast time but Derek tells me it was mainly 'French' toast type bread/biscuit... whatever you want to call it. Nothing with it though. Both Lunch and Dinner consisted of soup and roll, a 'main' dish and either a piece of fruit or a natural yoghurt. The soup has me totally baffled. The first few days it was thin and varied in colour from dirty yellow to dirty orange. Then later it had fideos in it (fideos are like inch long noodles) and sometimes it was quite thick but without the fideos. I can't describe the taste, it's so awful. No seasoning but sometimes you could detect a faint flavour - fish one day, vegetables another. In the end I came to the conclusion the kitchen must have this vast tub of powder which they mix with water and then chuck a few packets of flavouring into it. The soup always came with two small packets of salt - believe me you needed to use both to make the stuff halfway acceptable. The best way of getting it down was with the bread roll. The 'main' dish was usually a piece of meat or fish, occasionally a rubbery omelette - no potatoes, pasta or vegetables! The yoghurt always came with a packet of sweetener. Until the last day Derek didn't have a single hot drink, it was either water or fruit juice. No wonder he was desperate for a decent meal when he got home!

It struck me while I was watching the way the Spanish carry on in hospitals that the older spanish ladies all look pretty much the same! Quite small, the same shape, same hairstyle (but in different colours - very few grey heads there!), similar clothes, and a tendency to sit with folded hands and crossed ankles. Most of the patients were older men and where there was a wife, without exception she would stay overnight and sleep in the reclining chair. During the day the rest of the families would visit en masse, and of course it is a requirement almost that feeding, washing and changing the patient and changing the sheets seems to be the responsibility of the family rather than the hospital staff. None of this UK nonsense of 2 visitors per patient and keeping quiet, it's as noisy as a market in there, and I think the half dozen Brits on the unit found it a bit hard going! Visiting is pretty much all day long. It was rare to find a spanish patient without someone by the bedside but quite commonplace with the Brits (except for Derek who wanted me there all the time!).

All in all, although it has been interesting, it's not an experience I want to repeat anytime soon.

Right, off to make a few phone calls and then put my feet up again. Neither of us are sleeping well so I'm napping whenever I get the chance!

TTFN!

Late again ......

... with my blog - last week's vow to do a daily entry never saw the light of day! This is the first chance I've had to do an update.

The news is Derek came home Thursday, late afternoon. After the doctor saying last Sunday he could come home Monday, they changed their minds on the basis that he was having breathing problems. No bloody wonder - the rooms are like ovens and the windows are screwed shut. His room got sunshine almost all day long and even with the shutters down it was stifling. The family of the Spanish man in the other bed were also complaining it was too hot, so it wasn't just because we're Brits!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were nightmare days, even worse than the days last weekend that I blogged about - I just couldn't keep him calm. We got a wheelchair and I spent a lot of time just wheeling him around so he could see something other than his room, particularly finding open windows in the corridors where he could get some fresh air. By Wednesday we were about ready to let him discharge himself, 12 hours a day of listening to him moaning about being kept in and what he'd like to do to everybody was getting beyond a joke. He was so angry and frustrated. I talked him out of it and eventually sneaked him off the ward floor and did a tour of the hospital! Strictly forbidden but by then we didn't care much. He'd been told that morning he'd be having an x-ray and if it was OK he could go home. Then one of the staff said he wasn't down for an x-ray at all. Finally at 5.30 the spanish equivalent of a porter fetched him away - for an x-ray! No chance of getting a result and a discharge that day.

Thursday I made a super effort to get to the hospital by 10.00 am as I had on Wednesday. Parking at that time of the morning means driving round and round the car park until a space becomes available - Wednesday it took 15 minutes, Thursday about 5. I wanted to be around for the doctor, who finally showed up about 11 or 11.30 - and told him he could go! YAY! All we had to do was wait for the doctor to do his report, collect the medicines he'd need and we'd be off. Can you believe it took till 3 pm for the report to appear and then we had to wait for another half hour before someone could find the time to put the drugs together.

To my utter horror we were given sufficient medicine for ONE DAY! No instructions either, though I worked out what he should have and when from the report. Trouble was, I didn't know what they were for. And I was given an insulin pen for him. That worried me; though I know very little about treating diabetes with insulin I do know that the dose has to be adjusted according to blood sugar levels. All I had to go on was that he needed 12 in the morning and 6 at night (12 and 6 WHAT?) - you dial the dosage on the pen then insert the needle, depress the plunger and wait till it stops clicking. Wasn't given any warfarin though it is required. The nurse indicated we should visit our own doctor the following morning.

Thursday night was not good, Derek was quite disorientated and neither of us slept much. Neither did Sara and Elli as Elli was developing a cold and was very restless.

Friday morning, first call was the Health Centre in town to get this prescription business sorted. Very disappointed to put it mildly. When we finally saw the doctor he showed no interest in Derek or his condition, simply read the report we'd been given and asked us what we wanted from him. I said we wanted the drugs listed; he asked how much I wanted! What was it with him? I suggested a week's supply, should have said a month, I expect the reaction would have been the same. He never spoke to Derek, never asked him a single question. While the doctor was putting the drug list through his computer and printing the prescriptions Derek started showing signs of having a hypo - first time he's ever had one. I pointed this out to the doctor who ignored it, so I asked for a sugary drink - he eventually went out and asked one of the receptionists who came in with a packet of sugar. Phoned Sara who was shopping nearby to get some glucose tablets from the pharmacy and bring them to us. Finally the doctor finished the prescriptions and we left; Sara was waiting with glucose tablets and we got him back to the car, fed him a couple of tablets, hoping he would get back to normal pretty quickly. Realised that after being practically immobile for over two weeks, even the limited activity he'd done that morning was enough to lower his b/s enough for a hypo.

Sara had gone back to do a little more shopping and by the time she returned to the car I'd decided to take a trip to the private clinic we use, where the emergency doctor works whom I'd called at the start of all this. Needed to talk to someone who spoke our language and get the lowdown on the whole situation. Saw Dr Willis, lovely man, made us feel at ease (yes, I know we're paying!) but gave us a lot more confidence and told us how to go on with the various meds. His opinion is that Derek is being given too much insulin and we should try and gradually get him off it and control the diabetes with diet and tablets instead. We go back to see him on Tuesday for blood tests etc. I'm compiling a long list of questions too!

On Monday we have to go back to Denia hospital to the haemotology department for a blood test and sintron (warfarin) check. Not looking forward to that, I expect language will continue to be a problem and goodness knows how long we'll be there.

We also have to go to Valencia in February for a follow up for the aneurysm. The appointment is the day before Simon, Louise and the boys return home after their proposed half term visit - hopefully Simon will be able to help me find the way back there!

During all of this of course Sara and Elli arrived. I visited Derek on Tuesday morning and got him to agree to let me come back home to meet them though he wasn't happy about it. Arrived home the same time they did! We had a quick drink and then headed back to the hospital. Sara brought Elli in to see grandad and the spanish family visiting his room-mate made a huge fuss of her of course. However, after about an hour, when she'd got accustomed to the place and started shouting and flirting and playing to her audience, a twerp of a nurse (male) asked Sara to leave. Considering the whole place sounds like a fish market, with up to 8 visitors in each room clacking away at full volume, and the staff shouting louder than anyone else, I thought this was a bit rich. Unfortunately Derek didn't feel inclined to let me leave before he'd had his dinner and I'd got him settled back in bed, so it was past 9 before I left the hospital. Sara was dying of hunger and it was past Elli's bedtime, plus I knew we'd have to clean up after the builders before we could even have a cup of tea.

On Monday morning the lads who'd been tiling the new bathroom indicated they needed to make the door opening between the kitchen and the new bedroom. They took a while to get some of the wall units down, moved the fridge into the living area (nowhere else for it to go!),cut the base unit in half so I would still have one cupboard and then proceeded to knock the hole through. By the time I realised they weren't going to cover the furniture it was too late, there was dust going everywhere and I have no dust sheets myself. It took me nearly two hours to make the place halfway decent on Monday evening. Thankfully they'd covered the hole so I didn't have a cold house as well! The dust continued to fly into the house until Wednesday and each evening we had to clean up before we could eat! There is still a layer of dust on surfaces and under furniture which I'm tackling this weekend.

While we were seeing Dr. Willis on Friday Sara phoned me asking if he would see Elli, she was pulling at her ears and Sara was worrying about an infection and the flight home on Saturday. Fortunately there's no ear infection but she does have bronchitis or bronchialitis (not sure I know the difference). He prescribed antibiotics. Poor little Elli was really fractious for the rest of Friday and Sara was crossing her fingers one of the meds would kick in sufficiently for them both to have a better night. The antibs started working pretty fast and they both had a decent night's sleep.

Saturday arrived, going home day. Elli was in good spirits, complete change from Friday. Sara was quickly packed having only brought one bag and a holdall. So it was just a question of preparing bottles etc. for the journey home. Antonio collected her at 12.30 and for the first time she managed to get on her way without shedding buckets of tears. She was much happier about her dad and also really looking forward to getting home to Chloe and Scott. We've sent Chloe a little present and written a little note, thanking her for letting mummy and elli come to see us and help us.

I thought it would be a good idea to try and establish how Derek's blood sugar levels vary throughout the day, so decided to test him every two hours or so, particularly before and after meals and any activity. There isn't much activity at the moment and his morning insulin dose was reduced to 6 instead of 12 on Dr. Willis's advice. Throughout the day it was between 5 and 8 m/mol. Will do more or less the same today and tomorrow and take the notes with us on Tuesday. Also recording how he's feeling. He definitely perked up on Saturday so I'm hopeful that he will make steady progress from now on. He needs to get moving a little more as he's retaining water and it's causing some breathlessness.

Today I've probably got a full day of cleaning the downstairs of the house. Did the bedrooms and bathroom yesterday. Need to find a small shelf unit somewhere to house what was in the wall cupboards and which have been cluttering the floor since last Monday.

On that note, I'll publish this, wish you all a happy Sunday and hope to keep my 'promise' from now on and update daily!

Also thank you to everyone who's been sending messages - I really do appreciate it!

Update for the week......

After this entry I hope to do an update daily! I know there are friends out there waiting for news so I'll do my best to find a few minutes each day to let you all know what's happening.

So, New Year's Day and the transfer to Valencia. We got to the hospital in Denia early enough so we could follow the ambulance. I think we set off about 12.30. We'd been given the address and basic directions, luckily we also found the location in the TomTom. Just as well as we lost sight of the ambulance on the motorway after about 15 km! We missed the correct exit off the motorway and did a bit of a circular tour of part of Valencia. It's a frightening place to drive in and I couldn't have done it alone. Simon concentrated on getting the right directions while I drove and we eventually arrived in the right street about 2 p.m. There doesn't seem to be any car parks near the hospital and we parked on the street outside the emergency entrance. Luckily we spotted the ambulance Derek had been in and shortly after bumped into the ambulance crew who took us to the emergency admissions ward door, they also let the staff know we were there. After waiting there for more than an hour we were eventually allowed to see him for 5 minutes each, he seemed in good spirits but tired. No-one seemed to be able to say whether he would be moved to his correct ward any time soon so we thought we'd head for home. Can't remember what time we got back, think it was about 6. Spent a quiet evening catching our breath!

Tuesday we headed back up, again arriving around 2 pm and finding the same street (after another wrong turn!) to park in. During our visit we saw a doctor who told us Derek was being moved back to Denia the following day. It seems that the private ambulance crew (who took him from the house) had reported he was suffering from chest pains. I think actually he was in so much pain he didn't know where it was coming from and his chest was just one of the places he indicated as having pain. After being checked out by the doctors in Valencia they were happy that nothing needed to be taken care of immediately and he could return to Denia to continue his recovery there. I was SO thankful - dreading having to drive alone and find my way around Valencia - that is one scarey city to drive in! I'd even tried to find alternative methods of transport - taxi (€120 each way), train (direct non-existent), driving to Torrent, the outermost Metro Station on the line that goes near the hospital, and so on. We were told he'd be transferred anytime after 12 noon on Wednesday. We arranged that he would call me from his mobile when he arrived back in Denia. I also asked the doctor to phone me when he'd left so I'd have an idea of what time he'd be back.

Wednesday was the day Simon was leaving so this was going to work in our favour - I didn't need to go to Valencia and I could see Simon off and on his way instead of leaving him to his own devices as I'd had to do with Sara and Mark. It also meant I had the rest of the day to tidy the house, get some washing done and just have a bit of time to myself to gather my thoughts.

My young friend J. came calling late afternoon - she is fascinated by my scrapbooking and as I'd just settled down to re-organise my embellishment storage she was happy to help me! While she was here Derek called to say he'd arrived back at Denia - but he was still at the entrance and didn't yet know what floor or room he'd end up in. About half an hour later he called again and a nurse gave me his room number. J and I cleared my stuff away and I went to visit Derek. He was nicely settled in and reasonably comfortable, so I stayed a couple of hours, came back home and did the nightly round of phone calls!

Had a few chores to do on Thursday morning but got to the hospital about noon. Apart from having a few blood tests and injections nothing much was happening. He has a room-mate, Antonio, an elderly Spanish gentleman (well, older than Derek anyway!). He's having a hernia operation Friday afternoon.
It seems that families are expected to play quite a part in the care of the patient, which explains why there are always so many people around! We're expected to feed them if they can't manage it themselves, even sleep overnight in the reclining chairs provided! I don't think I'll be doing that!

Friday Derek is really champing at the bit to do stuff - get out of bed, get in a wheelchair and go for a wander etc. etc. It's proving really difficult to get him to accept that while the spirit is willing the flesh is very weak. He did spend time in the chair beside the bed but can't stay in it for long, and he wants to move from chair to bed and bed to chair with monotonous regularity. The staff must be getting fed up with us constantly pressing the buzzer for attention. As in UK hospitals it takes forever for anything to happen and Derek's sense of time just doesn't exist any more - 20 seconds might as well be 20 minutes. My patience wears very thin at times like this, when he's extremely demanding and just will not wait. I appreciate he's been confined either to bed or his room for well over a week and wants to see something other than those walls. He told me the doctor he saw before I got there said he might be home on Monday. Ye Gods, I hope not! No way can I cope with him the way he is. I understand that, as in UK hospitals, they don't hang around before getting patients out of bed and moving around. Because he isn't allowed to do that I have to assume that he is deemed not ready for it.

Saturday - remembered to take the christmas decorations down! Didn't have time to investigate whether the christmas tree has a root, just left it in its pot on the drive, I can deal with it later! The hospital visit passed in much the same way as Friday, Derek being impatient, me trying to keep him calm. I try telling him that today is a fiesta day in Spain, that nothing much will happen until everything returns to normal on Monday, but he isn't listening. Doesn't want to. I wonder if he's making a nuisance of himself deliberately so they'll be glad to get shot of him! His faith in my ability to cope with him at home in his present state is a huge compliment but totally impractical. He hasn't even been able to use a proper toilet yet! It was a very long day!

Today I had my morning planned - basically ironing and cleaning! Then Derek rang about 9.30 wanting me to go early to the hospital, so I abandoned the ironing and went. In fact, I'm glad I did as, amazingly enough, there was a doctor's round. The big news is that if the blood tests they will carry out tomorrow morning come back OK he can come home! I have mixed feelings - I still think he needs a certain amount of nursing care (I'm not sure they have community nurses here and I hope we won't be expected to pay for nurses to come in and do things), but on the other, he is so frustrated and down that he can only improve if he does come home, and frankly I don't know how many more of these days I can take! I phoned the children to let them know the good news - Sara immediately booked a flight out for herself and Elli for Tuesday! She's been desperate to get back to us, when she last saw her dad a week last Friday he was still in intensive care.

The wife of Derek's room-mate, Antonio, has finally gone home after spending three days and nights at the hospital keeping an eye on her husband (and sleeping in one of those reclining chairs!) - you have to admire her, I don't know how old she is but she's got some stamina!

Going to call it a night for now - as I've not been getting in from the hospital until 9.30 or 10 each night I'm absolutely whacked. Hopefully when I blog tomorrow night it will be to report that Derek is home. And I must remember to tell you all about the hospital food and how fascinating it has been to see Spanish families at such close quarters!