February’s catch up with #Imnotdrunk
I’ve been telling myself for almost a week now to dedicate some time to write this post!! I would love to know where February went, I feel like it flew by… I can’t believe its March, everyone is talking about the St Patricks day celebrations and looking forward to the bank holiday! So, I have some updates for you, work, life and daddy! February was a busy month with work, the start of the year always is, mapping out the events for the year, locking down dates and venues and trying to make sure everything is set in place for the year ahead.
Before Christmas, the Discovery channel came to my house along with dads friends who were in the plane crash with him. They interviewed us about the Kegworth Air Disaster which happened back in 1990. It was aired on the Discovery Channel on the 19th Feb (i think) and it was very interesting to watch! You can pay to watch it on Amazon, but sadly i think this is the only way to see it if you missed it. I wrote a blog post about attending the 30th-anniversary memorial last January with dad and Ryan.
If you search Disasters Engineered on Amazon its Episode 6
I had a week full of events, I was out the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday as well as the Wednesday and Friday night. On Friday night I was invited to speak at a fundraiser taking place about an hour from where I live, it was an amazing night and all the organisers should be so incredibly proud of their effort. The food was amazing and the table quiz was a lot of fun, of course, my team did not win, (they had me) but the one fun fact I did learn that night was, did you know they feed baby chicks scrambled eggs! I guessed this answer and couldn’t believe I was right!! So, the event was a rip-roaring success and I had a great time, I was enjoying myself so much I stayed for the entire thing, getting home about 1 am. Hey, it was a Friday night I could sleep on Saturday morning. I thought!
All the raffle prizes for the fundraiser
I got a phone call about 2.20 am from dads nursing home to inform me he fell out of bed. When I say fell, he launched himself over the rail! They were concerned about his pulse rate and blood pressure so called an ambulance. Luckily, I live 10 minutes from dads nursing home and got there before the ambulance, he has a gash above his eye but was rather chatty for it being the middle of the night. The worrying part was he was coming in about out, he would be chatty Cathy one minute and staring into outer space the next. We all know our loved ones, dads either all or nothing, you have his attention, or you don’t. I didn’t feel like this was normal and I’m glad they called the ambulance, especially with the blood pressure and pulse refusing to rise!! The ambulance came and took him away, I drove myself to the hospital, having stopped for fuel (I wasn’t expecting a late-night run the hospital and my tank was almost empty). Would you believe my daddy and brother were very good teachers! They taught me how to drive and I did such a good job I beat the ambulance. The receptionist said it was very coming!
We got dad out of the ambulance, it was about 3.39 am and into the A&E department, well as close as we could get, dad was left in the corridor for a while until the nurse was free. The nurse was lovely and understood the complexity of his needs, she listened to me and chatted dad. I got such a giggle, she asked dad what happened, and he told her he wanted to get out of bed to get a packet of crisps. W H A T !!! Man, you’re not allowed crisps, you haven’t been allowed them for many months!
Dads Ambulance
He then told the nurse that he wasn’t allowed crisps! He’s such a monkey! Dad was admitted to hospital at 3.50 am, we were seen by the nurse and she attempted to take blood. Dad has great veins, or so they look, the nurse and senior nurse struggled, they managed to get a vile and ½, it was marked precious sample! So 4 am until 8 am we lay in a corridor waiting to get a cubicle or bed. Dad was eventually moved from the ambulance trolly onto a hospital one. We had to keep him lying flat as we could prop him up, with the trolly being the way it was, he would slide off the end.
I slept/ sat in this chair for almost 4 hours
Around 7.30 am I woke, so I must have fallen asleep for a while, although i do remember seeing 5 o’clock on the little white clock staring at me from the wall of the triage room. At this time nurses were doing their shift change and it was freezing!! I jumped up and asked a nurse for more blankets, I wrapped dad up like an onion! I was so scared he had been cold, and I was sleeping! He had gone quiet; he was no longer talking, and you could see the lack of sleep was taking its toll. Another nurse came over and informed me he was getting a cubicle, everything happened very quickly then, the Dr came in and we had a great chat. She told me she had MS and I appreciated her sharing this! She asked me questions HD and my journey, she admitted she was trying to figure out how much I knew about the condition. She soon realised I knew enough!
After we saw the Dr, she checked dad over and cleaned his cut, we settled down waiting for an ambulance to bring us home. Dad hadn’t eaten anything; and this concerned me, i asked the Dr would it be okay for me to get him something, after this the nurse came in to change him and I asked if I could pop out. I was grateful when she said she would keep an eye on him until I got back, I popped to the shop and got him some custard. I couldn’t think of anything else!! I was dying for a smoke, (hold the lectures, i know its bad for me) the last time i had a smoke was 2.40 am on the way to the hospital. I got dad home to the nursing home and crawled into my bed just before 2 am, I had been on the go from 8 am Friday until 2 pm Saturday! I was ready for sleep. His last hospital visit was in November, that was only 3 months ago, is this the way things will go now. Nightlong sits in the corridor freezing my ass off.
This is how close we were to the door! No wonder i was so cold! Poor daddy!
On another note, a few days after our little hospital visit, dad had a new wheelchair brought to the nursing home. Dads incredibly lucky and his OT is amazing! She genuinely cares for him and has been working with him for years. This wheelchair is unreal! Mind you they took it away to make more alterations, but it’ll be back in a few weeks. It’s a little automatic, that doesn’t sound right! Dad can’t control it, but the person pushing it can push a lever and the chair moves on its own. I think its great, dad looks so comfy in it and because of his weight loss, he looked lost in it! This new chair is smaller, easier to manage and I think it’s a great help for dads’ condition.
Dad’s gash
I can’t wait to he gets it back, I told him he will be Colin McCrea, ill pop some photo’s up when he gets it back.
I did ask the wheelchair lady and OT what happens the old wheelchairs, they told me they take them back and strip them down, replace anything needing to be replaced and reuse them. the chair he is getting is refurbished, I quite like that dad is getting a second-hand chair, it means the government and organisations aren’t wasting money on new chairs for every person needing one. This chair looked brand new when they wheeled it in! Have a great March, if you fit to enjoy the St Patricks day bank holiday then take the time to relax. I’m counting down the days to mid-march because I’m heading away for the weekend with friends to see Derek Ryan!
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