Mum in hospital

[PingPongBat]

Admitted via A&E last night. I didn't go to A&E with dad, DD needed me at home so I was really torn. Dad emailed me at 3.30am when he got home. They got to hospital about 7pm so he'll be exhausted.

Mum's been admitted with an infection (not sure where/what), low blood red & white blood counts, low oxygen levels, possible pneumonia. Ward visiting hours are apparently 2 - 8 but I'm going in this morning, she'll be scared and lonely & she's so hard of hearing she may not hear/understand what the doctors say. The nurse said it was 'probably OK' but the ward sister wasn't there so she couldn't check. If they don't let me in I'll sit and wait until they do.

Oh Ping Pong.

I hope they let you. Don't forget the stratgic tears. There were at least a couple of times during the process where rather than argue, I just cried, explaining I was exhausted and really could not deal with a particular barrier. It worked and not necessarily bad for me to acknowledge to myself how low my own reserves were.

Been here all morning, nurses lovely & no problems with me being here. She's in an isolation room because of her low immune system. This morning a blood transfusion was promised, plus stronger antibiotics plus fluids. Nothing apart from lunch has happened yet.

Thinking of you all. Hope your hospital is ok

Back home. Shattered. Mum ate a few mouthfuls of lunch but could only just get the fork to her mouth. When I left around 3.15pm she'd only just been given her first dose of intravenous antibiotics. No sign of the blood transfusion, but hopefully they will start that today seeing as they identified the need for it yesterday . Why is it so SLOW?? The nurses were practically running from one bay to the other, I guess they're just busy?

Mum wants me to email Dad's sisters in Australia as apparently one of them has told him she'd come over if Dad needs her. Dad doesn't want to 'cry wolf' as he puts it. Mum wants Dad to have more support, but also thinks Dad's concerned about the cost for his sister. I'm not sure what Dad thinks about this, that's one for tomorrow when we've both had a good night's sleep.

Supposed to be out for a meal later - need some caffeine first then I'll decide if I can manage it.

So sorry ping pong. Hope things look better tomorrow. Look after yourself.

Really sorry to hear this Ping Pong. How are things today ?

Better, thank you. Saw her this afternoon for a couple of hours. She has perked up & was making sense, in contrast to the rather random conversations I was having with her yesterday (e.g. "did you decide to sell the part of the lake you bought?" & "that's a strange clothes horse, isn't it?" pointing at a chair ). Blood transfusion done last night, fluids & antibiotics continuing. She is still very frail and shaky, struggling to get comfortable in bed, and obviously needs lots of rest.

What struck me today is how young her face still looks, despite being un-made up and tired. She was making the odd joke, chatting about family etc, & drank most of a large cup of tea from the Costa concession, which she declared 'the best cup of tea I've ever had in here' .

The concern is that she went downhill so rapidly from her last transfusion 2 weeks before. She wasn't due another one until next week (i.e. 3 week interval). The haematology consultant is seeing them on Wednesday. Hopefully they will then learn more about her future care & blood needs, but it's not looking great given what's happened in the last fortnight.

DB no.1 (lives in Spain) has booked to spend next weekend here, which will give all of us a boost.

That's sounding better op.

Much hugs.

If her blood is " failing" faster than anticipated can she have weekly bloods to look for the early signs of a fall in her counts? My mum does and it did mean we knew she needed topping up before xmas with the hope of making sure she'd be ok over xmas - which it would have done if her heart failure handnt destabilised...

Great to hear. Look after yourself.