Side Room 1, Ward 24 (Part 3) … and home at last!

I fell asleep by midnight and if there hadn’t been a disturbance in one of the nearby rooms at 3.00am  (it sounded like one of the other patients was experiencing mental issues during the night), I would have had an uninterrupted sleep until I was woken at 5,45am to have my blood pressure, oxygen level, and temperature checks done. This was followed by a very refreshing bed bath and change of bedclothes, during which I had a chat with the nurses about finally going home.

By 8.00pm I had eaten breakfast and had dressed to go home. Then the wait started. At 10.00am the transport coordinator came to see me, and after asking some questions about access to my house, announced that they would need a double team (i.e. four people) to move me … and that this was unlikely to happen until after midday! Apparently, the transport request should have been made on the previous day … BEFORE the decision that I could go home had been made!

It was therefore something of a surprise when two members of the HATS patient transportation team arrived and began preparing to take me home. They did a magnificent job, and by 1.00pm I was home and in bed.

At this point, everything seemed to be getting better … but within an hour the mechanism that controlled the air mattress began to sound alarm bells and the mattress slowly deflated! It actually became too painful to lay down in the bed, and I was lucky that the carers arrived at that point so that they could hoist me out of the bed and into my orthopaedic chair.

After a hurried lunch, Sue contacted the contractor who supplied the air mattress and they agree to send someone to fix it … by 8.00pm! As this was after the time that the carers were supposed to hoist me back onto the bed, it looked as if I might end up sleeping in my chair, sleeping on a deflated mattress, or even returning to hospital … none of which was an ideal solution to the problem.

Luckily, the technician arrived within a couple of hours and knew exactly what was wrong: the emergency CPR valve on the mattress had not been shut. This is in place so that if the patient requires CPR, the mattress can be instantly deflated, thus rendering the CPR more effective. The mattress appear to inflate if the valve is not shut but as soon as anyone gets on it, it deflates.

Thanks to the carers, I was able to spend until 8.30pm in my orthopaedic chair (which is far more comfortable than sitting up in bed) before getting back into bed, and Sue and I were able to spend the evening eating and chatting until it was time for us to go to sleep. Being home must have agreed with me as I slept from just after 11.00pm until 7.15am this morning with only a short break at 3.00am when I needed to have a pee!

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A quick view of my ‘new’ bedroom.

At least I now have daylight and something to see other than four hospital walls.