24 May 2012
In the end it turned out that my night sitter was that good, reliable carer, Sam, from our own team at Ross Nursing. Nevertheless I think we are in for a battle royal today between Harriet and the social services to try to get this matter resolved to my satisfaction as well as the providers. In the meantime the one beneficiary of all this to-ing and fro-ing, is me. I have had four nights now virtually pain-free. When I do wake up after a few moments and realise that I do not have to wait even the regular intervals, that ‘my lovely’ came down, to check if I was comfortable or not, now, at the first sign of a pain in one joint or another, which I know, if not attended to, all I have to do is to press my alarm and whoever is the night carer will come and turn me over.
I had a long conversation yesterday afternoon with Doctor Michael Davies, one of the two consultants at Papworth hospital, over my breathing. We discussed adjusting the volume of air that flows through the respirator, and some way of lessening it prior to removing the facemask you. These fine adjustments to the Nippy need to be carried out by an expert and quite rightly ‘my lovely’, quite apart from being mechanically challenged, refuses to do anything, the result which could mean life or death.
It seems, from my conversation with Michael Davies – in whom I have great confidence and respect – that we have various options 1) we can try to adjust the Nippy machine over the telephone with one of Papworth experts present. 2) I could be add admitted to Papworth and the fine tuning carried out physically by one or other of the consultants and his colleagues. I am not at all keen on the idea of going into hospital, however nice are the staff, as I cannot see them being prepared, or indeed able, to respond to my every call. Michael Davies, however assured me that they are used to dealing with the needs of individual (difficult!) patients.
I suppose a whole thing will come to a head today, I hope with the social service taking some cognizance of my objection to Two Counties. Firstly, we have never been formally introduced to this firm. We know nothing about them and their track record.
Are we expected to await a knock on the door around 10.00 p.m. where a stranger presents himself as coming from Two Counties to provide a night sitting service. How are we to know that he is who he says he is?, Perhaps he had overheard a conversation in a public house and gleaned sufficient information to make this call and then in the dead of night when the household slept, he cleaned out our valuables. The boy and are and if you are unable to me for bed hungry you will need I agree that all this seems highly improbable, but put yourself in the same position and ask yourself would you be that foolish?
However, in this case we heard, late in the evening, then it would be Sam again, so I retired quite comfortable in my mind that I had someone attending to me throughout the night. Who knew what she was doing.
With my world being topsy-turvy this might be the appropriate moment to pass on to my readers, a riddle sent to me. I have puzzled over it but it has got me foxed. Click here and see for yourself. Perhaps one of my readers will be kind enough to explain it to me.