Ed’s excitement

Late Monday evening, Ed felt a bit woozy – like you do sometimes if you get up from a chair too quickly. So we toddled off to bed, expecting everything to be all right by the morning.

But it wasn’t. He still felt dizzy, and had a bit of discomfort in his chest. Since we’re due to fly off to Portugal on Saturday (yes, wonderful timing, isn’t it?) we decided he had to see the doctor. We got an appointment yesterday morning and off we drove.

The doctor was wonderful. Checked Ed all over, pronounced “acute atrial fibrillation”, gave us a letter and sent us straight to hospital.

By the time we’d traipsed long corridors finding the right department, poor Ed was feeling grisly. Then we sat and waited while the nurse was busy with another patient with chest pain.

When she got to Ed and stood him up, his legs buckled. With that, about six people materialised from nowhere, got him into a side ward, stuck monitors onto his chest, thrust an oxygen mask over face, and sent me out. It was terrifying.

I sat outside in tears, whereupon somebody bustled up with comforting words and a cup of tea.

Anyway, they were all marvellous. Put Ed on a drip with some stuff to stabilise his heart followed by morphine for the pain, did endless tests, took a chest X-ray and ECG.

I had no phone or money with me, so when Ed was stable and much better, I came home and rang the family. Al came straight over and we drove up to the hospital again with an overnight bag for Ed.

During the time I was absent he’d be seen by three consultants, and when we got there, a cardiologist arrived. He was very reassuring. Said Ed’s heart had stabilised with the medication and everything else was fine. He put him on Warfarin because apparently the biggest risk with AF is stroke, and sent us home with packets of medication and a letter for our doctor. He said the Warfarin would need to be monitored, but that could be done in Portugal and as long as Ed is feeling all right by Friday, we can fly.

And all this for free. I LOVE the NHS!

He seems fine this morning. We have rung Portugal, who say there is no problem about getting Ed to a clinic, and they’re giving us a ground floor room. So hopefully, all will be okay.

Could do without this sort of excitement, though.