Some of you will know that Ian (Ed) was admitted to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital last Wednesday evening, with suspected leaking of his aortic aneurysm. He was very ill, so it was a blue-light ambulance.
He was taken to A&E, had a scan, and was immediately whisked into theatre for late night surgery. The fear was that the aneurysm had actually burst, which is fatal in 90% of cases. Fortunately, in Ian’s case it was on the point of bursting but had not yet done so, and the operation went smoothly.
He was in intensive care for two days, then moved into the surgical ward.
For three days he looked terrible. Full of tubes, on large doses of morphine, and practically comatose. But on the next day there was a marked improvement. Most of the tubes had been removed and he was sitting up and taking notice.
Yesterday he was allowed a cup of tea, and the remaining tubes were removed. By now I could hardly believe it was the same person. He was chatting normally, able to smile and laugh, and had been up and taken a few steps.
Today the change is even more remarkable. He has walked round the ward and up and down stairs, and had food. What’s more, they’ve told him he may be ready for discharge by the weekend.
I can’t help but believe that a huge raft of prayer from family and friends has made all the difference. It has certainly supported me through what has been a somewhat hairy time, and I think the constant, steady improvement in Ian’s condition – far quicker than expected – has been somehow borne on a wave of prayer. I can’t pretend to know how prayer works, but I am so grateful to all those of you who have supported us in this way. Keep up the good work, the results are magnificent.
Oh, and I LOVE the NHS. All those health professionals have been absolutely wonderful. Not only extremely skilful, but very kind and considerate towards worried me as well as Ian. And naturally, it hasn’t cost us a penny.
You may remember that I’ve had trouble with mice before. Pesky little creatures, seemingly with only one desire – to frustrate the life out of me.
Yes, all right, I admit it. I’m to blame for their stubborn refusal to obey, but dropping them several times onto the tiled floor of the conservatory is no reason for them to turn up their toes at the earliest opportunity.
It’s true the latest one lasted several months, but any appreciation of that fact swings out of the window when pointing and clicking and scrolling produce nothing but a feathery excuse for movement. When you can’t get the mouse to move the cursor, there’s nothing for it but to curse.
Since my latest mouse reached that stage today, and all the previous mice – resurrected from various drawers in the study – stood in obstinate solidarity with it, refusing outright to work, there was no choice.
Ed and I hopped into the car, drove to the mouse generating shop and purchased a new one.
So far it’s working perfectly. But I haven’t yet ventured into the conservatory…
I’m more or less back to normal now, in that my back has settled down beautifully and I’m mobile again.
Last week Ed and I went to see his consultant, and learned that Ed has to have the major (rather than the minor) operation to repair his aortic aneurysm. They’re going to admit him sometime during November (no, we still don’t have a date), open up his chest and insert a ‘trouser graft’, which is a kind of tube shaped like an inverted ‘Y’. Now waiting to hear whether the anaesthetist and the kidney guy think Ed is OK for the surgery. Apparently he’ll spend 10-14 days in intensive care afterwards. Hopefully all will be over by Christmas, although inevitably that will be a quiet time for us this year.
We’ve had a couple of lovely meals with friends since then. At times like this it’s good to spend some time with friends. They are a great support for us.
I’m delighted to say that my latest novel, Vengeance Lies In Wait, is now available from Amazon.co.uk as well as from Amazon.com. Not sure how this has happened, since it was only on Amazon.com and upon emailing to ask when it would appear on Amazon.co.uk, they replied, ‘Never.’ So I’m puzzled but delighted, and not willing to rock the boat by asking too many questions.
It’s already selling quite well, so I’m very happy!
I’ve taken one or two services recently – I surprise myself by how much I love doing this – and am taking a funeral tomorrow at the Crematorium. That will be a sad occasion as the deceased was deeply loved by all and was only 62 years old. Sounds young to me, these days. At least he managed to pack a good deal into his life, and if you leave it with everyone saying how much they love you, it’s perhaps the best possible legacy.
I think the Crematorium will be packed tomorrow, so hope the service goes well. It’s always an ordeal for the family, but I hope will give them some comfort. Certainly with lots of people there, the family will be well supported and that always helps.
I’m off to choir in the evening, so that will provide some good relaxation and I shall enjoy it. As I’m not the best singer in the world, those around me may not, but we’ll definitely have fun. A good way to start the weekend.
I was away all last week, acting as a facilitator on the Clergy Leadership Programme.
This is a programme for vicars and rectors who have been in post for some years, to help them assess themselves and their work. We share it with our neighbouring diocese, so there were around twenty participants and seven staff.
It’s held at our diocesan retreat house (which has metamorphosed into a conference centre) and is in a lovely, rural part of south Norfolk/north Suffolk. The weather was unseasonably hot and sunny when we arrived and the swimming pool was open, so naturally I had to swim.
Unfortunately the water was unheated, and although I was assured it was 20 degrees, I think this was a Norfolk idea of 20 degrees. My feet nearly dropped off, but that may have been because I had to break the ice when I first got in…
Anyway, once was enough. The rest of the week, I went walking in our free time.
It was a good week and I enjoyed it (especially watching ‘Keeping Mum’ on Thursday evening) but the bed was pretty dreadful (I could only sleep by wedging myself between the emerging springs) and after lugging all my luggage and computer back to the car on Friday, I’ve developed a bad back.
When I say ‘bad’, it actually means I can’t move. Oh well. Keep taking the tablets…
We didn’t have too good a week last week, hence no blogging.
Ed is still waiting to hear about his aortic aneurysm repair, so we practically sit on the phone, and race to the door when the post drops on the mat. Hasn’t made any difference, though. We still haven’t heard a word from the hospital for over a fortnight now. We’re pretty sure Ed had the last of his pre-op tests two weeks ago, but we don’t know how they’re going to approach the repair or when it will be. Somewhat worrying for both of us.
However, he heard today that some wards at the hospital have been closed because of infection, so perhaps it’s just as well he’s not in there yet. There’s always a silver lining.
Ed has given up golf now until next March, when hopefully he’ll be feeling much fitter having got through the op OK.
Just to cap it all, I had two teeth out. One was a wisdom tooth which had broken, so there was almost no tooth for the dentist to get hold of. She had such a job to shift it that my lower jaw performed all sorts of ugly gyrations, and hasn’t been the same since.
Oh well. the weather is glorious and no doubt all will work out fine in the end. That’s what we’re hoping, anyway.