Home at Last!

I came home yesterday afternoon, after waiting 6 hours from being told I was being discharged, to receiving my drugs from the pharmacy. They also had to fix up the district nurse to come in each day to give me my daily Fragmin injections which have to continue for 28 days post surgery.

First of all, I want to say the hugest THANK YOU to dear Lucy for co-authoring my blog for the duration. It has been wonderful to know that all you my lovely friends out there have been kept up to date with news. Lucy has been co-authoring my blog during my absence, and getting updates from my hubby.

I also want to say another huge THANK YOU to everybody who has sent such fabulous comments, emails, cards and gifts. I have been overwhelmed by your love and kindness, and know for a fact how much you have all helped me gain a good outcome for my surgery by your tremendous generosity. I am going to try and reply to every comment and thank each person for their beautiful hand-made gifts and cards but I’m afraid this is going to take me a long time…

It is really lovely to be home. I had hoped that after 4 or 5 days I’d be up to having the laptop in hospital but I’m afraid that was not to be – I have found it very hard to focus on anything at all, and even now after 24 hours at home, am finding it a struggle to type – it is going to take time, but there’s no rush.

I am coping very well with my recovery. Shortly after my hubby brought me home yesterday, he went out to Newton Abbot station to pick up my lovely friend Alison – we first became friends at school 50 years ago! (Goodness that makes me feel old!) She and her sister take turn and turn about, looking after their elderly parents, so she works very hard, but she volunteered to take time out to come down and stay and look after us both! Not only is she seemingly a bundle of energy (she even found time to bake scones this afternoon!) and very practical and helpful, but she is a retired nurse (not many people end up with their own private nurse when they come out of hospital do they lol!!) and just having her around is a tremendous tonic – we have been chatting and laughing and remembering lots of fun things. Even if we don’t see each other for several years, we always just pick up where we left off and the years fall away. I am so, so thrilled to have her with us – more than words can say!

While I was in hospital, to start with the nurses simply emptied and changed my stoma bag for me, but after a few days, the stoma nurse came daily and showed me how to do it for myself. From the beginning my hubby was fully involved, and after a couple of days we were doing it together – he laying everything out, and helping with each stage, and one day doing the whole thing himself – learning how to do it for those bad M.E. days when I may not feel up to it. He has been soooo supportive and wonderful over it all.

I am surprised how un-freaked-out I feel about the whole thing – it is far less arduous than I ever expected. Now it is settling down and easier to handle in many ways. I shall be writing more fully about this in the coming days on my new blog, The Gutless Bag Lady.

They wouldn’t let me home until the nurses, OT, physio, stoma nurse and doctors were fully satisfied that my blood pressure was sufficiently raised (it had been very low), my mobility was improved, and my independence up to scratch, and that I could manage the bag myself. I was ready to go on Sunday, but because of the bank holiday weekend, there was nobody around until Tuesday to say that I was fit to go. The next hurdle is to wait for the next MDT meeting (which unfortunately couldn’t take place on Good Friday but will be this coming Friday) when the histology results will be discussed and decisions will be made about whether I have to have chemo. More of the waiting game…

I never thought that being in hospital could be FUN! The first half definitely wasn’t fun, but as I started to get better, things definitely improved in that direction! I am too tired now to say more, but in a subsequent post I’ll fill you in and share some of the laughs we had, and also some of the wonderful experiences I had and the lovely people I encountered.

Thank you again, everybody, for all your tremendous support and encouragement throughout my journey this year. Your love and care have meant far more than inadequate words could ever express. God bless you all.