Not a bad sleep for kp who woke up a few times with some bowel issues.

Nil by Mouth today of course and a very tired/weak kp who couldn’t be bothered with bedbaths. Not much conversation but we did have a couple of fun moments. I’ll come to them in chronological order.

The visit today was from the anaesthetist. He had come as they really need blood from kp so they can handle her right in the operation among other reasons. He was determined that his hospital-cred wouldn’t suffer and that he would get blood. Apparently, when noone else can get blood, they call these guys. Well after a bit of poking around, his hospital-cred was intact and we had enough blood for the necessary tests.

The next visit was from the orthopedic doctor who had come to get kp’s consent for the op. He also wanted to mark the wound with a marker pen so they could put her on the right side for the consultant. This was funny. He drew a big line on the back of Karen’s Leg from the knee to the buttock with an arrowhead on the end. Both kp and I tittered at this. I was tempted to add on “Wound This Way” for a laugh, but kp wouldn’t have been amused. I managed to get a good look at the wound today. Marie copped a good look yesterday when they undressed it, and her description was spot on – a hole the size of a 50p which is very deep.

Then kp’s nurse came to do the operation checklist, a series of questions that she asks kp.

Nurse :- Have you got any jewellery on ?
kp:- No

Nurse :- When did you last eat ?
kp:- About 4pm yesterday

Nurse :- Have you got any glass eyes ?
kp:- No

Nurse :- Have you removed your false teeth ?
kp:- False Teeth My Arse

We Laughed.

The operation time is unknown. She is on the emergency list, which doesn’t mean she is urgent, rather she has to wait for a free slot and if there isn’t one, she gets it done last thing today.

Marie is keeping me posted. I feel a bit more positive than last night. Fingers crossed this is her last cleanout.

Forgot to recall a conversation with kp this morning. It went something like this :-

To set the scene, kp was on her side looking towards the window, at her last bouquet of flowers.

kp:- Those flowers are looking a bit withered.
dp:- Aye. They need a bit of Marie Magic. I am sure she will do her flower arranging tricks when she gets in
kp:- THAT WON’T HELP. They’re drooping.

10 second pause

kp:- There like me – a bit past it and withered.

Not wanting to dwell on her weakened state, I just said :-

dp:- Silly Egg

(which is a phrase that normally makes kp smile as my mum uses the phrase from time to time).

I promised to bring her in some fresh flowers. Typical bloke needing a very not-so-subtle hint to kick me into action.

kp has just gone into theatre. Should be out by about 6pm. Let’s hope the next few days, kp is feeling a lot better.

kp had had a snoozy afternoon before going down to theatre at about 4.30pm. I arrived at 6.15pm to find an empty bedroom, so I assumed she was still down at theatre and Marie had gone to pick her up, so I went to Theatre.

I found kp lying on her bed, eyes wide awake staring into space. She was still a bit spaced out, but knew I had arrived. We spent 10 mins going through things with a theatre nurse before heading back to the ward. We entered kp’s room with a slightly different maneuver than usual. We kind of went past the room, and then backed up a bit. This will become relevant later on.

kp’s eyes stayed wide awake from 6.15pm until 9.30pm when we left. At 6.15pm, she was spaced, and gradually we felt her come back to normal. We knew she was definately back with us when she started getting irritable.

Let’s get the key facts out of the way. The op went very well. All cleaned out of gunk and the gunk sent to the microbiologists. No sickness after the op. He temperature was very low 33′C when we got her back to the room. I was convinced the equipment was faulty, but the nurse was insistent that it was fine. I thought you were dead below 35′C and couldn’t do ironing below 36′C but obviously not. The temperature was taken every 30 mins and went up to 37.2′C (perfect temperature) and then dropped to 36.5 before we left, which we are happy with.

Her blood pressure is fine and her sats (how much oxygen is being absorbed) was also fine.

Yay !! So far so good. The next couple of days will be the key days to see if infections kick in.

The irritable kp will no doubt revert to the normal kp tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.

kp was very confused after the op. She thought the door to her room was a lift door and she was convinced she wasn’t in her room. We got her to look at the cards on her wall and things that she knew were in her room, but nothing would convince her that she was in her room. She also said that it felt too closed in for her room, so we lowered the bed to the very lowest position. She was nearly on the floor. That felt a bit better, but still didn’t feel like her room. At this point a very tall nurse came in to do kp’s obs. She did a double-take at kp who was virtually lying on the floor. We raised the bed up for her.

kp couldn’t settle at all. She was too unnerved at not being in her room. We thought that the way she entered the room wasn’t the normal way and may have disorientated her. I suggested we push her (in the bed) back into the corridor past the kitchen and enter the room again describing everything as we passed. We did this. It must have looked very strange pushing kp up the corridor saying “This is the kitchen where hear all the clanging from.” etc….

When we got to kp’s room, we made a point of pointing to her Room Number and the pictures on her wall and I even banged the bed against the wall, the way I normally do when I need to move the bed in the room. As soon as she got the bang, and thanks to Marie’s descriptions ….

kp:- Now I am in my room. This feels right.

Very strange, but funny.

So, kp is ok after her op and couldn’t be better for the night’s sleep ahead. Let’s see what the next few days bring.

One last thing before I forget. Little funny incident. Marie and I were turning Karen on her side. I was at one side of the bed and Marie at the other. The bars on the bed were down. The bars are like an accordion in that if they are up they are wide apart, if they are down, they are very close together. In getting very close to the bed for the move, my penis had got lodged between the bars. Not drastic in itself. At this point, for some reason, Marie decided to move the bed down a bit at which point the bars got closer together. Well, with willy trapped, I had to very skilfully move down at the same speed as the bed and do a reverse pelvic thrust to dislodge. Mrs Bucket was oblivious to these antics and was not amused when I relayed this story to her.

Oh well… she’ll mebbe laugh tomorrow.