Tuesday 29th January 2008

Happy birthday to me ! Yes, another birthday has come round. To be honest I wasn't sure whether I would see this one.

First the problem with my legs. The District Nurses came out at about 4:00 P.M. this evening to change my dressings. They have said that the homecare help should be able to change the bandage during the night if it needs it. Last night a couple of District Nurses came round at about 9:00 P.M. to change the dressings on my leg. They were, as always, soaking wet when they were changed. This morning the District Nurses came round to dress my leg but there were none of the usual dressings left. They had to, rather imaginatively, improvise by using incontinance pads in place of dressings when bandaging it. A prescription had been put into their local chemist for more dressings and they had expected him to have delivered them to our house, already. They said it should be on his van ready to be delivered, but if not then they would pick it up from him before they came. Shortly after they left the chemist dropped off a box of dressings. The only thing in the box were the crepe style bandage used for wrapping round the dressings. Unfortunately I did not take too well to this. I thought that the District Nurses would get in contact with the chemist and be told that the bandages/dressings had all been delivered only to turn up and find nothing here, resulting in the use of more incontinance pads and a leg wet again a couple of hours after being dressed. My wife tried to get in touch with the District Nurses to inform them of the situation. She was told by the receptionist at the clinic that she could only leave a message in the book which the District Nurses should read when they came back from their home visits. When or indeed if they would actually read the message she could not say. My wife gave up trying to be put through to the District Nurses on the phone and handed the phone over to a home help nurse from St. Francis Hospice that was next to her and asked her to try. The nurse explained the situation again to the receptionist and asked to be put through to a District Nurse. This time, talking to the nurse, the receptionist said that my wife had not explained the situation properly (even though the nurse said exactly the same thing as my wife) and that she would put her through immediately to the District Nurses. The District Nurses said that they would investigate the situation with regard to the bandages/dressings. One of the District Nurses who bandaged my leg in the morning phoned back later to say not to panic, that she had said that they were going to pick up the bandages for me before they arrived in the evening. I pointed out that, that was not what was said exactly.

Anyway they arrived in the evening with a box of bandages for my leg. The other thing that the District Nurses have said is that the homecare help from St. Francis Hospice should be able to change my leg dressings during the night, if needed. The homecare help is not a guaranteed service. If there is someone available who can stay the night from 10:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. then they will come, if not then no-one will turn up. We do not find out until 4:00 P.M. in the evening if someone is available to stay overnight. It must be said that St. Francis Hospice have done what they can to try and provide someone. We also have Marie Curie nurses coming in during the night between 10:00 P.M. and 7:00 A.M. They can only come in, at most, three times a week. Again they cannot guarantee to come in but will try as much as possible to make the three nights. The night time service, while being vital for me, is not a guaranteed serivce I am afraid.

That leads me on to last night which was a very good night, in that I managed to sleep from about 1:30 A.M. to 6:30 A.M. I haven't slept that much for ages.

Finally to the day itself, my birthday. I have had a few people come in to wish me happy birthday and received several birthday cards. My parents also came round to wish me happy birthday. Overall it has been an enjoyable, if tiring day.

Enough for now, more rantings/ravings another day, goodnight then.