polonca12000 wrote:
Lots and lots of purrs and best wishes for Dave and Paul, and hugs for
you, Lesley,
Polonca and Soncek

Thanks

Update- I'm going to come clean we're all adults here and I hope no-one
will be shocked.

Infections are a problem with the ward, Dave's had two stomach
infections in 3 weeks and Paul's now banned from the ward in case he
gives the bug to everyone else (or possibly in case he and Dave manage
the Great Escape- for this reason Escape Commitee meetings have become
a clandestine affair- more me liasing with Paul and passing messages
between the pair of them)

And what did I get?

Head lice...

I'm just glad my mother's not around, she had an utter belief only
"dirty" people got lice and if she was still around and found out about
it well I might be 50 next year but she'd demonstrate I wasn't old
enough to avoid a spanking! And whilst I know lice don't favour dirty
hair and anyone can get them I've still inherited from mum a real sense
of shame and disgust at this! Asking for the treatment was for me on
par with a 16-year old boy having to buy condoms! It doesn't help the
chemist doesn't keep the stuff with all the other hair treatments so I
had to ask the assistant "Where do you keep the stuff for treating head
lice?" I confess I told her it was for a friend's little girl but I
don't think she believed me

Anyway I treated it so I'm no longer itchy.(Had to wait for the social
workers to go, spent most of their visit trying not to scratch and
praying something wouldn't crawl off my head!) Where did it come from?
I think it was a week or so ago it was raining heavily and when I
slipped into the shower room to use the loo (Visitors are only supposed
to use one toilet, for which they have to get a key from the staff and
sometimes you can't find a member of staff so those of us in the know,
use that loo) and there was a towel there and I dried my hair off.

Seriously yesterday one of the nurses was saying her head was itchy and
Dave said it might be lice and she refused to believe him, she then
opened a supposedly "clean" towel and Dave said "Look", "Dust mites"
she insisted looking at the four or five wriggling things. The Nursing
Assistant who is older and wiser than someone who just got out of
training (Nursing Assistant's are often easier to get on with and have
much more common sense than some of the nurses. There are one or two
nurses who give the impression they'd be too busy writing out a care
plan using the Roper model to notice the patient had wet the bed
because they were too busy writing to fetch a bedpan!) said "No head
lice".

It's now agreed Dave has bites over his legs and back but he's supposed
to be reassured that as they are head lice and die away from the head
even if they do bite he hasn't got them in his hair. One nurse who
asked not to be named for fear of reprisal from managers said it's a
common problem and at any time, some nurses and patients will have head
lice and what really needs to be done is to treat everyone but they
don't . My theory which she agreed on is that some manager worked out
if we wash stuff for y time at x temperature at costs z. So if we
reduced y and x, we also reduce z. And there's some acceptable
cost-benefit ratio regarding the number of head lice that survive when
we reduce x and y.

For me the utter worse bit was remembering when Paul came into the side
room and said "I've just been told. It's cancer" without thinking I put
my arms around him and our heads touched so I had to do the decent
thing and tell him he might have head lice from contact with me. It's
rather on par with having to tell someone you might have infected them
with a "social disease" for me. Luckily he took it well...

Anyway Friday was okay, we were too late to get dinner at the "Sam's"
but we had a beer and a chat. Then Dave said he had best get back as
the physio comes at 4.00 so we rushed back but she'd come at 3.30 and
left a note saying she hoped he was off having fun and she'd do a
double session on Monday (Dave flinched at that!) but there are some
exercises she's shown him that I can do with him so we did half an hour
of those anyway

Btw, Dave has finally claimed the alcove bed! He spotted that as the
prime bit of real estate on the ward the first day he was in and when
he learnt from Sean it was going to be empty on Friday he appealed to
the nurses pointing out he needed the extra space for physio and the
chair and they moved his bed while he was out. It's just what he
wanted, it's almost semi detatched from the ward so it's quieter than
being on the main ward and he's sleeping pretty well now he's in there
but unlike the side room he gets more social contact- although it does
include the least popular man on the ward...this guy has a Walkman,
which he plays non-stop at night, which is harmless enough but he will
sing along, very loudly and very badly until 2.00am!....Dave said much
as he'd never wish being stuck in here on anyone, he rather hoped Simon
Cowell ended up in the next bed. I get the feeling if the guy turns up
dead it will be like "Murder on the Orient Express" ie "Which one of
the other 10 patients killed him?" "They all did!"

Left at 6.30 and went to the leaving do at my old place. Nice to see
everyone (apparently so few people went to the official party the
management were still drinking at 11.30! They got booze in for 100+
people and maybe 30 turned up! And a lot of those stayed for as many as
they could neck down before coming to the unofficial party) but sad in
a way because they're all such good friends. Most have been offered
something , a handful are genuinely happy with their new jobs (even
promotions), some are borderline happy with their new jobs ie they got
the job they wanted but it's on a site which is more travel for them, a
few are doing the same job on another site, a lot have taken the jobs
to keep money coming in until they get something else and one nurse
point blank refused to take the job they considered an "Acceptable"
offer thus losing her redundancy it was in oncology and having lost her
parents to cancer she couldn't face working there.

The building is being let to the private healthcare sector in January
and will open maybe August or a little later next year. A lot of us are
saying we will apply when it does, perhaps get the old crowd together
again...don't know if we will

Saturday we missed lunch again (with the result I have a Papal
dispensation to collect Dave between 1 and 1.30 today so we can as I
said "Not just for him. I haven't had a hot meal since last Sunday
because by the time I leave him it's after 8.00 and I can't eat that
late or I don't sleep. Right now I feel like I could murder a Chinese!"
I had to explain to Olga (who is Chinese) I didn't mean I wanted to
kill an oriental person but she's still giving me funny looks!) but we
sat about for a bit. Dave actually saw a louse fall off his shirt! Then
we had to go back because he needed the loo (His target this week is
even if he has to be wheeled to the toilet door is to be able to get on
it on his own. Reckons there will be screams of ecstatic bliss coming
from the toilet when he does! He hates having to ask for a bedpan
especially with some of the nurses he regards as friends)

I went to see Paul and when I got back Dave was asleep so I said if he
wanted to sleep fine but maybe he should use the bottle first as he'd
said he wanted it and he wouldn't want to have an accident. Suddenly he
started crying saying he wanted to go home and see the cats! (He's even
asked if it would be possible for me to bring them down in a carrier
but they won't let me) Then he settled down again, he says it gets him
when he's half asleep or sometimes when he can't sleep at night
(Through he is now sleeping better probably because all the things he
has to do like physio and getting out are knackering him) but he calmed
down and we went out for a walk for a bit then went back and he settled
down for the night.

And thanks to Sam and Magic Mood Jeep for the cards. I've seen the
"Everything I needed to know I learnt from my cat" before but he hadn't
and we both agree that Sarsi's motto has to be "When in doubt cop an
attitude"

And off I go again

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs