Every Easter we go away for the weekend as a family, obviously apart from the last two years, so we were thrilled when we were able to book our usual cottage for the Easter weekend. We go to Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire.
As the children have gotten older we have got into some routines on our weekend away, but these are starting to unravel. We always stop at Sainsbury’s on the A1 at Biggleswade for our lunch on the way and then buy our food for the weekend. They have closed the restaurant! It now just sells sandwiches and panninis and the like, so we have to find somewhere else. We have Fish and Chips from Archers Chip Shop in the village, that at least is still open.
On the Saturday we venture into Lincoln, the tearooms that we have our lunch and afternoon tea in closed about 3 years ago and last we knew it was a cheese shop! We wander down Steep Hill, stop off at the sweet shop (that is still open) and then wander to Gotham Games and a couple of record shops. Gotham Games has been the highlight of my son’s trip away for more years than I care to remember; it’s closed down! Sunday wouldn’t be complete without lunch at The Barge and Bottle in Sleaford and then later watching a film at The Kinema in the Woods, which incidentally is celebrating its Centenary.
It started unravelling even more the weekend before Easter this year, I went round to my Dad’s on Sunday evening as usual, opened the back door and there he was laying on the floor in the porch. He had tripped and fallen at about 10 o’clock on Saturday evening, just before he was going up to bed, so he had been laying there for over 20 hours. He was surprisingly cheerful although quite hungry as obviously he had not eaten anything since his evening meal the night before. He had quite resourcefully managed to get a coat from the coat hooks and a cap that he had on his head. He was lying on the rug that he had tripped on, so was warm enough. We immediately called for an Ambulance which arrived about 30 minutes later. They did all the necessary checks on him and he was put on a trolley and sent off to Hospital.
These days of course you are not allowed to travel with your relatives or join then at the hospital unless they require a carer or an Adult with them. So I had to wait until I’d finished work on the Monday before I could visit, and then I had to book a slot, which isn’t easy when you don’t know what time you are going to finish!
To add a little context to this, my Dad has just turned 88, his heart is not the strongest, his legs are very swollen with retained fluid, he has Type 2 Diabetes and for the past 4 or 5 years his kidneys have been working at about 25%. He’s not well! Until recently he has been Ok with it, he always has a joke or quick witted remark and is generally very cheerful. He has of last started to struggle with dressing and walking more than normal and I think it was starting to get him down a bit, not that he would say as much, but later all this made sense and lots of little things came together to make the bigger picture.
I went to see him, took him some clothes, pyjamas, slippers etc and sat with him whilst he ate his tea. 'I never ordered this,' he says, 'what is it?' Cheese and potato pie with peas and carrots he was told, 'Oh that’s Ok' and duly ate it all followed by ice cream and a drink. Of course I’d forgotten his watch!
The next evening I didn’t finish work until after visiting hours so I popped along with his watch and asked that they would pass it on to him, 'come in and say hello, that’s ok,' I’m told. He was asleep so I put his watch in his locker and was about to go and the nurse asked was I not going to say hello, I said that 'I didn’t want to disturb him.' ‘James’ she calls, and wakes him up, 'your son is here.' So I stayed for a short while. Didn’t get to see him on Wednesday, but was there in time for dinner on Thursday, Cheese and potato pie again!
I took a photo of him whilst he was having his tea; he’s looking at me sideways and said, 'Are you photographing me?' I also took one of him when he was asleep, but he didn’t know about that! We chatted, as much as we ever did and he was really chipper, he was making quite an impression on the nurses as well, I noticed.
First thing Friday we had a call from the hospital to say that he had gotten worse during the night and they suggested that I go in to speak with them as well as to visit him. I arrived and waited in the corridor whilst they changed him and sorted him out, the consultant told me that he had quite a lot of fluid on his lungs and to get rid of that that had to give him certain medication, the problem being that the medication damaged his kidneys. So it was either his lungs fill with fluid or his kidneys failed. They were going to give him the medication and told me they would monitor him for a few days, if he showed signs of improvement they would keep on with it, it he showed signs of deterioration then they would move him somewhere quiet and make him comfortable, I said 'fine.' 'Did I realise what they meant by Comfortable,' 'Yes' I said. I sat with him, talking to him and after an hour or so I left him, telling him I would be back later.
When I returned it was before tea time and he was asleep, the nurse told me that he had eaten a whole tub of ice cream about half an hour earlier. I sat with him for 15, 20 minutes and I could see by his chest that he wasn’t breathing, I held him hand, the was no pulse in his thumb and his hand was cold, I sat there and said goodbye and thanked him for being the best Dad ever.
After about 10 minutes one of the nurses passed by and then came back with another nurse, they checked his pulse then drew the curtain and the sister and the doctor came to confirm it. Whilst they were behind the screen the lady came with his tea, one of the nurses gesticulated to her to go back as it wasn’t needed. 'Fish and Chips' I said, 'that’s what I’m having this evening!'
That was Good Friday, except that it wasn’t!
I just want to put it out there that from the Paramedics to the Nurses, the Sister and the Doctors at Luton & Dunstable Hospital could not be faulted, they gave him the best treatment he could have had and he had nothing but praise for them, Thank You!