Answers to Questions

A blackbird couple hang out in Dad's garden all year round - here is Mrs B enjoying a few moments perched on the bird bath. She saw me drying dishes through the kitchen window, but she stayed where she was while I fetched the camera and took a few shots of her. Dad feeds the blackbird couple crumbs shaken from the tablecloth, and they often pop their heads above the step of the French doors looking in to see if some tasty titbits are on the way. I think they miss Dad being home as much as we do, as pickings are pretty poor for them at the moment without him here.

After yesterday's upsets and setbacks, Mum and I both slept very badly last night. We walked onto the ward with some trepidation this afternoon, not knowing what we might find. Dad was dozing when we arrived. He was still hooked up to the air pump on the wall via his drain bottle. However, he had been made comfortable in bed last night and he did sleep on and off (when he wasn't being roused from his slumbers by having his blood pressure and temperature done). A big improvement on the previous night's nightmare of being left in a chair for 24 hours. His breathing and appetite is still not as good as it had been earlier this week, however he is looking a little better than he was yesterday afternoon. Dad had been seen by the Registrar from the team this morning, but he didn't really catch a lot of what he was told because he is hard of hearing. I asked for a Doctor to come and explain the state of play with Dad's drain treatment to us all this afternoon because we felt a bit in the dark about it, and a lovely lady Doctor did just that. She made very sure that Dad and Mum could hear everything she said, and was very clear with her summary of what has happened with treatment so far, and what the plan is going forward. We also told her about the chair incident, at which she looked a bit shocked and promised to see to it that this wouldn't happen again. We got answers to all the questions that had been bothering us. Mum and I came away feeling much more positive today. There will be another x-ray to check if the vacuum pump has sorted out the air pocket in Dad's lung lining and, pending the result of that and some further blood tests, he might be discharged to come home.

Shortly after we got back from this afternoon's visit, the Chest Consultant himself rang and I spoke with him for a while. He hasn't been on the ward this week, as he has been running clinics every day, but he said he might pop along to see Dad tomorrow morning to see for himself how he's getting on. I am satisfied that the hospital are doing all they can for Dad. Hopefully we can all get a better night's sleep tonight.