Nurse Mum

I’m relieved to report that Daughter is progressing as well as can be expected, considering the major surgery that she had. The specialist Endometriosis Unit at London’s UCH is, as I said in an earlier post, excellent. 

But to more mundane matters… how I coped as Nurse Mum for two whole weeks!

For the first two nights after the operation I stayed at the Premier Inn, within walking distance of the hospital. On the third night I made my way to Daughter’s house to prepare for her homecoming. It was a long, bag-laden walk to the station and an even longer walk along the platform looking for the second-class carriages. It took me five carriages to realize that the word ‘First’ referred to First Direct and not First Class.

My biggest test as Nurse Mum came when they discharged Daughter with a catheter fitted to ‘rest the traumatised bladder’. On her first day home she couldn’t even bend to reach the drainage tap, never mind tackle the night bag! Have you any idea how heavy a bag of wee can be? The post-hysterectomy inability to lift meant that the night bag was a ball and chain around her leg. I won’t go into the fear and panic when, on Sunday morning, the bag became blocked, I will merely thank the efficiency of the district nurse who arrived in time to save us a rush to A&E.

While I was staying at Daughter’s I was ‘sleeping’ on a blow-up bed in her living room. Strange how you can sleep anywhere when you’re exhausted! On the eighth night of blow-up-bed-habitation, Daughter’s cat brought me a present… a shrew… a live shrew. She placed it lovingly beside my head, which was mere inches from the floor. Needless to say my head didn’t stay there for long! I rescued the poor little shrew, set it free in the garden and spent the rest of the night on the settee. For my last two nights as Nurse Mum I checked into a nearby hotel. That, as it turned out, was a good plan because it gave Daughter a chance to see if she was ready to manage on her own.

I’m now back home and catching up on a little paper work and a lot of sleep. I hope to resume normal service as soon as possible, especially as I have a major book launch to attend next week for my Children’s Book of Richard III. Apparently I have to make a speech. I dare say I’ll blog about it and I’m quite sure there will be photos to post up so you can kind of join in too.

Thank you to everyone who sent get well wishes to my daughter. We both really appreciate all the messages.