Friday 30th August 2024

Woke around 0815. Breakfasted downstairs with mum. Nice day. I was just preparing to head off for the shops when dad rang from the hospital to say he wanted picking up. Kath sped off with mum aboard…I drove to Kingston Park for petrol, before driving on to the Freeman. It transpired that father had misunderstood, so we resolved to await further developments. Kath, mum and I went down to the basement to seek out the hospital restaurant. Ate a sandwich and some crisps at a table outside, surrounded by lunching staff members. Kath and I trotted back and forth to her car afterward with zimmer frame, and raised toilet seat. Stood about on the ward waiting for the physio to take dad through detailed instructions on getting about on his crutches, and getting himself in and out of the car. We eventually wheeled him down to the hospital entrance at about 1530…four hours after arrival! Managed to manhandle him into the passenger seat of my car…mum got in the back, and I drove us back to High View. Managed to walk dad around the side of the house, gaining entry via the dining-room French window. Sat him in a raised chair in the living-room. He seems OK, though the morphine is befuddling the brain a little. He told us he'd had visions last night in his hospital bed, thinking that mum had been wheeled into his ward in the bed across from him, having caught norovirus off of him. He called out her name a couple of times, but got no response. Luckily he couldn't get out of bed, as he was on a drip. Come the morning, he asked his nurse if his wife was alright...she told him that it wasn't his wife, but Dave...dad had thought Margaret's legs were a bit hairier than he'd remembered!!! Got him to the dining table to eat some vegetable stew left over from yesterday, which he got down him without mishap. Watched some telly. Dad nodded off in his chair, so we woke him to encourage him to get to bed. He got his zimmer frame trapped between the chair and the piano, and Kath had to prevent him from falling backward. We guided him to his bed, where he backed up, and suddenly let go the zimmer frame, tottering backward...just managed to get a hand to him, and lower him onto the bed!