Tuesday, 15th June: Day 5 of convalescence. During my first five days at home, I thought I would continue to write this diary. In fact, it wasn’t that I was too tired – I just couldn’t be bothered. I thought I would be less physically able, and in fact I lacked concentration.
The worst bit of my discharge day was when a nurse had to remove the catheter, which was secured with plaster to my groin. Ouch. ‘Think of it as having a wax,’ she said. ‘I’ve never had a wax in my life,’ I told her. ‘Me neither,’ she replied sympathetically. Then rip. Well, now I know what it’s like, I won’t bother again. Taking the tube out of my stomach was a strange sensation, but not painful.
What I have done each day, except yesterday, Day 4, is to go for a short walk – at first, up to my neighbour and back. On Day 1, I did as I was told and took myself off to bed for a couple of hours, but that night, I couldn’t get off to sleep. As I was lying there, the telephone rang. I answered it to a male soft voice – I thought it was one of the OH’s restaurant jobs ringing. ‘Who are you?’ I said. ‘It’s Tommy,’ I thought he replied. I still had no idea who it was. Could it be one of the non-English male nurses at the hospital? Then he said, ‘I’ve been a naughty boy. I have to tell someone about it.’ I definitely did not need this. I was ready to go to sleep now. ‘Well you can’t tell me,’ I said, putting the phone down. Immediately, it rang again. The OH took it and we didn’t hear any more from Tommy, or who-ever. Anyway, after that day, I only had a sleep mid-afternoon on the settee – and that’s been enough. Today, I didn’t sleep at all. I have been much more alert – and have even taken dictation and printed out a few invoices. There was also quite an accumulation of letters and I’ve been dealing with them during the last few days.
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