Unintentional blogging hiatus

Hello bloggies, so sorry for my absence from blogging lately! I’ve had a hellish week and I just haven’t felt like turning on the computer in the last few days.

As you know, I was feeling really rough last week but I am feeling much better now, thankfully! However, the week carried on to be crap when my boss decided to be an arsehole and didn’t ensure my practice manager had his new bank details which resulted in all the staff not getting paid! So, as of this morning, I am overdrawn and my boss WILL be paying my overdraft charges.

To top it all off, my poor dad is in hospital :-( He had both knees replaced a few years ago but since he had his second knee replaced, he has suffered really badly with it. It swells up really badly and causes him so much pain that he can barely stand which isn’t good when you have a manual job. He went back to see the consultant who wanted to open the knee back up and see what was going on. He went in last week and had an arthroscopy, where they washed out the knee, drained lots of fluid and sent it to be cultured. He was home the same day and felt fine, no major pain and he was able to walk with a stick.

However, the next day he had to go back to the hospital because the wound was literally pouring blood. They put another stitch in it and sent him back home. However, on Sunday morning, my mum called me and said it was bleeding profusely again and would Mr JAG take him to the hospital again. They put him in a compression bandage and again, sent him back home. We went around to my mum and dad’s for Sunday lunch and he seemed fine, the bleeding had stopped or at least stopped leaking through his bandage and he wasn’t in pain.

However, I got a call from my mum at 12.30am Monday morning saying they were going back to the hospital as my dad was in agony. His knee had ballooned to three times the size it should have been and was causing him excruciating pain. We went up to see him yesterday afternoon and he looked so poorly. He was grey as he was in so much pain. The stupid f*cking nurse had forced him to get out of bed that morning to have a shower, despite the fact he had only had a bath 10 hours before. He told her he was in too much pain to get out of bed as he couldn’t move his leg and her answer was “it’s more than my job’s worth to not make you have one”. It took him 10 minutes just to get out of his bed into a wheelchair where he was wheeled to the bathroom, went completely grey and passed out because of the pain.

We then went on to find out the morphine they have been giving him hasn’t been anywhere near strong enough. He told the nurses on numerous occasions it wasn’t helping but they just kept on telling him he could have more in a few hours. It was only when the anaesthetist came around before he was taken back to theatre that he told her he was worried about having to try and get off the bed onto a trolley because of his pain and she said she wasn’t surprised he was in too much pain, the morphine dose he was given would only have about 30% effect on him, possibly less because he is a big man. They have been giving him liquid morphine which is intended for breakthrough pain relief rather than injecting him with morphine, which is what he actually needs.

He was taken back to theatre yesterday afternoon and his knee was re-opened, drained again and pus washed out of it – there is obviously an infection causing him the pain. He was given antibiotics by A&E the day before and up until yesterday evening when we left, the nurses hadn’t given him one, even though they know he is supposed to be taking them.

The incompetence of my local hospital really does horrify me at times.

I’m hoping my dad will be well enough to come home today *crosses fingers* We will know more once the doctor has been around and taken off the bandages to see what’s going on.