Angels...

Not a good day today...we bother no one and have little contact with nursing staff. Mum gets on with her exercises, rarely needs to use the alarm and most of the time it has to be said you only see any of the staff when they are serving meals or giving out pills.

I was wondering if I was doing the right thing posting this, that's how I am...

Now, I am not criticising the vast majority of medical staff(I know how funny the public can be)I am trying to see their point of view. They also have my gratitude and respect. Like all professions for some it is a calling, for others it's a job.

However, I was greeted today with the request that I take clothes into hospital for Mum.

I said yes...no problem...but when I talked it over with Mum quietly I said to her you have tops and blouses, you have a skirt that I know fits you, plus jackets and cardigans. What more do they want me to bring in? What do you want me to bring in?

I don't know what is right for Mum or what fits(all ladies have some clothes that no longer fit, that are too large or too small)I don't know if after the operation what Mum has would fit anyhow...the operation may've altered her dress size.

One Nurse who was straining to listen to our conversation(for some reason people are always interested in us, it's always been that way)came over and butted in and decided to make a big thing of it(remember I wasn't talking to her or the other nurse with her and they were supposed to be doing something else)

She got hold of the wrong end of the stick through listening in to a conversation that did not include her. So far I hope that you can see that I have said nothing wrong.

Mum was saying what is the point of bringing loads of clothes when all you are doing is sitting in a chair or laying in bed and there is nothing to do.

Remember the B***** TV? It is still not working...She is bored! They have said it would be fixed 6 days ago.

Later on the other Nurse also tried to be clever too and I said if your colleague had not been listening then she would not have got the wrong end of the story but this Nurse obviously backed her colleague. Naturally.

If I felt I wanted to complain it's two against one. Its caused unnecessary ill feeling and its over a really petty issue. I don't even know why it happened and what they are going on about.

This other nurse tried to take it onto other matters but later on I noticed they were trying to be extra nice and falling over themselves, everyone was, so I don't know whether they were starting to think they were in the wrong(I doubt that)and had been un-necessarily rude or trying to avoid possibly a complaint going in from me.

We've got on with everyone except these two...you can see the attitude they have by the way that they walk around with what is a kind of superior and authoritative manner. They are the only two who do. Other Nurses smile, these two look as though they have chewed a wasp! Or there is a nasty smell under their nose.

It's only one side you reading here(so again I am trying to say maybe you should hear all sides to make a judgement)but I related what happened to Mum's sister when home on the phone and she could not understand what they were going on about either. But she told me of some incidents that happened when she stayed in hospital many years ago.

Mum is a model patient. Dare I say that I am a model visitor.

Of course you wonder what(or am I paranoid)they have said about Mum or me to other staff or what has been written down about us because we all know Dr's write comments on patients medical notes)I worked temporally in a Dr's surgery and saw some of what was written. Or maybe they haven't made notes. What may get back to the Dr.

I don't want Mum's recovery or her date for coming home put back because of spite perhaps from hospital staff. Or what they are saying about me.

On the positive side they took out the clips from Mums operation scar, she's doing her exercises well and so there are some positives but this kind of upset Mum doesn't need and neither do I.

Why didn't they phone and ask me to bring some clothes in, the skirt she did have at the hospital fits her well, it had one tiny mark on it and they bagged it up as being dirty with another garment.

Guess what, that garment was not dirty and is ok and you know what I did with the other one?

Knowing I would not be in until tomorrow afternoon with more clothes I took Mum's skirt and I washed it in the hospital in hot water with soap in the sink in the disabled toilet and by the time I went home tonight it was clean and dry.

If you saw how little the mark was that they were unhappy with you'd be amazed. I have seen larger marks on hospital laundry.

Mum has more clothes to change into than some other patients in her room. One patient has been wearing the same clothes all week. However, that patient did mention when she came over to this hospital that she had had problems with staff at the last hospital and she had been called rude and I believe she had complained and I think the staff here are pussy footing around her in case something similar happens.

I'm just at a loss for what happened today...

But I wasn't just going to roll over and be talked to as though I am nothing and certainly by people probably 30 years my junior.

Hopefully, these two are not on duty over the weekend. The hospital Dr is happy with Mum's progress and we are now hearing that she could be home very soon...lets hope so...

They are trying to make this ward like being at home so I understand they want patients to prove their independence and go on like they would at home but it is not home and they are sitting around doing nothing which is not helped by the fact that the tv and radio doesn't work.

The biggest problem to recovery and staying alert is boredom. It's something like 8 hours sleep, 1 hour of exercises, 1 hour for meals and 14 hours of boredom.

That would tire me out...

They say they want patients to show their independence...great! But if there is no one to act as a carer, no patient will be allowed home, that's what I am. It is because I am at home Mum will be allowed to come home. But whilst in hospital the hospital staff are carers but I do actually worry about Mum's safety whilst she is there.

I do most of the care of Mum when I am there so I am like a Nurse. Most visitors do...

In the end some of the things they went on about they gave up on so you wondered why they had said anything in the first place.