Three weeks and counting
As of yesterday, my wife has been in hospital for 3 weeks. As of today, it is 2 weeks that she has been waiting for a transfer to Preston. Yesterday was the first time she has seen a consultant since the day she was admitted. He apparently spent most of the time berating the nursing staff for the way they were doing things. If he had been round more often he would have been able to give them proper instructions earlier!
The Patientline system, as well as being a complete rip-off, has proved to be extremely unreliable, with the units crashing regularly. They run an embedded version of Windows XP (say no more!). Also, the network regularly goes down for hours or even an entire weekend, preventing internet access. We have got around the problem of the outrageously priced priced phone calls, as the nurses are allowing patients to use mobile phones. I don't think this is official policy, but given recent revelations that phones don't actually interfere with equipment, and the very bad publicity Patientline has had (including contract clauses stating that hospitals must ban mobile phones), the nurses are applying a common sense, compassionate approach.
My daughter has been of school all week. The doctor says she has a virus, but also says the stress of her mother being in hospital could also be an issue. The children are spending the weekends with me, but go to their grandparents during the week, so they can do the school run with minimum inconvenience to them. I'm looking forward to getting them back home tonight; I spend week nights rattling around the house on my own, eating junk food. I've also got friends coming to stay, with their two younger children. We went to university together, and have known each other for 19 years. With a bit of luck I can give the kids a fun weekend, taking their minds off their mother being in hospital, and they can chill out a bit. Visitors are also an excuse to open a bottle of wine or three.
Might be around tonight to play in the 9 o'clock MTT on Pokerstars. Depends how much tidying up I need to do after I get the kids to bed. Got to make the house reasonably safe for a 3 year old and a crawling baby!
