You’re my life now. Part two

I’ve been back at At the hospital for about four days now. So far we’ve had one death, one attempted escape and a fight. Not sure of the details of the latter but it was dominated by a very aggressive woman stating she wasn’t stupid, wouldn't be patronised and then claimed to have been assaulted.

The man who died had lain in the bed next to me, hadn’t been eating and was refusing fluids. He had a jaundiced complexion and his stomach was swollen to an unnatural size. I admit that most distressing to myself was the smell; it was a sweet sickly putrescence and I was massively relieved when he was moved to a side room. When the crash team descended in the middle of the night it came as no surprise who they were looking to save. I know it might seem tasteless, my speaking of this, but a very real consequence of being treated for this disease is being so close to those who fail to survive it. 

The aspiring escapee was in the bed opposite. He was on his third course and the chemo had wreaked its toll. He was very thin and weak and very low in morale. From what he’d told me concerns about his partner had meant that he’d insisted on being treated as an out patient but his health had fallen to such a low level he’d presented himself to A&E, immediately regretting his decision. Confined to bed he displayed many of the characteristics I’d seen in other similarly depressed patients: constant complaining, belligerence and deflection. At 11 in the evening he ripped out his drip and stumbled out of the ward and into the corridors. On being returned he asked to be put out of his misery. I can’t say this is the happiest of wards. 

A couple of nights ago a rather generously sized lady came to take my blood pressure. For some reason she struggled to get a reading and, exhausted by her travails, asked if she could sit down. Before I could  explain that my iPad, iPhone and AirPods were on the chair she had decanted herself only to immediately rise again with my AirPods firmly clenched in her buttocks. After an embarrassing silence they left their new home and hit the floor. Luckily no damage was done but I have used up most of my screen wipes.

Chemo has started and I have felt nauseous, taking the edge off my appetite. I have been prescribed anti sickness pills but to date they seem to have had little effect. I do worry about this because I can’t afford to lose weight again when we’ve all worked so hard at home to get it back on. Other than that things are all pretty mundane and hopefully will remain so.



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