A Tweeting View of a Day in the General
6:46 AM May 5th via Snaptu
Just arrived seems there are 4 procedures scheduled and apparently mine is the last so I'm in 4 a long wait!
7:04 AM May 5th via mobile web
With that in mind I suppose I should try and conserve battery life as much as I'm able.
7:06 AM May 5th via mobile web
As I'm sat on a ward at Leicester General waiting to have my 2nd hip replacement (I'm only u r hubby.s age) I will definitely b watching... (response to tweet from Mrs. Stephen Fry)
7:18 AM May 5th via txt
Its beginning 2 get busy but as I've been ignored since they dumped me here I guess I am last in line
7:51 AM May 5th via mobile web
Hopefully Nat's in school by now and having breakfast there. Han photo b off 2 in a little while.
7:55 AM May 5th via mobile web
Just seen my surgeon and has previously said it would seem that I'm going to b waiting till pm 4 my op.
8:22 AM May 5th via mobile web
I think I'll read 4 awhile, just had weirdest sense of déjà vu in the Loo*. Used it last time just found mp3 I was listening 2 last
8:29 AM May 5th via mobile web
Found mp3 I was listening 2 in there just b4
8:31 AM May 5th via mobile web
Can’t make that sentence make sense no matter what.
8:34 AM May 5th via mobile web
OK been seen by practice nurse now forms done BP done 124 over 73 temp 98 and serving heart 77 or 64 when I deliberately relax it. Still pm
9:50 AM May 5th via mobile web
Eavesdropping on all those sound about. Was going too sleep listening to podcast until nurse came. Wide awake now unfortunately.
9:55 AM May 5th via mobile web
Just been listening to a podcast that mentioned, in passing, that addiction to gaming equals 7+ hours per WEEK!!
11:10 AM May 5th via mobile web
Still waiting to be chopped up by the NHS it's not the death panels that get U it's the waiting!!!
11:31 AM May 5th via mobile web
I think I'm dying of thirst where's a death panel when you need one? It's 11.45 nearly afternoon :) Who Ray
11:54 AM May 5th via mobile web
Anyone out there figured out why I use this name to tweet on? This morning may provide you with a slight clue.
11:57 AM May 5th via mobile web
Just been told I'm next after the person who's just gone in. How long I asked? 2 HOURS!!!!!
12:19 PM May 5th via mobile web
So I'll have been sitting here, unable to eat or DRINK, ANYTHING FOR 7.5 HOURS B4 MY OP THAT’S ANOTHER 2+ HOURS!!!
12:24 PM May 5th via mobile web
If I'm out and on a ward by 6pm then that's 12h no water 16h no food. I'm flipping starving and edgy
1:39 PM May 5th via mobile web
In addition I doubt I'll see the kids tonight or get any food or net book delivered plus no cash 2 buy anything.
1:40 PM May 5th via mobile web
Just been given permission to swill my mouth out with water, it's as dry as a kangaroo's jockstrap, but on no account could I swallow Well
1:46 PM May 5th via mobile web
I wonder if I killed and ate another nurse would they notice cos I'm getting hungry enough to do so! Or the maternity ward 4 Yummy Mummy!
1:57 PM May 5th via mobile web
2pm I've now sat here 4 7 hours. I wouldn't mind he I'd been able to have a drink cos the 1st patient had op at 7am + could drink up till 6am
2:09 PM May 5th via mobile web
I've left all the tweets as unedited as possible to demonstrate how many mistakes you can make tweeting on a mobile with a small key-pad.
They finally came for me just after 2:30, I undressed and put on a hospital gown but didn’t put on the supplied paper pants because I thought they were a head cover (they were wrapped up in plastic and could have been anything) and I only discovered differently when I asked the nurse whether I should take it with me. Anyway, after we’d cleared up this mix up the Anesthetist came in to have a word, I confirmed that yes it was my left hip that was being removed and that yes I wished to remain awake during the operation and wanted an Epidural not a General anesthetic. They asked me if I wanted to be wheeled to surgery or would I prefer to walk. The theatre wasn’t far so we walked and chatted as we went. There must be a note on my medical records saying “he’s happy for students to participate and observe any procedures he undergoes” because once we were in the pre-op room readying me for surgery once again I was the guinea pig they were to train on; how else are they going to learn? Anyway, eventually the big needle was in my spine and very rapidly I lost all sensation from that vertebra down. It’s a peculiar feeling, or lack of, and the nearest anyone can get to experiencing what it’s like to be paraplegic because of spinal cord damage. Honestly you could have set my legs on fire and I wouldn’t have felt a thing. Eventually, I was positioned properly on the operating table, my earplugs were in place, a Short History of Nearly Everything (it’s four hours long and if I’m already sleepy Bill Bryson’s voice is guaranteed to put me to sleep) was set to play on my phone; I was wheeled in to be sliced and diced. Now, when you decline a General anesthetic that doesn’t mean that they can’t or won’t put you to sleep; what it means is that they won’t use drugs to induce a coma (which is what a GA is – a pharmacologically induced coma). So, as is usually, after a little while the anesthetist slipped a little gas into my oxygen supply and off I went into the land of Nod
I woke, sometime later, and was told it was all over and that I was about to be wheeled to my ward (Ward 21); things get hazy after that, there was a problem with the pain medication and as the epidural wore off I found myself gradually experiencing more and more pain but was too drowsy to say anything. When Deb and Han arrived, Nat was at Scouts; Deb realized that something was wrong because I was starting to shake and moan because of the increasingly severe pain. Eventually a nurse came and gave me a morphine shot into the hip and the pain, almost immediately, started to subside but my God it was horrendous, if I’d had a gun I honestly think I would have shot myself if there was no other way to stop it. The good news is that it seems that your body is designed to forget such traumatic memories fairly rapidly and now, while I can still remember the event, I can’t truly recall the pain. As you can see from the time between my two final tweets the morphine acts virtually instantaneously. Han took charge of the phone and sent me some sweet tweets; she’s such an Angel it’s such a shame that equally she’s such a Monster!
Just come round been wheeled onto ward pain starting big time. Epidural worn off and no other pain killers in yet... Christ it Hurts
6:58 PM May 5th via mobile web
it's 6.55 I’ve lost track of time and want a beer now
7:00 PM May 5th via mobile web
hello daddy from Hannah
7:59 PM May 5th via mobile web
I love you so much from Hannah
8:01 PM May 5th via mobile web
Deb and Han stayed for about an hour then left me to get some sleep. I can’t recall much of the rest of the night, like the first night last time it was uncomfortable but eventually I dropped off and slept till the morning; well kinda, I forgot to mention that they wake you up every two hours to check your vitals. This entails them shoving a thermometer into you ear, shoving a blood pressure (BP from here on) cuff onto your arm and attaching a pulse monitor to you finger. This continued through the night until official wake up time at 6:00. At least I got to meet the night staff and as I was the only new admission on the ward that night got lots of TLC.
Last time I was here and using this loo I was listening to a pod cast about how twitter had been used to let people know what was going on during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Just before I went to use it this time I found that self same podcast on my creative MP3 player and as I entered the Loo the whole memory flashed through my head.
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