Monday 1st December

Ahoy fans!
Am now back at Chilham, and although enormously flattered by my lovely fan mail, I think this blog has done its job!
At its conception, I sort of thought it would just be a good way to steer away lots of phone calls to Stuart, but I'm delighted to see that it took on a whole life of its own through Charlotte's excellent reports.
Just to be proud mother for a second, what Charlotte didn't tell you all is that the last day I was in hospital she heard that she had got a merit in her Msc degree in Political Communication - so she's now going to combine looking after me with starting to look for a job - Obviously not at all an easy call right now.
I'm feeling fine, and doing a bit more each day - stit
ches out on thursday, and should be back to exactly how I was before by Christmas.
Anyway,
Am signing out now, back to boring old emails ....
all the best,
Tessa

Day Seven

I've been a flakey daughter today just spending a couple of hours with Mummy. I knew she was in high spirits when I arrived because a nice man in charge of re-doing the private wing (don't they know there's a RECESSION on?) and wanted to have feedback on the food. Ma was all over it launching into problems with the menu, the food keys, the omlettes, the serving times... Don't think they were expecting to get such an earfull. Or perhaps they might do that on purpose. I'm sure I heard once somewhere of no repute that people with control and responsibility in their lives live longer and healthier. Mummy was the glowing picture of health after this little meeting/rant. She even got upgraded from polyester cups to a real glass. I'm not sure if this was a reward or an attempt to placate the Angry Woman of Room 15.

She really does look good now. We're off home tomorrow. The furniture removal van (Daddy's car) is coming and then we'll be off. I don't know what this means for me. Dangerously there's the tannoy style communication device at home which means I'll be on call all day and night. When Sarah was at home with her leg in plaster there was a walkie-talkie device. This didn't work so well when Mummy switched hers off while Sarah was in the bath leaving her immobile daughter to shrivel prune-like for an hour and a half. Twice. Luckily for Mummy she's mobile so there'll be no Baby Jane situations.

Tomorrow will be the last day of the Royal Free. We bid farewell to the heavenly place of 15 minute lift journeys, plethora of hand sanitizers attached to every door, bed and nurse, mini Mosques in the corridors, and heated intellectual debates about the virtues of Eastenders versus The Archers. Obama's face will no longer adorn the window of room 15 which can be seen for miles around. The bug ridden carpet will no longer haunt the hygiene frenzied nurses in their sleep.
Hello Carleton and widescreen tele.

So this is my last blog entry. Ma will take it from here and I'm pretty sure it's heading for deletion.

Cheerio, Charlotte

Wrong days - I mean Day Six

Bollocks silly me got all the days confused. I've registered two day fours which makes today's entry day six. Not that this really matters one squit.

Day Five

Hmm. Well there's really not all that much to update. Swap with day four's blog entry pedi for mani, fussy for bossy, Miles for Annette, Georgie and Penny and you're pretty much on top of things.

Mummy continues to look better and better. I always think she looks great every morning but by the next she looks even better. She's now totally tube free. And zimmerframe free. Sarah took her on her walk today - a free woman! And food! Well she eats things. She was happy with my smoothie choice today (phew) and then there was turkey mince (urgh!) and a 'fruit segments' which she had an argument with the poor food lady about (another sign of progress in recuperation). I have a very acute illness: Lazysomethinglatin. Despite my best intentions to be tending at my Mother's bedside at all hours I'm afraid this infliction limits me. Mornings are particularly diffiicult for me where I'm bedbound so this morning, well, that's lying, this afternoon - I didn't get there till after midday.

Mummy enjoyed her minced turkey lunch (oh Carleton oh Carleton) while I had my breakfast. Then Mother expertly laid in bed fast asleep but with her arms contorted for manicure precision. She's a full scarlet woman now: toes and fingers. We've been offered the ward 'suite' which is HUGE with a perfect London wide view but humble Mummy (after working out the complicated logistics of furniture removal and redec II the whole thing sounding a big fat bore) has opted for keeping with her cosy spot. She's almost certain to be released (I think the word is discharged but long enough at hospital with a cuisinary highlight of microwaved-from-frozen-and-dipped-in-crude-milky-sauce haddock legitimises 'release') on Thursday morning. The 'Prof' thinks she'll be up riding horses again after Christmas. So all this saga really means is a couple of weeks off the hunting season and the Christmas shopping done online (again, phew!). Meanwhile I'm intent on teaching her everything she's refused for a decade: how to text, how to blog, how to use gmail, how to work the radio, how to everything... so really it's doing the world a favour. My mother is going to emerge tumourless and somewhat technically ept. Then perhaps Ma could teach Pa... PAAAHHH.

The nurse situation has been particularly crap today. Elma, competent and fine. Not nasty. Not smelly. A pronouncable name. A pleasant personality. Really boring - nothing to complain, rename or rave about.

Thanks again for all the messages. We just got all the chilham domain name emails forwarded on - THANK YOU! There are so many and it really cheers up the morning (/midday) routine.

Charlotte

Day Four

It seems that everytime I write on this blog it's either the middle of the night or I've had a drink. I'm afraid neither is an excuse for what appears to be Mummy's spelling mistake below. That was just me being lazy this morning. So no, Mummy doesn't think she's writing on a 'blod' and does fully understand that it is a 'blog' - my bad. This time Mummy insisted I drank half a bottle of Champagne with Sarah before I left which Miles Ponsonby brought with him. Thank you Miles although I blame you for the coming spelling mistakes.

Today has been somewhat eventful. Early this morning Mummy had her epidural out. Then in the afternoon she had the drip out leaving her with just the rather undignified catheter. This means she's much more mobile, and without the epidural, a lot livelier. She's been complaining about the efficiency of the administration, the flavour of the smoothie I bought her, fussing about the way we do things around the room, who waters the flowers, how we arrange the chairs... Not sure I didn't prefer her when she was rather more docile and out of it. No, it's great to see her a bit sparkier even if it does mean that I'll be kept on my toes from now until recovery. Speaking of which, the surgeon (or 'the Prof' as all the staff members call him) came to see her twice today. He's very pleased with her progress and aiming to release her on Wednesday. It's very far from certain that she will be released then but things are definitely looking good. She still sleeps a lot - before and/or after any visitors, meals and get ups to the chair. The medical highlight of the day was the walk we took. Great timing meant that at 6.45pm she had a real reason to make the whole 40m look round in relative speed so as to be back in time for The Archers. She's quite the sight in her Moroccan kaftan and zimmerframe with attached catheter. Also meant she got a good nose at her neighbours: there was the Portugese woman with the husband who speaks too loudly on the phone next to Ma's door, there is the crazy old lady who whimpers from time to time, that's where all the nurses sit round for a gossip etc.

The nonmedical highlight was the pedicure. Well, at least I hope it was a highlight for Mummy. I gave her an hour long pedi which I don't think was in the original job description as personal assisting nurse. The advantage of doing it in a hospital was that I could use as many disposable, medically hygienic gloves as I liked. And boy did I. Mummy got so worried about me being unecological that she started to taunt me that she'd seen people spitting in the gloves. Quite bizarre. Anyway, my Mother now has nicer feet than I do. Well, they were nicer than my ghostly white Daddy shaped feet before the pedi anyway. We went with scarlett red nail varnish to spice up her otherwise rather invalid look. Tomorrow if we have time between visitors, sleeps and washes, we might fit in a manicure.

Sarah has stolen my hypochondriac crown by insisting the nurse do her blood pressure, pulse and oxygen levels. There was no feigning her disappointment when, when pressed, the nurse really did have to insist that they were perfectly normal with nothing to worry about. How Mummy bought up two such hypos I don't know. This was all administered by a nurse with a long Nigerian name which I'm afraid I can't remember. Needless to say, on pronounciation Mummy said: 'I think I'll just call you Ollie'.
Nurse: 'Oh well, some people call me Tini (or something)'
Mummy: 'Yes, Ollie'.
The nurse looked rather pleased with her new macho nickname. Mummy thought she was a bit too timid earlier but maybe she'll rise to the challenge now.

Weird really - I feel like the day has been jam packed but once I write it all down it doesn't really amount to much. As always, she's very grateful for all the messages.

Charlotte

from Tessa

Hi Everyone,

I'm v. proud of my idea of this blod and of Charlotte who is doing such a good job of updating and replying to emails etc.

Am still feeling quite dodgey the majority of the time, but things should improve tomorrow - Monday - when they hope to take out the epidural.

Nurses have all been sweet - and I love the comments and emails - the only hi tech part of this communication that doesn't work is that the lap top I brought here not only will not connect to internet, but won't download onto a stick - Charlotte says its riddled with viruses.

But this works fine so lets leave as is.

Love Tessa

Day Four

Today has been fairly uneventful. I only arrived late in the afternoon as the rest of the family and the Pattersons kept her entertained throughout the day. She was out of bed once before I arrived but the nurses 'let her off' this afternoon on account of it being Sunday (I wasn't aware that the body observed religious days but what do I know). Tomorrow is a big day since she'll be coming off the epidural which means she'll be a bit more awake and have sensation of her stomach. Daddy thinks the best way to measure her progress is by the note on the outside of her door. It started 'NIL BY MOUTH' to 'Fluids only' and now we're at the 'Light soft foods only'.

She's scribbled something down for the blog which I stupidly left downstairs in Pa's locked car who is now asleep. Will add tomorrow morning.

Charlotte

Day Three - redecoration

When I went to see Ma this morning she was up in a seat with soup in front of her looking rather sad. The doctors and nurses think it's important that she sits up in order to prevent chest infection which happens when a patient is lying down all day not using their lungs to full capacity. Poor Ma looked very tired and dreary. A bit of a muddle getting her back into bed with all the tubes left and right and her having next to no strength. After all the palaver Ma and I both needed a good kip before the next 'walk and wash'. My having siesta alongside Ma isn't lazy; it's empathetic. I'm sure of it.

Snoozing with radio 3 came to an end with the next dreaded excursion out of bed. Felt really bad for Mummy who clearly wanted nothing less then to heave out of bed to sit idly waiting to get back in to bed. Fortunately this trip was a real success. She managed to get out of bed and into the seat relatively easily. This was followed by a nice wash and face and hand moisturisers courtesy of me. Mummy has always been a little disappointed with my hand hygiene obsession but I'm in heaven with 5 hand sanitizers in sight at any one point. I'm trying to take on Alma, Ward 12's Hand Hygiene Champion of the Month, by blitzing my hands with alcohol solution at every opportunity. Drying as ethanol is on the hands, I've had to for the first time ever start using a regular top of Johnson's pink hand moisturiser. To my surpirse, Mummy has started to indulge a little. This would be the event of the day were it not for...

Sarah, Jacquetta and Yorgos arrived with a party. They brought a new carpet, a new picture, a pretty blue lamp and a table to spark up what is otherwise a rather dreary room. Alma, our new favourite nurse of the weekend who calls us all 'sweetheart', got involved and suggested that we change around the room so that Mummy can see out the window and generally improve the feng shui. Suddenly Mummy was up on her zimmer frame and took her first walk out of the hospital room to sit outside while we reorganised her entire room. Mummy's favourite nurse by pure virtue of her name ('Lovely', or lovely Lovely as Mummy likes to call her) came to have a look and suddenly quite the hospital party took place. Alma worried about how the oxygen would reach the bed and Sarah and Jacquetta discussed the more delicate artistic direction of how the various flowers should be arranged in juxtaposition to ikea wardrobe and blue polyester curtains considering the standard mood lighting (Doctor's spotlight and strip).

Mummy when I left her was in high spirits although a little dozey after the day's excitement. Jacquetta stayed with her to watch ITV's X Factor (GO Diana Vickers!!) this evening.

Overall the staff at the hospital seem generally pleased with her progress. Certainly walking around the ward one is reminded how lucky Mummy is: she is being well looked after, is going to make full recovery, and is surrounded during the daylight hours by her family. Again, if you would like to visit then please give me a quick call (07970 522 217) - we just want to make sure that people are staggered so that she's not overwhelmed at any point/there are only three chairs... Anything that you email Mummy (tessa.codrington@gmail.com) or me (wheeler.charlotte@gmail.com) will be passed on to her as well as the comments on this blog. She now has her phone on but it is almost permanently on silent. When it was off before we were unable to leave voicemail so rather than try to take the technology on we've settled with leaving it permanently on. Please don't be offended that it is rarely picked up: more than often Mummy has her eyes shut and with all the tubes isn't quite mobile enough to jump for the phone at a moment's notice. We do regularly pick up the voicemails and play them for her which she loves.

Thanks for all the lovely messages,

Charlotte

Day Two

Just a quick note:

Ma is again in good spirits but still very dozey. Lots of Doctors, including the surgeon, came to see her today and are all happy with her progress.

Jacquetta caused quite the excitement in the ward today when she lit the nice scented candle in Ma's room. The nurse had a fit and hasn't been able to stop talking about it all day - 'the candle and the oxygen - well, it's a surprise that the Royal Free is still here'. We're rather in love with the main day nurse - Arlene. She's Irish and nice.

If you'd like to visit Ma then please give me a call. She's terribly worried that she'll have disappointing conversation. She sometimes quite likes chit chat around her but mostly has her eyes shut and sometimes drifts in and out of sleep.

Again, she wanted to pass on thanks for all the messages of support.

Charlotte

End of Day One

Mummy has been very dozey after the operation as the anesthetic is wearing off. She has had an epidural which they are using to regulate pain relief. She is in good spirits but very tired. Her first question when we came after the op was about what had happened. They took out the tumour which was the size of a grape and some other material (sorry not great at taking in all the lingo but will update when I'm on it) which was the size of a tomatoe. They got the tumour at a perfect time. Had they waited another year they might not have had such a successful operation. They decided not to take out the gall bladder since the rest went so well and it turned out to be quite far away from the action (again, whatever that means! Will find out more later...). It's possible they could operate on this later should it cause problems further down the line. Ma's second question was enquiring about Sarah's photograph auction success. And her third: 'please put the Archers on'. All a bit disconcertingly switched on considering she's got her eyes closed and various tubes sticking out of her.

Her Doctor (the carcinoid one - not the surgeon) paid a visit at 10.30pm which was very nice of him. Ma is very worried about the hours he's working - I think she's made a friend there. He was very positive about how it had gone. He warned that the second or third day could be less comfortable than today as the pain starts to kick in.

Ma wanted to thank everyone for all of their nice messages which I've passed on from emails, blog comments, phone calls and texts. I'll post something here as soon as she's ready for visitors.

Thank you for all of your support,

Charlotte

Safely out of op

The surgeon has just called to say that she is safely out of the operation which went well. She won't be conscious and back in her room for another couple of hours so Pa and I will return to see her around 7.30pm.

Charlotte

Stuart's news on Wednesday

Tessa went into hospital at around noon today. She is very cheerful. There are various routine matters which have to be dealt with this afternoon. The operation will be at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday 20th). The hospital is the Royal Free Hospital.

She will not be wanting any visitors other than family for the moment but Charlotte’s pieces on this blog will be the best way to find out when she is able to be visited.

Stuart

Tessa in hospital

Just dropped Ma in hospital. She's very happy with her room and its amenities: a loo and a tele with Sky News and E4 - what more could she need? In fact, she's a little worried that she's got too much to do - tapestry, books, radio, dvds, su doku or some new fangled Times codeword thingy.

She'll be busy this afternoon chatting to nurses and having last minute scans etc to check that she's good to go for tomorrow's op. All things being well she should go into theatre at 1.30pm. The operation could last between 1 and 5 hours depending on what they find there. The range of operative possibilities depends on what the surgeon finds once he opens her tum. If it's (I quote) a 'dog's dinner' then she'll be sewn back up pronto but if best case scenario he'll be looking to take out the tumour and gall bladder. As it's so uncertain we can't be sure when she'll be ready to have visitors but for the moment we're asking people not to come tomorrow. As soon as the surgery is over one of us will post how it went.

Mummy's a bit disappointed that she can't have her tumour in a pickled jar to take home. Health and safety prevents her from even getting a good look when she comes round. Still, she has a camera and is looking forward to taking gritty pictures of, well, I don't really know - nurses? visitors? disturbing self portraits? Will oblige and upload accordingly.

Frustrating for Ma that she can't check the blog herself. I'll download any comments you leave and take them to her on a memory stick. Ma is also keen that I publicise my mobile number in case you want to sort out a visit: 07970 522 217. She has her mobile on her but not knowing how she'll be feeling after seems sensible to have another contact number.

Charlotte

Sunday:
Charlotte has just helped me to open this blog.
I've set it up in order to channel any enquiries about me in hospital....

Charlotte will put something on every day.
I go into hospital on wednesday at 12 noon, and have the operation the next day the 20th, so there won't be any more on this blog till after the op.
My only fear at the moment is that I might get a cold and have to postpone the op. Having psyched up for it now, that would be v. boring.


Reason for Operation
I was diagnosed 3 years ago with carcinoid endochrine tumours which are a) very rare and b) very slow growing. They are the nearest you can get to benign without actually being benign. They produce hormones and give me no trouble at all. The specialist said that if they had gone undiagnosed I might not have noticed anything for ages, apart from having hot flushes.
One of these tumours which is near the colon has started to produce some substance which is apparently very like the inside of a coconut. This is what they want to get rid of, as if it grows much bigger it could interfere with my colon. The surgeon will probably have to cut into the colon to get it all out, which is what makes this quite a big operation. They say I should be in hospital minimum of 7 days, max 10.