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