Another Poorly Patient

Although this patient isn't in hospital, thank goodness, just curled up on the sofa. Emily's had a very high temperature for the last two days and a horribly sore throat. We've been snuggling up watching DVDs in between going back and fore to visit Grandad, who's still in hospital. Yesterday we watched Night at the Museum (good, but about half an hour too long) and this morning we saw The Devil Wears Prada, which we really enjoyed.

Poor Emy missed yoga last night and is probably going to miss tai chi tomorrow too. She did have a good Monday, though, before the poorliness kicked in at bedtime. We did the next science lesson in physics, which was about potential energy. Fun experiment involved running a toy car down a ramp at various heights to see how high the ramp had to be in order for the car to smash a banana slice, then repeating with the car weighted down with pennies, and working out the car's gravitational potential energy in both cases. Emily also went to football on Monday night and came home very chuffed to have been praised by the coach for her good tackling.

In the hospital, things are getting pretty surreal. Yesterday morning, Grandad was supposed to be having an angiogram first thing. They had him all ready - shaved, medicated, gowned...then they came to tell him at the last minute that they weren't going to do it.....because they had only just realised that they didn't have his hospital records from when he had a quadruple heart bypass ten years ago. He had that done in the Middlesex Hospital in London, which is now closed down. Why it took them until that long to realise they didn't have the records, when he had repeatedly told them his history and where it was done, I don't know. Even worse - they then told him that it was impossible to GET his records, because of the hospital being closed down. Oh, OK, what did they do with all the records when they shut it? Burn them? Hello?????

It took me less than ten minutes yesterday morning to google for Middlesex Hospital, establish that everything from there was now being dealt with at University College Hospital, ring their records dept, confirm with them that they did have the records from Middx ten years ago, get the exact name of the administrator the hospital needed to speak to, plus his direct phone and fax numbers and details of exactly what the hospital should put in their faxed records request. Now hard was that, and why couldn't Scunthorpe hospital manage it????

On top of all this, they then told him that, depending what the records showed, they may not ever be able to do an angiogram anyway; something about it depending on how the grafts on the bypass were done. Well, OK. But then WHY has he been kept in hospital for the past week awaiting a procedure that a) they knew they may not be able to do anyway and b) that they didn't bother requesting the records for in order to find out????

To say that everyone, including of course Grandad himself, is now hugely fed up is a bit of an understatement, shall we say. When I got back from the hospital this afternoon, he's been told that his angiogram is back on again for tomorrow morning. Except then a doctor appeared - asking Grandad whether HE had any news about what was being done and when. So the doctor didn't know and seemed to think that it wouldn't be taking place at all and that he should go home. So the last week has been for what, exactly? Okkkaaay. I'm not holding out too much hope for this fiasco having a successful resolution any time soon.

Anyway. I shall stop writing about that now before I scream.

LOL, Emily's just come upstairs asking if she can have her paddling pool out tomorrow, for the first time this year. And she's ill? Well, yes, she is - but nothing comes in the way of that girl and her pool. She practically lived in it last summer. I'm afraid big bad Mummy and Daddy are going to have to deny that request until her temperature's gone, but I guess next week "It Will Begin"!