Burton on Trent / Derby

I was delivered a cuppa in bed this morning, Mick was having breakfast, he then set off to hopefully catch the A&E department at Queens Hospital Burton early. It’s about a fifteen minute walk to the hospital and across the busy A38. He was triaged quickly at about 8:30, the screen saying that the waiting time to see a clinician was currently 17 minutes!

Twenty minutes later he moved to the Urgent Treatment Centre waiting area. I got up and started to do some work on panto. Today with Mick out of the way for a while I was going to sort out stretching the artwork for the front cloth. With Tilly out I had the peace and quiet to find a solution and start work on it.

By 9:30 Mick was waiting for a CT scan to make sure he’d not had a stroke, they didn’t think he had.

Opposite the moorings started to empty out. I considered moving over but the wind was building and I didn’t fancy fighting to tie Oleanna up. Plus there was a group of youths chasing each other around the fields holding large firework rockets in their hands, the rockets aimed at each other.

11:30 Mick joined the queue for a scan. Fifteen minutes later the fire alarm went off and he was put in a wheelchair to move him to somewhere safe, this is when Mick seemed to become attached to wheels. Just after midday he’d had his scan, just had to wait for the results. The waiting room emptied out until he was the sole person there, had everyone gone for lunch?

Then at 2pm he was given the results, he’d had a small stroke. They were deciding what to do with him, where to refer him to. I headed over to be his back up memory, my second client as a Medical PA, I’d already caught up with Frank this morning. Mick’s messages suggested he didn’t think he’d be there long, he didn’t want me to take lunch, I took a banana and not much else. Have to say the result wasn’t that much of a surprise to me as my Dad had a stroke that affected his vision, he couldn’t see Judith Stamper one of the Look North presenters on TV one night. Mick’s problem had been similar, but his blank spots had come and gone.

Finding the A&E department was quite complicated, just as I got close he said he was being sent to Derby Hospital to the stroke unit there, they were arranging transport. Then I was given the number of the ambulance he was about to be put in, we met just as he was being pushed up the ramp into it. Neither of us had expected him to going somewhere overnight.

Our second ambulance ride and third hospital in two weeks. It didn’t take that long to reach The Royal Derby Hospital where he was popped on a trolley in the middle of the A&E Majors. Pretty soon a nurse from the Acute Stroke Unit arrived, she chatted things through. Did various visual tests and others for stroke victims. She’d seen his CT scan and they wanted him to stay for tests to try to find out why it had happened, maybe it was connected to our previous trip to hospital ten days ago, or it might just be a coincidence.

Finally someone asked him to move to a room with reclining chairs, he was allowed to actually walk there. He was given some food, pasta carbonara … possibly! We waited, there had been mention that there was a bed for him up on the ward and it would only be an hour before he could move. We waited, a few people came and went, we waited. Nothing else was going to happen today so I opted to leave and head back to feed Tilly, we made a list of things he’d be needing. A very handy express bus back to Burton, a bit of shopping and I was back on board within an hour. I had a nice homemade chicken curry old style for my dinner.

By the time I headed for bed, Mick was still sat in his recliner, a man was asking everyone who arrived what they were there for, he was obviously an expert in everything and seriously annoying! His chat up line for the nurses, ‘They grow pears in America, they grow apples there too. But it takes a place like (insert where the nurse comes from) Swadlincote to grow a peach like you.’

0 locks, 0 miles, 0.3 of a front cloth sorted, 2 hours shore leave, 1 CT scan, 1 blood test, 2 A&E’s, 1 ambulance, 1 wheel chair, 2 trolleys, 1 recliner chair, 1 bus, 1 bemused cat, 241 messages, 1 stroke.