Cath Sheard Art

Author: Catherine Barker-Sheard

  • Out of Intensive Care and home again…

    Tony is out of hospital and back home with us. What a relief. They did a basic treadmill test to make sure it was safe to release him, gave him some new medication and waved us goodbye.

    He’ll be off work for 4 to 6 weeks because, being an ambulance officer, the rules around driving are very strict. And besides, they don’t want to do a ‘proper’ stress test till then anyway, as they want his heart to heal a bit in the meantime.

    So, a huge wake-up call, but all safe and sound. All I can say is, thank goodness for the medical teams — our family has a lot to thank them for.

    Celebrating Mum's 84th
    Celebrating Mum's 84th

  • Mum home … but husband in Intensive Care – far out!

    Thursday night I went and got Mum out of hospital. We got home about 6.30pm and settled her back in. Her kidneys are on the mend and she’s feeling quite good. It had been a long week and I was really tired.

    I’d been asleep about 30 minutes when Tony woke me, saying he had a pain in his right arm and a sore throat. Kept an eye on him for a few minutes, then decided to ring 111 for an ambulance. Of course being an ambulance officer himself he’s a hopeless patient!

    We were in the Emergency Dept by about 11.30pm. One of the nurses look at me a bit quizzically and I said “just don’t say a word”. By 2am they were sure it was cardiac related and decided to transfer him to Base Hospital, which is another hour away. So, it’s a 3 hour round trip to visit him…

    Turns out he had an actual heart attack, and the pain lasted through much of Friday. He’s a lot better today – off the drip, off the morphine, and feeling much brighter. He’ll be in Intensive Care all weekend hooked up to a monitor then on Monday they’ll do a treadmill stress test to see if he needs to be assessed for a stent or bypass or whatever.

    Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire…

  • Hospital not going so well

    This post was put on blogger on the 2nd – but I am just finishing making the final transfer over…
    We thought this would be a quick “in and out” hospital trip for Mum. Unfortunately things have not gone that well. Her kidneys are not playing the game and her blood pressure is so low she gets dizzy all the time. At 84, the risk of a nasty fall is high. That said, she fell last week and bounced no problem 😉
    To add to her woes,the hospital food has upset her gall bladder – something we have had under control with diet alone for 2 or 3 years now. Bummer!
    So, although she is not as sick as she has been in the past, she’s nonetheless quite sick; and of course older than last time she got really ill. So we watch and wait…

  • Moving homes!

    Welcome to my new WordPress.com blog.

    I was having problems with blogspot but thought it was just me. Nope … turns out a lot of people have been experiencing hassles. Enough already! When I saw Martha Marshall was having problems and had made the switch it galvanised me into action. So here I am. I hope you’ll bookmark this site, re-subscribe, etc. Thanks for joining me.

  • Mum’s in hospital again

    But I think this is only the second time this winter, so we’re doing well really. She had an infection, we got antibiotics, they didn’t work, so the infection kept on in a low-grade way. Mum’s diabetic, cardiac and renal patient, and it has put her heart and kidneys under considerable pressure.
    On Wednesday she had a fall so I made a doctor’s appointment for Thursday. Because her heart is so fragile they try to keep her pulse rate around 60. When they took it, it was 135. No wonder she felt sick. Her blood pressure was also very low, and her kidney function had deteriorated considerably.
    So, the doctor called the ambulance and my husband turned up and took her away. Nothing like having an ambulance officer for a son-in-law when you have chronic, and sometimes acute, health problems!
    Last night I went up after work and she was feeling a bit better. I had a chat with her nurse who said her vitals are better but there’s a way to go yet. So she’ll be there all weekend at the very least. Our wee dog clearly thinks I’ve misplaced Grandma and is not impressed. Oh dear 😦