About being seriously ill in hospital

This post was written on 25.2.17 and has lain in draft ever since. I've read it through and think it's more or less ok to post, so better late than never! Hopefully, it might be food for thought for others who find themselves in similar situations.



In the early hours of Sunday, 5th Feb, 2017, having had an excruciating pain under my right ribs, a 111 call and the lovely lady's call to paramedics brought me to hospital where I was found to have 'severe pneumonia', sepsis and jaundice and, what I would now call a high level of 'mental and emotional strain'.

On Wednesday afternoon, 15th Feb, I came home having had 11 days of the most amazing treatment and care from the (approximately 12) doctors, nurses and caring staff of the Royal Stoke hospital. Rather like the 'tombstone' joke (The inscription reads, "I told you I was ill), I actually was ill. It has taught me a great lesson.

On the very first day, as I lay in A and E, which was an absolutely marvellous experience for me, the so-called infamous 'trolleys' being, surprise, surprise, nothing like Tesco trolleys, but actually, perfectly comfortable padded black trolley/beds; the lovely junior doctor, Tiffany, rushing about finding test results and the like, coming back with the senior Dr, putting me in the picture, I knew that everything that had caused me this stress had to go.

In as far as it lay in my power to do so, I decided that I would never allow anything to put my health in such jeopardy again. The 'anythings' were mostly voluntary 'good works' but when body, mind, emotions and God finally get through, they tell us when enough is enough and that there comes a time when we have to sort out our priorities, and that is what I did; all that has gone.

As I lay there, thinking these thoughts, it came to me that what I've always wanted to do is write and that's what I'm now free to do. I haven't been up to it until today but here I am now, writing in the daytime and not, as usual, when I've had to snatch a late half-hour; so hopefully, this is the beginning of the rest of my life!! I wrote some things in hospital and when the energy returns, I'll try to write them as posts.


PS The effort to do as I hoped above is still a work in progress because life does get in the way of our best intentions and resolutions all the time but at least we can all keep trying.