Getting Mum Home

Getting Mum Home

We'd hoped to get Mum home on Friday, 13 March - she would then have been in hospital for a week - but blood tests showed she needed more potassium, more hydration etc., so all that had to be put in place first. Then we hoped she could be discharged on Saturday; that slipped to the Sunday, followed by promises to try for the Monday and Tuesday. Before she could leave hospital, she had to be stable and medically fit to travel, and it wasn't until Wednesday, 17 March, that we finally got the all clear, and an ambulance was requested to bring Mum home.

In the event, even on Wednesday, we nearly gave up on it all - by the time it got to 7.00 p.m. and there was still no news as to how close Mum was to getting transport(ed!), we lost hope and thought it probably would not happen until Thursday, by which time we would face another long wait again for things to get moving.

It was also worrying to know patients with coronavirus were being treated in the hospital; the last thing Mum needed was the risk of exposure to it.

We kept Home Sweet Home updated; they were terrific, reassuring us, and telling us to let them know as soon as we had news, and they would be round straight away, to see Mum home.

Suddenly, at about 8.00 p.m., we were told an ambulance was available; Mum was on her way home, and at last she was carried over the threshold at about 8.45 p.m.  The ambulance crew were great; they got Mum into her bedroom, into bed and she settled down.  She was so sleepy - Mum was nice and warm, well wrapped up and with her woolly hat on her head, so we let her snooze on whilst we rang Home Sweet Home. Within half an hour, Stacey and Danielle arrived, to make sure Mum was really comfortable and happy for the night.

To our - and their - distress, they saw Mum had developed a bedsore in hospital, at the base of her spine, towards her bottom, and the skin was open. They dressed the wound, and I said I'd ring the District Nurses first thing in the morning.

I made Mum a cup of tea, and a beaker of Ribena - she had a few spoonfuls, and it seemed to go down well! So that should help to get some fluids in to her.

It had been pretty exhausting getting Mum home - apart from the physical strain of being in the Hospital for so many hours, the uncertainty of it all - will it happen, won't it happen? - adds heavily to the stress.

But at last Mum was home, and in her own bed, where we can look after her so easily; no more twice daily trips to the Hospital, and that saves so much time! Having to prepare everything we needed to take with us, and then travelling to and from the hospital, was really tiring.

We all had a much better night.