Perils of the heat waves

I have been absent from social media, my website and life for a couple of months. I have been in the local cottage hospital for a couple of weeks, these are all perils of the heat waves. Doing anything during the summer was very difficult, I don’t like it too hot or when the temperature goes above 25C. I had to cancel or rearrange so many activities

Perils of the heat waves

I had tickets to see Inter Alia staring Rosamund Pike in London. I desperately wanted to see it but I had to give it a miss because of a heat wave, over 30C in the capital, in late May. Luckily we have the app ntathome and I have now seen it, bloody brilliant. If you want to see National Theatre productions at home then I recomend the app ntathome. Several other trips to London in the summer were also cancelled for the same reason, simply too hot for mortals like me. Normal life became an enormous struggle. During August survival was the name of the game. Will this be the story for summer in future?

Summer is almost spent

As August turned to September, life with MS was suddenly an enormous struggle. Frequent falls, slight temperature, feeling tired and no energy. All of this is very uncharacteristic for me. The MS nurse asked me to test for a UTI but that was negative. Somehow an OT became involved and found a bed for me at Faversham Cottage hospital.

Faversham Cottage hospital

I was admitted on Friday 4^th of September. I don’t really remember a lot about the comings and goings of my admission. It was all a bit of a blur. At least it is within walking distance of home.

I suspect that when I thought I had a UTI it was covid or a similar type of infection, that explains a lot. The first few days in hospital were resting and recovery, then it was building up my strength and physiotherapists assessing my walking. The hot summer and a Fampridine drug holiday had made walking all but impossible. Now I can manage to walk over 50 metres without a break. I know that is not far but significantly better than nothing.

Carers package

Ten days after admission and cabin fever had set in, I just wanted to get back home. A carers package is necessary to help me get in and out of bed and it is necessary discharge is possible. That is setup by social services and it could be in place the next day or in a week’s time, this only adds to the cabin fever.

Carers will then come to the house for 3 weeks. They will get me up in the morning and put me into bed at night and help me taking clothes off and on. That will give me a chance to build up my strength and get used to being at home. The downside is that the carers could arrive at any time in the morning or evening.

Life in a Cottage hospital

It is small, there are only 16 beds and it is much better than I anticipated. Nearly all the patients suffer from a neurological condition and are older than me. The food is cooked on site and is good but salt is necessary for flavour. At least I am free to do what I want with one exception. When any patienr wants to walk anywhere then they must be accompanied by a nurse or physiotherapist.

Going home

I have just been told that I am going home exactly 2 weeks after being admitted. Two weeks in Faversham Cottage hospital has done me a power of good mentally and physically. Now I am definitely suffering that end of term feeling.  Getting back home and catching up with life is suddenly a really attractive option.

A few tips

If you are taking prescripton drugs into a hospital then make sure they are in the box issued by the pharmacist. Also the hospital will renew your prescription as and when necessary, Take plenty to read and blue tooth headphones to listen to music, radio or audible etc on your phone. You might need to log into the NHS wifi each day.

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