Formalities dealt with the true purpose of this entry is really a diary of what I would describe as a normal day when I go to Guy's Hospital to visit my mum. As a template I shall use yesterday, February 28th, a Monday for those who sometimes, like me, lose track of what day of the week it is. It is going to include events, thoughts about music that I have been listening to on journey's to and from the Hospital, thoughts that have been going through me head plus a mixture of interesting things I see.
9:00:
F**K my life.
This has been the 5th or 6th day in a row that i've been awake until silly o'clock in the morning and woken up at what ordinary people call late for work/lectures. I stayed awake but wrapped up in bed.
First thing to mind, apart from my complaints about waking up, is my mum of course but also on a secondary level my choice of music for the journey to the hospital. I think the choice of music for any journey is very important for many reasons, improving a mood all the way to actually timing how long the journey lasts. For this journey I chose the album I reviewed in my second ever blog: 'Immersion' by Pendulum: One of my favourite albums of all time.
11:50
Out of the door with the opening song 'Genesis' playing and timing to perfection making it to the train station by the time 'Watercolour' had started playing. After a short wait I got onto the train and ended up at London Bridge Station during 'The Island pt 1'.
The music was a most cathartic experience. It relaxed me amidst the worry of coming to the hospital and not know what to expect when I get there.
I got to my mum at approximately 12:40, just as 'The Island pt 2' was getting towards it's final drop to say hello. Timed almost to perfection (because I am nerdy and like that kind of thing) the first thing I should hear are the words 'I'll take you in'.
1:40
While heading back up to my mum's ward after we went outside for a cigarette break I noticed someone walking by us with a flat bandage where their nose should normally be. Now I tend not to the kind of person who stares at things and makes comments in an obvious manner but I could not help myself this time. My thought process was , and I quote, 'S**t! What the hell could have happened that made losing their nose possible?' I managed to catch myself before it was made obvious but it made me think to myself that while things can get bad for anyone, things could always be worse for you.
3:15
It was nice to see Sherie, a neighbour and family friend, come and visit the hospital. While she can be loud on occasion she has always been nothing but a very good friend to us all and if nothing else it was a very good laugh having her around for the time she was there.
3:30
After Sherie left and a trip to the hospital shop via another smoke, my grandmother came to visit. She is the only person who, for various reasons, has been at her daughters bedside as much as I have but it is written all over her face that she is tired and needs a rest.
4:15
A visit from a Greenwich based social worker temporarily see's me sitting outside the ward on my own. With my Ipod charging and with no company with which to have conversation with I occupied my time by actually starting to write some of this down by hand in my pretty new journal and wondering how long that conversation would take.
I had to use my time to watch the staff of this part of the hospital with utter admiration. Whereas the staff at Queen Elizabeth's Hospital looked stressed and run down and were really quite horrible and bitchy, the staff at Guy's on the whole have been nothing but friendly, courteous and have give my mum nothing but the best medical care we could have ever hoped for. I would recommend Samaritan ward to anyone in need of the care that it provides.
4:35
Alone again after Mum and Nan made a visit to the ground floor prayer room. A Metro newspaper to my right and my charging ipod on the other side of the bed on my left and all I can think about is the noise. A hospital ward can be an incredibly noisy place. It's not an obtrusive noise like listening to a bad dubstep song or a loud and boring person talking in your ears but a noise that is a cumulation of a lot of quieter noises including things like, other visitors and patients talking, the faint applause of Deal or no Deal from the bedside television or Nurses discussing...whatever it was they were discussing. A hospital ward almost sounds like a living thing which I suppose is a good thing because if it were to be deafly quiet it would feel weird to be there.
Like it was dead.
5:20
Nurses came to do Mum's blood pressure. She is a new nurse and from what I have heard it is her first day and she will have been working from 8 in the morning (putting my complaints into perspective) until 8 at night which is a massive shift. Obviously there seemed to be some nerves about getting everything right but she did everything correctly which makes me think she will be just fine.
On a side note I saw what some people would refer to as a 'rude boi' on the latest episode of Come Dine with Me. I look forward to seeing what he cooks and how he approaches the whole week. I want to make it clear that I do not like the hat he was wearing.
On another televison related note I have watched a lot of Jeremy Kyle and it has made me realize something about the show that I had never really noticed or even considered:
The people who are on the show (the guests I mean and not the audience) more often than not don't have anything else in their life apart from living in and as such talking/arguing about the increasingly bizarre and ridiculous situations which can very easily and logically be solved and as such make me lost faith in the human race. When there are real problems in the world and all those people care about are the stupid and petty situations there find themselves in where generally in someway they are bound to be in the wrong about is quite frankly pathetic.
6:05:
Failed at a Sodoku in the Metro...FFFFFFUUUUUUU
6:20:
Hospital food = epic fail.
They always say that if you want to know what a pub or a hotel is like you should try the food as that would probably tell you what it is like better than any review of the place. If that were also true of hospitals I'd shut the vast majority of them down. The food on the ward is the one weak spot. It is absolutely dire to be brutally honest.
One thing I have realized in my time here is that it is more interesting to be slightly nosy/rude and listen to what the various are saying to each other and the other general noises around the ward than actually watching the 6 o'clock news. It's so boring and, at times, really f**king depressing.
7:15
Just had a massive conversation with my Mum concerning probably the biggest decision of my life. I'll explain more about what this decision is in my next entry at some point more than 12 hours from this point.
7:30
After catching the second half of Emmerdale back at the ward me and my nan decide it is time to head back. Waiting 16 or so minutes for the train at London Bridge cost me 4 songs on Immersion and the album finished one station before we got off the train which was annoying. No matter, the journey was completed with a little help from As I Lay Dying and Iron Maiden.
8:20
Back home and onto the laptop. Not going to reveal all this until I have checked for grammatical errors and made sure that I finish this at a suitable time.
In all seriousness today has been a bit of an eye-opener. Not because of things to do with My Mum's recovery or the conversations that we had at the time but actually what it is like to be at the hospital day in, day out with very little, if any chance of leaving your own bedside.
So I hope you all enjoyed a look into how I spent Monday 28th February.
My next entry would be described in the world of entertainment as potentially a bit of blockbuster but anyone who is either living, or attending university in Colchester that I know really ought to read this.
Signing off till 6PM tomorrow.
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