Nonna’s funeral on Wednesday went well and Massimo (with Sally in charge!) was waiting for everyone to come back to the house for refreshments. However I was brewing a bad throat and by Thursday morning I lost my voice. Luckily Simona stepped in and saved the day by looking after the wee man whilst I went back to bed. On Thursday night Verna came early to help out and when she put Max on the monitor she found that his saturations were low, running at best at 92% so she put him on oxygen and the next morning, in a calm and controlled fashion we called an ambulance, I stayed in bed (again!) whilst Justin took Max to A&E and then settled him up on the ward until the night staff started. The doctors have confirmed that he is well in himself and he does just have a bad cold and (if mine is anything to go by) a very sore throat.
Max has been specialled, ie. has had his own nurse, since he went into the ward, but on Sunday night there was no-one available to do the night shift. Verna was scheduled to do a shift here that night so I called her to see if she would do the shift, but in hospital. She kindly agreed to do it, and off she went. By the time she left this morning she had also agreed to do tonight’s shift. This morning, they had a problem again as they could not get any extra staff and in desperation they booked Sally even though they knew she could only do 8 am till 2 pm and they hoped that by 2 pm they would find someone else. This was not meant to be, so finally feeling better but not 100% off I trotted to do the shift. All was going well as Massimo had his chemo and his oxygen requirement, on 0.75 litres per second when I got there, dropped to 0.25 by 7.30 pm. Unfortunately at about 5 or 5.30 Verna called, she sounded awful, she’s got the lurgy too and had to cancel her shift for tonight. By 9 pm there was no-one available to do the specialling, 3 nurses on the shift tonight but with 12 other patients. Justin and I suggested that we take Max home for the night, as we do have oxygen at home (thank you Nonna!) and all the equipment we might need and that we would bring him back in the morning. Essentially the most important thing is to keep Massimo safe, and with that kind of pressure on the ward, staying in hospital would not have been as good as coming home, so they agreed, happily I think! It is lovely to have him home and I know I will hardly want to take him back in the morning!
Today Massimo had his chemo as usual and rather than making him worse, it was after his chemo, feed and a kip that he woke up happy and smiling and saturating much, much better. Hopefully he will be home properly soon.