Blog 238 finished with extracts from my diary entries for Friday the 14th of July 2023. This Blog continues my diary entries from the point where Blog 238 finished.
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Friday 14 July 2023 Blog 238’s diary entry finishes this way. [Margaret rings me at 3.33 while I am walking. The Calvary doctor has spoken to Dr Bishnoi. The cancer should be stable and what Margaret has been going through are probably result of side effects of the cancer treatment. The cancer may NOT have spread. Dr Bishnoi will visit Margaret in Mary Potter later today once he has finished attending to his other patients, but is unable to say when he might arrive. I tell Margaret I will return home and return to Mary Potter immediately. It is 4.06 as I type this entry. I am about to return to Mary Potter. Will Margaret perhaps be able to recover and come home?.] **** Friday 14 July 2023 The diary entry for Friday 14 July 2023 continues. It is now 8.40 and I have been home long enough to put away the ghetto blaster and bedside clock radio that I had taken into Mary Potter for Margaret. Neither of them were able to get any reception, presumably because of equipment at Calvary Hospital. As I write this I am completely stunned. Maurine was already there when I arrived and Jameson and Charli arrived shortly after me. They all left just after 7.00 pm, after Margaret had another trip outside in the wheelchair so she could smoke. It had seemed there was no possibility of Dr Bishnoi arriving. It was after 7.00 pm on a Friday evening – but Dr Bishnoi stunned us both by arriving at about 7.25 pm. Until the Calvary doctor – at Margaret’s insistence – had rung him, he had no idea that Margaret was in Mary Potter. He also had no idea that Margaret had spent four nights in Royal Adelaide Hospital. Dr Bishnoi had received no information at all about Margaret from either hospital. The last cat scan he was aware of was the one done in May and based on that cat scan, he thought it was unlikely that Margaret was in imminent danger of dying from the cancer. He had no idea what was causing the pain and he had no idea of the medical reasons why Margaret had been referred to Mary Potter. He promised to get copies of the information from Royal Adelaide and return on Tuesday 18 July. Dr Bishnoi asked if Margaret would like to return home. We said yes, but that was impossible given Margaret’s current state of health. Dr Bishnoi asked if Margaret would like rehabilitation and we both asked what that meant. He did not explain that. When Dr Bishnoi left, Margaret spoke with the nurse in charge. Dr Bishnoi had communicated the same information to her. Brie the charge nurse was extremely sympathetic and helpful. Margaret would not and could not be sent home in her current terrible state of health, but the news that she was not in immediate danger of dying was wonderful. We were both completely stunned and I left for home at about 8.00 pm. I was in bed by 10.00 pm. Saturday 15 July 2023 I woke at 7.15 am on Saturday 15 July. At 7.52, Marg sent me a text saying she had just woken up. We agreed that I would have a leisurely start to the day. At 9.08 I started my walk and was home one hour later. After a shower, I wrote this entry. I will be at Mary Potter by about 11.15. I actually arrived at 10.25. Marg was in good spirits and being helped in the bathroom by the nurses. Once she was in the wheelchair, I wheeled her to the back of the hospital so she could smoke. It was cold and wet, too cold to be out the front. She had spoken with Kevin that morning; Kevin is one of the two nurse practitioners who are in charge of Mary Potter. Kevin too was stunned by the news from Dr Bishnoi and - like Brie the evening before - concerned for the mental health of both of us. Like Brie, he assured Margaret that she had a place at Mary Potter until such time as she is physically able to function properly at home. Shortly after lunch, Marg said I could go home and have some time out. She agreed that she would be fine if I walked at Morialta and did not arrive tomorrow until about 11.30 am I left at about 2.30 pm and phoned Gus to tell him what had happened. After picking up nicotine inhalers from the pharmacy for Marg, I returned home and told Chris and Mary the news from Dr Bishnoi. They too were stunned. I then meditated for an hour. It is now 6.47 and I am about to return to Mary Potter. I arrive at Mary Potter at 7.15 and wheel Margaret out for cigarettes at 8.00 pm. She smokes many because I am not due until after 11.00 am tomorrow. I eventually persuade her that I need to go home, get out of the freezing cold and drive through the city before the football match finishes at Adelaide Oval. I have to drive very close to the oval and if I drive past just as the match finishes, it will be a very slow trip. I am home by 9.30 and in bed by 10.10. Sunday 16 July 2023 I woke on Sunday 18 July at 6.30 when the phone alarm went off and got dressed to walk at Morialta. It was 4 degrees Celsius – very cold. I needed exercise but I was not willing to trust my body reactions to my big perimeter walk so I chose a compromise. I met Alf and Carmine on the way back from First Falls and we returned to First Falls. On the way back from First Falls, we met Mario walking towards the inner car park. He was thinner because of his chemotherapy but he still refused to give in to the disease. He has another chemotherapy session scheduled for Tuesday 18 July. Coffee and biscuits in the hut was great and I arrived at Mary Potter at 11.10 am. Marg said she had been a nuisance to the staff. She was feeling nauseous and had not been able to eat. Kevin, the nurse in charge came in to talk to us both. He was “recalibrating” all treatment in an attempt to discover what was going wrong with Margaret. He felt that the pain control ought to have been successfully bedded down by this stage but it wasn’t. He was aware of what Dr Bishnoi had said on Friday but hinted that he felt a different factor or factors might be at work. After I wheeled Marg out for cigarettes and we had returned to the room, Margaret’s nurse came to make sure she was okay. She too hinted that there might be more going on than Dr Bishnoi was aware of but she too did not elaborate. I think Marg and I both understood what the nurse was hinting at. Marg made a point of saying that she “felt safe” at Mary Potter and I said that I too felt she was safe at Mary Potter. Once again I have the feeling that even if the cancer is in temporary retreat, something else is at work and when Marg said she “felt safe” I got the feeling that she will leave me, not today, but probably soon. |
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