March 2020 Part 1

I’ve decided to transfer my diary entries from the pandemic to here so that it’s in a cloud somewhere. I cannot stress enough the lifelong impact this time will have on the rest of our lives.  I don’t know about the word count so I’ll get as much into one post as I can.

March 2020

Arrived in England with the worst ‘flu’ of my entire life. Mum is in hospital so after the 7 hour drive, I crawl into her bed and sleep. It’s 5pm. I wake up about 9am and think that the hospital won’t let me in when the see the state I’m in. We have to go anyway.

She’s just been diagnosed with lung cancer amongst others they didn’t bother testing for – bone cancer and stomach cancer. They reckon 3 weeks to ‘small months.’  They’ve just watched while she fell out of bed and cut her head. Sam is furious. They don’t put anti-fall bars up on beds anymore apparently, just crash mats. Except there weren’t any on the ward floor. The woman in the bed opposite witnessed it. The cancer charity nurse comes around to explain the help and is never seen again.

Nothing we can do so we go home and take mum’s dog back with us.  I go back to work and muddle through. Feeling a bit better but still no voice. I told colleagues that I ‘was dying’ on an email and Gary asks, ‘Can I have your paperclips if you do!’ I tell him that the whole desk needs torching. The guys are hilarious. They’re keeping me sane. I’ve disinfected the whole desk, paper, pens, the lot.

I’m off work sick now. I think I’ve broken every rib from coughing. I’ve lost my voice. There’s no test invented for Flu or Covid.

I go back to work again and muddle through. Feeling a bit better but still no voice.

Chris went to visit on Thursday to see his Grandma one last time. He FaceTime’s me from the ward and says he doesn’t feel well. Chris collapses on her ward and is taken in. They leave him without food for 28 hours while they work out what to do. He discharges himself and drives back to Selkirk A & E, where he’s taken in. They take out his appendix, which has leaked into his colon. He’s going to be off work for a while. No one to look after him since his wife left him.

Duncan is sent home because he coughed once at work. He was put into an isolation room at the call centre and told to phone 111. He’s fine. Ju is told to take 14 days off then GP says 12 weeks because of all his meds.

Mum is rapidly deteriorating at home now, so I go back south again.