I can’t tell you enough how wonderful it is to be home from hospital. Eventually I was discharged on Tuesday afternoon after quite a lot of waiting and being a “patient patient”.
While I was waiting, I took the opportunity to walk up and down the corridor outside the little bay where my bed was . Some of the nursing staff commented how I was doing the right thing, apparently far too many patients stay in bed unnecessarily and convince themselves they are more ill than they really are.
Amongst the conversations were:
- a nurse who fancied running a marathon but didn’t want to do the training. As I told her she needed to build up the mileage gradually and have a mixture of short runs during the week and then a long run at the weekend, it seemed so surreal that I was giving advice to a nurse in a hospital.
- while the above conversation was going on, a surgeon joined the conversation and agreed with me, saying running was a brilliant thing to do.
- another came up to join in and she asked what brought me into hospital. I told her and said I was going to have an operation on my prostate. She explained further about this procedure, saying how the L&D Hospital was a leader with this work.
Eventually I was kitted out with a catheter bag, strapped to my leg and a supply of spare bags, plus some larger capacity night time bags as well. Shortly afterwards came my discharge letter with all kinds of additional information. This included all of the blood test results and the report following the scan of my kidneys. Fascinating stuff.
And then I was off! Rachel had come to collect me and bring me home. It just felt so good coming home again – seems so quiet and calm compared to the hospital.
This stay in hospital has been quite strange. Although it’s the first time I’ve ever had to stay in hospital, it has been a positive experience on the whole. The initial problem has been fixed, I appear to have lost a stone in weight and regained a fairly flat stomach. Also a period of reflection and immense gratitude for the way in which I have been blessed with so many things.
Finally an opportunity to reflect on the future. If I have, say forty years left, how might I use that time best of all?