30 September - 48 hour week

Can't say am not beeing looked after properly. the hospital room is on a newly refurbished floor and the ensuite bathroom is large and out of the box so it all seems very nice hotel to me. the nurse engages me in conversation about Murakami book which is on my bedside table. an early onne, first twenty pages not that engaging and so don't think i'll bother. the drugs worked fine and since surgery was realtively short did not wake up too discombobulated and know my name etc.



Shame the injected local anaesthetic is doing his job and so don't need those morphine based painkillers all friends were wishing on me. darn.



In 3 days i see various nurses and there it is, article about the 48 hour week demanded by EU officials means a patient gets passed between 3 or 4 shifts in 24 hours. here it seems to be every 12 but still, it appears that much can go wrong in a chain of chinese whispers between doctors and nurses being handed over notes. my own little example of this is that every time new nurse comes to take my blood pressure. often as it happens as would be indication of something going very wrong, said n urse starts to worry when they see my level super low at 87 on occasions and i have to explain it's always been like this miss, that's why i could never really smoke spliffs because i'd faint and i could never get the 'benefits' of coke as it barely raised me to super vibey levels. But imagine i would not be that awake to say so myself, in fact on being take to xray day after surgery, i was wheeled around a bit too fast in my wheechair and on arrival i was about to faint, said so, they lay me down and hey presto, well ten mins later, i revived. funny also that bloke who was wheeling me around seemed to have no authority to lay me down and since there was no one in the empty xray room, he could have easily stretched me there but no, he had to wait for the right person who took forever to get to me etc etc. Returning me to my room they stretchered me which by then was not really that necessary but they were following some other rules.

all's well etc but i guess my advice, and i like giving some always, is that if you're having something done, something maybe more serious than bunions removal, you should aim to have your own personal rep there with you at most times, family or friend, to sort of read your notes and argue/explain your case as required. then again maybe on nhs you're not allowed to loiter in the corridors/rooms at all hours as you were in my lovely princess grace marylebone hospital.

mmh, what else? basically we're all different and all that scary stuff i read on internet or was told by old relatives, has not manifested and i seem to be having an easy time of it so far. so i'll be super careful in crossing the road on my slow feet for a while. would be said if i went under a car no?