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2008 - May 1st - Thursday

JH slept most comfortably, as usual, in JHH.  After a leisurely breakfast, JH explained to David, the Manager, that she would retrieve her wheelie from her room, after having a mug of coffee with the Elfleins.  Ann, Walter, and JH were drinking mugs of coffee in the small sitting room in JHH [originally the smoking room but now thoroughly aerated, since all smoking had been prohibited in premises ‘open to the public’] when David arrived – escorting Ralph who had been gesticulating wildly outside the window trying to attract JH’s attention:  by a stroke of luck he had managed to park just outside.  JH had been handed an updated List of the ‘House Rules’ by Giget: JH asked David if he minded JH inviting two more visitors, Ralph and Kathy – the recipient of HER kidney - into JHH for coffee - to which David replied that, as long as they weren’t all freaked-out on cannabis, he thought this would be allowable!


 

We all went into the Good Samaritan for lunch: a happy arrangement was made by JH – she suggested that each family ‘go Dutch’ at the outset, in other words, the Elfleins and JH purchased their victuals and the Skinners purchased theirs.  [JH treated her sister and brother-in-law to Fish and Chips: Walter informed JH that this was Ann’s fourth F&C meal, but his first!]  From then on there was no embarrassment during JH’s stay at Chez Skinner, because there was no need to have ‘discussions’ about who paid for what, when we were eating out {which we did more often than eating in}.

JH’s surgical follow-up appointment at 2.00pm in the Renal Outpatients Department

Ann walked over to the Hospital with JH: JH explained that there had recently been a series on television, Casualty 1907, which had been filmed at the RLH; in this series the items which could be seen in the Archive Museum (which JH and AE had visited) at the Hospital were exemplified being used for their original purposes: the series was enjoyed by JH, and other viewers, but Ray said this was not of particular interest to him, and he certainly had not noticed the TV crews (and no doubt would have deliberately avoided them, JH observes)!

JH was seen by the Registrar, Zia Choudry, who remembered meeting JH at the latter’s first appointment to see the Surgeons on 8 February 2007 – when JH had regaled those present with the story of meeting Kathy, and the observation that JH would not have had the surname ‘Hipsey’ if her great great grandmother had not had an illegitimate son!  Before seeing JH, Mr Choudry read through JH’s medical records on the computer, as he had not got JH’s paper notes to hand – for which omission he apologised. 

JH’s blood pressure was checked and  found to be 130/90: the diastolic B/P was at the higher range of normal.  Mr Choudry advised JH not to have added salt on her food, and not to drink such things as Cola, which is very salty: JH assured him that she disliked such drinks and drank a lot of tap water; Mr Choudry said that was fine but suggested that, in really hot weather, JH could drink some mineral water; however, JH observed that she was too mean to pay for bottled water, when the water in the tap was available free! [JH was going to launch into an explanation of the mixing of Bill Dunk’s recipe for rehydration fluid during the heat-wave of 2006 - but the opportunity passed her by.]  JH told Mr Choudry that she was a bit concerned about her wound: as she had had a postoperative wound infection, she did wonder if there were any adhesions underneath (although she did recollect that the operation had been retroperitoneal); furthermore, JH’s abdomen was asymmetrical, and there was now a large bulge above the incision.  Mr Choudry palpated JH’s abdomen both when she was sitting down, and standing: he reassured JH that everything was fine and that, as the retractors inserted at the time of the operative procedure would have displaced the subcutaneous fat, that JH’s fat layer would - in actual fact - never return to its original position!  Staff Nurse Caroline Rolfe then took several pots of blood from JH, and also asked JH to fill a urine specimen pot – JH had to drink a couple of beakers of the water provided so that she could oblige. 

JH was so pleased to hear that she would be offered a yearly follow-up - for ever or perhaps until JH was too old and crotchety to get to the RLH!  Subsequently, Ray sent JH a covering note saying that he had been unable to meet JH – because his next MSc module commenced on that Thursday morning; he also sent a printout of JH’s blood test results – which were all normal.  Furthermore, Ray let JH know that he had met Mr Rana Tehawar at the British Transplant Society Conference; Rana had been the Registrar in attendance when JH was in Hospital, and sent JH his regards; he is now working in Derriford Hospital!

JH returned to the Good Samaritan at just about 3.00pm which had been her ‘ETA’.  The Elfleins were eager to purchase pots of tea for everyone, but (as JH anticipated) the Skinners were eager to set off back home – with JH on board – so that the London rush-hour could be avoided.  Just as we all exited the pub, it rained heavily, and stopped as K and R and JH got in the car!  The Elfleins planned to do a bit more sight-seeing in London, before returning to Germany on the following day.


 

JH arrived at the Skinners’ maisonette at about 4.30pm – so it had taken Ralph about an hour to drive, very expertly, back home [JH would not like to ever drive a car again, especially, in the big metropolis!].  JH was amazed to find that Chez Skinner was not in the least bit like she had envisaged: their maisonette occupied the two upper floors of a 3-storey terraced building which comprised of 4 downstairs flats, and 4 upstairs maisonettes: of necessity K and R’s home was accessed by a flight of stairs up to the first floor. 
 
During the first evening of JH’s visit, JH enquired after the jigsaw puzzle which she had given to the Skinners one Christmas – said jigsaw puzzle being one of the several puzzles which JH had ordered from Kenroy Thompson, the Ordnance Survey Retailers in Plymouth, and which she had done herself before donating the jigsaw as a gift: this aerial view of Hadleigh, with the ‘house’, 9a Ash Road, cut out in the centre, had proved rather a challenge to do and, unfortunately, when Ralph got the jigsaw out of the cupboard, the photograph of the aerial view was nowhere to be found.  However, every spare minute was spent by JH and Ralph in doing the jigsaw over the ensuing couple of days: the bits comprising the meadows just south of Chez Skinner and extending down towards Benfleet Creek were easily put together, and Ralph finally managed to match the bits by shape over the suburban roads.  Ralph then took a digital photo, of the jigsaw, which he  printed off the computer for future reference, although he kept the jigsaw intact with a view to framing it.  JH and Ralph then did one of the many jigsaws depicting classic tractors, or cars, or buses, or planes, which Ralph had stashed away in his cupboard and never constructed: JH chose a picture of a rural scene in which a lady on a pushbike was looking skywards at a tiny plane which was flying over the harvesters – a reminder of JH’s early childhood when she lived opposite White Waltham Aerodrome.

JH was not in the least bit surprised that Kathy had fallen down the (second flight of) stairs one night when getting out of bed to go to the loo, as the bathroom facilities were on the first floor, and the bedrooms on the dormer floor above: since Kathy’s successful bid to fall all the way down the stairs, a light is left on in the kitchen on the first floor, and a light is left on in Ralph’s model room on the dormer floor, which illumination was also conveniently provided for JH’s nightly trips. 

JH occupied the bedroom overlooking the garden, only half of which belonged to the Skinners, as the half nearest the building belongs to the flat below.  A grape vine struggled over the trellising roof of the ‘arbour’ but it was meeting with great competition from the ivy; Kathy checked on the weather each morning and, if necessary, opened the front of her mini plastic greenhouse – when she went to the compost heap with the fruit and vegetable peelings from the kitchen; all the flowers and plants were illuminated at night by a row of solar lights.  JH slept comfortably under a duvet, but was reluctant to open a window.  When JH conceded to Kathy’s insistence that one should sleep in a bedroom with the window open - and as the weather got warmer over the Bank Holiday weekend - JH was not disturbed by any noisy traffic; furthermore, there are no barking dogs behind Chez Skinner!
 

 
 
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