Time Wasted!

On Monday the nurse came to check over Pete's heel and also to do the planned catheter change.  The catheter Pete had in could only be there for 4 weeks, but this new one can stay in for 12 weeks which is better, and it went very smoothly!  As for his heel, it is doing very well and they don't need to come to it again - I just have to keep a regular eye on it and put a protective cream on it for as long as I think necessary.  (Should I have any concerns I can ring the nurse and she will come out).  The only problem is that Pete is still feeling intense pain with it, it doesn't seem to ease at all but there is nothing more can be done with the actual trauma site.

Tuesday, the day of the planned visit to Plymouth Hospital, started fairly badly as far as I was concerned although Pete sees no problem.  I give him his morning tablets first thing and then just assume he has taken them - wrong!!!  He fiddled around down at his side of the bed and then eventually handed me 7 epilepsy tablets!!!  Instead of taking 2 every morning he has only been taking 1 and hiding the other one - why he decided to own up yesterday I don't know, but there we are, he has decided he is only going to take 1 each morning and short of forcing them down his throat there is nothing I can do.  He seems to have been alright for the week on that dose but will now have to keep a close eye on him.  The other thing is that he has also decided to stop taking the antidepressants, he wouldn't have one yesterday or today.  So that was all a waste of time.

We eventually set off for Plymouth but a nightmare journey ensued.  After about 15/20 minutes Pete started getting very agitated and we had to stop, the first stop of 3, and it seemed to be that his heel was painful and he wanted to go home.  Poor Martin was undecided what to do but we decided to carry on regardless.  As I said, we had to stop 3 times because he was getting upset, but on we went. 

We got to Plymouth and then tried to follow directions to Pete's sister's house - unfortunately we got lost!! This set Pete off on a mega rage and how Martin kept his temper I don't know - there was shouting and banging on the glove box - horrendous!!  Eventually we did reach Ruth and Dave but not before having to ring for further directions!!  We had time for a cup of tea there before having to leave for the hospital.  Very kindly Dave drove us to the hospital and dropped us off and then picked us up afterwards - good job too as it is huge there and parking would have been a nightmare or worse!!  Anyway, the appointment was a total waste of time - no-one appears to know why he was referred there and the consultant was a specialist in Peyronie's Disease which Pete doesn't have!  Someone, somewhere plucked that out of the air for no reason!  Anyway the consultant, who was very nice, is going to refer him back to the Barnstaple consultant urologist to investigate the urine retention problem.  So back, to stage one we go!!  Back to Ruth and Dave's for another cup of tea (and a scrumptious banana muffin, made by Ruth, and we brought some home - mainly for Robbie!) and then Pete wanted to come home.  We had an awful trip back aswell as Pete was sick a few times - I don't know why as he usually travels ok - perhaps another side effect of the stroke!??  So that was yesterday which should have been a nice day out (apart from the hospital appointment) but turned out the opposite.

Today we are back to him moaning about the heel pain - back to normal then! 

Oh, and I forgot we had a session with the psychologist on Monday which was very emotional - lots of tears, a disconcerting admission from Pete and a deal was made which may fall through!!