A Long Day

Finally arrived back home at midnight through gale force winds after a long day for both of us.

Managed to get in to see Loretta at around 9.30 this evening - I was the last one by far still waiting. She had warned me to expect to see her tangled in a weave of wires and tubes and she was not far wrong. She managed to give me a smile though and hold my hand.

Because there had been a changeover in staff going into the night time shift at the hospital, the doctor that I eventually saw could only read the notes from the team that had performed the procedure and typically they were written in a fashion that was difficult to make out what they said.

What we did deem though was the reason that she was in theatre longer than expected was because of complications to do with breathing at the end. That is why they have added extra tube breathing equipment going down her throat and were debating whether to leave it in over night or take it out. I think they had decided to leave it in because of how she was at the end of theatre.

Loretta managed to communicate by touch and then by finger writing letters - she was eventually given a pen and paper and managed to write the word "cough" so the team temporarily removed the tube so she could have a go at clearing her throat a bit. She also managed to ask me for her lippy as her lips were sore and dry.

So apart from that other details are still a little sketchy but hopefully I will have more info tomorrow - they ended up pretty much suggesting that I should leave so that she could rest with the time gone 11.

I will ring the ward tomorrow morning for an update and then head up there for visiting which is from 2-8.

Thanks for all the messages on the blog, Facebook and email.