Evening of day 5

Rosie and I had a go at various components of her hospital dinner but she was craving some dumplings so Sophie came over to stay with Rosie while I went to a Chinese near Jo and Sandro's in Eastwood for dumplings and some sweet and sour pork. When I came back, Jessye had come over, freshly dyed, and everybody looked very cosy and comfy.




We went outside to the 3rd floor garden with the Chinese and some leftovers from last night. It wasn't as cold as it looks from Sophie and Rosie's blanket attire.




After dinner, we had a game of Scrabble with Faith's set. We were all extremely out of practice but Jessye had a convincing win, surprising since Sophie is usually the word and game shark.



Rosie has had a good day as far as headaches go, with far less discomfort than previous days. She even gave her 6pm Panadol a miss since she was feeling fine and just had the bedtime one as a precaution, hoping it might stave off sleep interruptions. She is sleeping by herself tonight, with instructions to call me anytime at all if she wants company.

Grooming

Rosie showered by herself again and got dressed in day clothes for a change. She wanted to have her hair fixed up because the do from surgery day was falling apart a little. However, before we could deal with that, Paula came by to take Rosie off to the physio room for some exercises. Jessye and I went to the supermarket to get a brush and hair ties etc then I spent some time carefully brushing out the stiff and matted locks.




Her hair responded well and after I had plaited it I realised the stiffness was diluted residue of dried blood - I only knew because it was on my hand afterwards. I'm quite intrigued by the nitty gritty of how they manage to keep the hair so relatively clean and
kempt.




Rosie was pleased with the result.




As we were heading off to play downstairs, Jo and Sofia met us in the ward with a big bag of Frankie mags for Rosie. We all headed downstairs and had some lunch at the cafe. Then Faith came with some nougat and her scrabble set for some variety. We'll get stuck into that later. Meanwhile we taught Jo, Sofia and Faith up the river and started playing. Half way through the game, Robyn came to visit with a jigsaw puzzle which was something we'd just been talking about. She also got a quick lesson in up and down the river and joined in. Peter rang to say hi in the middle of it all. We were having such fun I forgot to take any pictures! Shame...
After our friends left, Jessye and Sophie went to Travelodge for a nap and to dye Jessye's hair and Rosie and I are doing the puzzle Robyn brought.

Compression socks

Rosie's been wearing compression socks since 6am on surgery morning and she has to keep them on until discharge to guard against thrombosis while she's not walking a lot. She finds them uncomfortable so she's having a little break with them off since she's now walking around more.


We've both had her breakfast (we're ordering enough for 2) and Jessye and Sophie are on their way over from breakfast at Travelodge. Rosie and I went down to the cafe to play Sequence and Rosie is now impatiently awaiting the return of the others. It's nice that the hospital is so sparsely populated in its public areas so we can hang out freely out of the room.

Day 5 morning constitutional

I got to Rosie's room at 7:05 this morning and found the patient and the chaperone still asleep. I could have stayed in bed longer! Rosie was only lightly asleep because my opening the door a tiny bit and peeping in woke her up. The nurses were on their massed walkabout and would have woken her up any minute anyway so I didn't feel too bad. She agreed to go for a walk so put her ortho and shoes on and took her Panadol which she's started regulating herself, pacing it for when it will be most useful. We went to the 3rd floor garden. Rosie is walking more confidently each day and I felt comfortable not actually holding onto her but just staying on the alert near her this morning. There is a nice boardwalk for walking laps. Rosie's window is on the right in this picture.








I asked Rosie about her night. She slept quite well, waking at 2am with a little nausea but soon falling back asleep. She was woken at 5:45am for obs and then nodded off again. So last night, headaches were not an issue.




We checked out the physio room but it was locked until the physios show up at 8:00 or so. She had a headache and a little nausea when we got back to her room so has had anti-nausea med. Headache or nausea or both are sometimes the consequence of getting up and exercising but mustn't stop her from increasing her activity.
Here is the garden view from her window.


Rosie remembered that today is Jenny's birthday. Jenny is Peter's sister who lives in Wellington.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNY!!!!!!!!! Xxxxxxxxxxxx