We were having an easy day at home last Saturday, the weather was iffy, she had had a very stressful week, chilly white larder was full of delicious yumyum so there was no reason to be out there.
We had eaten the most delicious supper of lamb chops with home grown 'greens' at about 6.30pm and were snug as two bugs in our rugs watching television when at about 9pm she felt a weird little pain in her chest.
Shouldn't gooble chops so fast, she thought and ignored it. It didn't go away but she still ignored it and went on doing so until it got considerably worse and by that time, I knew something wasn't 'right' at all.
I abseiled down her neck, ran onto her chest and turning my head upside, gave her a couple of hard bangs on where the pain was and said "WooWoo" and then rushed up onto her right shoulder.
That got her attention, I can assure you for I NEVER sit on her right shoulder.
She got out of bed, called our Lebanese friends and said "I'm not feeling well, can I drop GeeGee off on my way to A&E", they said to do so.
She put a bag of my food into my Ikea bag with my travel cage, I walked into it (I knew something was very wrong with her and now was not the time to muck about).
She got dressed, put her mobile, the charger, eye drops, a nightdress, underwear and wash bag into a small bag, took her keys, wallet and other stuff and we left the house in under 15 minutes.
She dropped me at Myra's house and walked up to catch a taxi, one stopped immediately and she said "A&E at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital please", she sat down and, zoom, he took off.
They got there in record time and when she went to pay, he said no, that she looked not at all well and wished her good luck!
It wasn't that busy and she went to say what was wrong, the woman looked at her and said "Sit there, someone will be out for you shortly".
Sure enough, she was called for by a Triage nurse who had a wheelchair with him within a few minutes.
And ZOOM.. she was into the emergency ward on the ground floor quicker than she or you could say bang!
And her feet didn't touch the floor again until about 7am on Sunday morning.
To cut this short.. she was in hospital for four days, she suffered another heart attack the next night but by then she was in bed in ACU hitched up to a heart monitor being watched like a hawk.
It gave a loud warning noise and someone was by her side within a nanosecond with a draft of morphine.
Now wasn't the time to say "I don't do drugs".
Monday morning, she was taken to West Middlesex and had an angiogram, which showed that her arteries were completely free of plaque or sediment and they certainly didn't have any other type of blockages!
As the doctor said "You may have a minute bit of plaque on one of your back teeth but you certainly don't have any in your arteries!"
Back she went to ACU, to find her charming team shaking their heads and saying "Well, that's ticked that cause off, what's next, your blood pressure is too low but we know from your GP that this is certainly not your normal pressure, hmmm".
By that time she was ravenous and someone disappeared to find her some lunch and some fruit, for she had been 'nil by mouth' for the angiogram.
More blood tests, blood pressure taken on the hour along with other tests and copious amounts of blood extracted from the intravenous cannula which was in her left arm.
Her right wrist was still under pressure in the tighter than skin rubbery plastic 'bracelet' which covered the place where the angiogram had gone in.
But hey, she was feeling happy.. the staff were adorabubble to her, it was cheerful, no one was grumpy, she knew I was safe with Myra and Raja and probably being spoilt.. correction.. she knew I was being spoilt!
She had the sense to bring both her mobiles with their chargers so she had access to the outside world and the ability to play games and a lovely woman came around every day at tea time with magazines and daily papers.
She felt very sorry for the people in the small private wards on the other side of the corridor!
There were a couple of them literally sitting in their doorways so that they could see what was going on.. she talked to one young woman who said that she had forgotten to bring her charger (very silly), so she lent her one and lo and behold, the woman suddenly had lots of emails and telephone messages which hadn't come through because her mobile had run out of power.
Always travel with your charger is the motto to that tale!
Meanwhile, over on the NHS side of the corridor, there was too'ing and fro'ing and the staff had been clever enough to stick 'grumpies' together in a ward by themselves and those other patients who were happy AND polite to staff of any kind, were treated wonderfully!
What an amazing four days.. the level of care was faultless, the kindness, the attention to detail, she is extremely glad that she does voluntary work for, quite fittingly, the British Heart Foundation and the NHS.
So I am saying "Thanks to the two branches of the Chelsea & Westminster university teaching hospital, thanks for taking such wonderful care of my mum".
And.. I'm thanking those of you who have taken the trouble to call her or send personal messages and emails rather than just leave public comments on FaceBook.
GeeGee Parrot.
April 18th, 2019.
We had eaten the most delicious supper of lamb chops with home grown 'greens' at about 6.30pm and were snug as two bugs in our rugs watching television when at about 9pm she felt a weird little pain in her chest.
Shouldn't gooble chops so fast, she thought and ignored it. It didn't go away but she still ignored it and went on doing so until it got considerably worse and by that time, I knew something wasn't 'right' at all.
I abseiled down her neck, ran onto her chest and turning my head upside, gave her a couple of hard bangs on where the pain was and said "WooWoo" and then rushed up onto her right shoulder.
That got her attention, I can assure you for I NEVER sit on her right shoulder.
She got out of bed, called our Lebanese friends and said "I'm not feeling well, can I drop GeeGee off on my way to A&E", they said to do so.
She put a bag of my food into my Ikea bag with my travel cage, I walked into it (I knew something was very wrong with her and now was not the time to muck about).
She got dressed, put her mobile, the charger, eye drops, a nightdress, underwear and wash bag into a small bag, took her keys, wallet and other stuff and we left the house in under 15 minutes.
She dropped me at Myra's house and walked up to catch a taxi, one stopped immediately and she said "A&E at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital please", she sat down and, zoom, he took off.
They got there in record time and when she went to pay, he said no, that she looked not at all well and wished her good luck!
It wasn't that busy and she went to say what was wrong, the woman looked at her and said "Sit there, someone will be out for you shortly".
Sure enough, she was called for by a Triage nurse who had a wheelchair with him within a few minutes.
And ZOOM.. she was into the emergency ward on the ground floor quicker than she or you could say bang!
And her feet didn't touch the floor again until about 7am on Sunday morning.
To cut this short.. she was in hospital for four days, she suffered another heart attack the next night but by then she was in bed in ACU hitched up to a heart monitor being watched like a hawk.
It gave a loud warning noise and someone was by her side within a nanosecond with a draft of morphine.
Now wasn't the time to say "I don't do drugs".
Monday morning, she was taken to West Middlesex and had an angiogram, which showed that her arteries were completely free of plaque or sediment and they certainly didn't have any other type of blockages!
As the doctor said "You may have a minute bit of plaque on one of your back teeth but you certainly don't have any in your arteries!"
Back she went to ACU, to find her charming team shaking their heads and saying "Well, that's ticked that cause off, what's next, your blood pressure is too low but we know from your GP that this is certainly not your normal pressure, hmmm".
By that time she was ravenous and someone disappeared to find her some lunch and some fruit, for she had been 'nil by mouth' for the angiogram.
More blood tests, blood pressure taken on the hour along with other tests and copious amounts of blood extracted from the intravenous cannula which was in her left arm.
Her right wrist was still under pressure in the tighter than skin rubbery plastic 'bracelet' which covered the place where the angiogram had gone in.
But hey, she was feeling happy.. the staff were adorabubble to her, it was cheerful, no one was grumpy, she knew I was safe with Myra and Raja and probably being spoilt.. correction.. she knew I was being spoilt!
She had the sense to bring both her mobiles with their chargers so she had access to the outside world and the ability to play games and a lovely woman came around every day at tea time with magazines and daily papers.
She felt very sorry for the people in the small private wards on the other side of the corridor!
There were a couple of them literally sitting in their doorways so that they could see what was going on.. she talked to one young woman who said that she had forgotten to bring her charger (very silly), so she lent her one and lo and behold, the woman suddenly had lots of emails and telephone messages which hadn't come through because her mobile had run out of power.
Always travel with your charger is the motto to that tale!
Meanwhile, over on the NHS side of the corridor, there was too'ing and fro'ing and the staff had been clever enough to stick 'grumpies' together in a ward by themselves and those other patients who were happy AND polite to staff of any kind, were treated wonderfully!
What an amazing four days.. the level of care was faultless, the kindness, the attention to detail, she is extremely glad that she does voluntary work for, quite fittingly, the British Heart Foundation and the NHS.
So I am saying "Thanks to the two branches of the Chelsea & Westminster university teaching hospital, thanks for taking such wonderful care of my mum".
And.. I'm thanking those of you who have taken the trouble to call her or send personal messages and emails rather than just leave public comments on FaceBook.
GeeGee Parrot.
April 18th, 2019.
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