A testing day after Della's operation and the installation of a very uncomfortable and itchy Plaster
A testing day after Della's operation and the installation of a very uncomfortable and itchy Plaster

A testing day after Della's operation and the installation of a very uncomfortable and itchy Plaster that encased her chest, hips and all of her broken leg down to the tips of her toes.

She became quite inconsolable after a while, thrashing around and scratching until two nurses managed to console her and I stayed to eventually get her off to sleep and came home.

I was awake very early this morning in anticipation of Della's big day with the thought of her getting a cold the main fear. Postponement would mean a more difficult job for her leg. I found Diana in bed before 6.00am and, as a warm and receptive bed-mate and was pleased as a consequence. She seems to have forgiven me over our tiff the other day. Stayed at home long enough to see Debbie safely off to school and then joined Diana at the hospital. Della started the day in good spirits and was her happy self as she posed for the camera and was then wheeled down to the theatre just after 9.00am. She had managed to avoid getting the cold despite both Diana and I suffering from one.

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Diana went with her into the pre-op area and was there as the anaesthetist put Della to sleep which happened bewilderingly quickly, so that Di was soon back up with me in the ward having shed her surgical hat, coat and overshoes! I chatted to Di in the parents’ room for a while and then took her to see the type of lounger in the playroom that Della would be put in to sit up. It was there that we were contacted after only a half-hour or so to say that Della was in the Recovery Room awaiting nursing time from Holly Ward to bring her back up. Diana and I hurried down there and were both there when she came round. She was very bothered with the arrival of the large plaster that encased her chest, hips and all of her broken leg down to the tips of her toes and, to make things worse, she was also irritated by the adhesive-backed woollen padding that had been stuck to her chest all around the top.

She became quite inconsolable after a while, thrashing around and scratching at it until the recovery staff telephoned through to Holly and asked them to accept her back if they wheeled her there themselves. Once there, two nurses managed to console her and there then followed the first day of problems with trying to make Della comfortable. It was the adhesive that seemed to be irritating her and the nurses thought that the padding had actually been mounted upside down and should have been stuck to the plaster rather than her skin. We all tried to remove it with solvent and pulling as Della got quite inconsolable again until Mr Vaughan-Lane popped in to say that was how they did it for children and that it would be best to leave it there!

At last from the Fracture Clinic Sister came up and solved another problem for her. The plaster was formed so low that it was hard on her left hip and a circular saw was used to trim a section off. She managed to sit out on the reclining chair and to have some cereal and water and even to urinate using the bed-pan but remained in a very tetchy mood so as to try my patience until I left for a break at 6.00pm. She kept complaining of being itchy and there was nothing that anyone could do. I called the Red Cross today and they have plenty of bedpans etc and then thought of getting Daniel to drive over with the bed-chairs from Norfolk but he was busy with his work this weekend.

Tried also to sort out a contract nurse to help us at home next week but it will be tomorrow before I can resolve anything. I was back with Della for the end of the evening. At times Della was quite uncontrollable and getting upset with her back itching. I got Diana to go downstairs for half an hour and then stay outside the ward for another period to show her that I could look after her and thus persuaded her from insisting that she should stay the night when she would not have got to sleep in the noisy ward. At 10.30pm, after Di had actually gone home, I soon had Della asleep, hiding under her sheet and resting despite her irritation with plaster. I stayed on until 11.00pm and then came home to sleep myself.