Visits from Charles and Norma bringing grapes and then Di and the girls eating them later!
Visits from Charles and Norma bringing grapes and then Di and the girls eating them later!

The day in The Evelyn Hospital recovering from nose operation under the supervision of Mr Ellis as the bleeding started off heavy but gradually lessened with attention; the accumulating blood in my stomach making me sick until later. Visits from Charles and Norma bringing grapes and then Di and the girls eating them later!

I was awake at 6.30am, the time I came to realise was the normal waking-up time, and offered tea but stuck to sips of water. Mr Ellis was around early at 7.15am, I think, and I suppose dropping in on his private patients on his way to his NHS hospital elsewhere. He had already said last night that he was pleased with the way that the operation went and was confirmed in that view this morning; conceding that some go better than others with the expectation of good results rather than only a marginal improvement. I quite like Mr Ellis. He has a direct, honest and informal manner, seems very action-oriented and not in the least evasive or overpowering.

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Other consultants could take a leaf out of his book. I compare him with the incompetent twit who presided over the death of my father and took immediate offence at my taking notes at his consultation - an obvious sign of insecurity! Also with the nice but rather ineffectual consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Mr Vaughan-Lane, who had not organised or supervised a good traction for Della and then could only adopt the manner of reassurance when information was what was really wanted. The consultant orthopaedic surgeon, Mr Peter Sewell, had been courteous and efficient enough over my foot but had just queue-jumped national health services and led me down the blind alley of ineffectual surgical insoles.

No, Mr Ellis is top of my league at the moment and I honestly believe he keeps the Addenbrookes National Health Service facilities busy and then adds net capacity with his lunch-time and evening consultations and use of the Evelyn Hospital and then his breakfast-time visits of follow-up. Today, I tried breakfast of tomato juice, bran flakes and scrambled egg and actually managed to eat it but was sick again with the familiar red colour confirming my view that blood was still finding its way back to my stomach where it is inevitably expelled. At 8.45am, Dr Wilkie was in again to see me and reckoned that all was OK and that, in his view, the operation had gone well. Then at 9.30am, they took the wads out of my nose. I was glad of this, as I thought it would let the blood escape and prevent me being sick.

However, it was quite a torrid business. Two nurses attended and they applied an ice pack around my nose for fifteen minutes which was quite painful. Then they used tweezers to pull out the packing and the blood gushed out into the kidney bowl. The more experienced of them was reassuring me that this flow would staunch itself and they continued to apply the ice pack until it did slow down quite a lot. I think that it was backed-up and had gathered in some quantity. I started to rely only on a succession of external dressings of pads secured at the cheek by surgical tape, the assembly known as a "bolster". I sat up in bed now, resting, sipping water through a straw and then eating a lunch of some poached whiting, carrots and jelly to follow. For the first time, I was able to keep the food down.

Had a brief visit this afternoon from Charles and Norma who arrived at 2.00pm and left half an hour later. They brought some grapes which I liked but did not stay long. I think that they were a little put off by my nose dressing and felt that their presence was making me talk. Their early departure could also have been something to do with the snooker being on the TV at 2.00pm! A restful afternoon, watching the snooker myself and had several changes of bolster dressing. The discharge was a mixture of diluted blood, plasma and mucous, I think, and the dressing handled it very well.

At 5.00pm, I had a visit from Diana and the girls. They had brought "get-well" cards and the girls enjoyed watching "Neighbours" on TV and then eating my grapes! They stayed until 7.00pm or so during which time I was able to eat my boiled fish for tea quite successfully. Once they had gone, I just tried resting and trying to stay comfortable until 10.45pm when I declined a pain-killing tablet but accepted a sleeping tablet which allowed me to go straight off to sleep within 20 minutes despite having to sit up in bed.