Hospital days

My husband Brian is in hospital. Over recent months he’s been developing a complex, fluctuating mix of physical and mental symptoms. He has been very ill and spent about two weeks on a medical ward before being transferred to a unit for older people, where he is improving, and benefiting from activities – both of us took part in a bowling match (!) and have taken trips to the beach.

My days have taken on a new pattern – in between spending long hours with Brian at the hospital dealing with the house and garden, the cats, my own healthcare appointments, responding to emails and texts. I’ve continued my exercise classes and choir practice, but otherwise am not doing much. There’s no time for socialising and I lack the concentration for any serious reading, writing or other constructive activity. But I am coping better than I did during the similar stressful period ten years ago when Brian had major cardiac surgery and I developed a range of stress-related problems (I described that experience on this blog and in a short book).

We hear a lot of complaints about New Zealand’s hospitals in the media, but Brian has had excellent treatment. The kindness and patience of the staff, including especially the health care assistants, has been wonderful. I hope Brian will be well enough to come back home soon, so we can pick up the threads of our previous life, and it will be important to complete and publish his new book about his long medical career.