Final day in hospital

Ward 9 in Airedale has its routine and I had become part of it.  I had hoped that I would have been sent home a few hours after the operation, but in reality, I think the night in hospital was for the best. For one it delayed me needing to self inject fragmin (blood thinner). Breakfast was disappointing. Remember the previous day I had only eaten a pastry for breakfast then nil by mouth until maybe 8pm. The breakfast was porridge and toast with a choice of drinks.  Not particularly nice porridge either. Never mind. Painkillers where given at about 8 am.  After breakfast the consultant visited with an army of junior doctors.  Clear instruction to the staff was "Get him up." At around 9am the physio was on call.  They seemed keen to check that I will be able to manage at home.  The first task was to walk on crutches.  Given that I walked into the hospital on crutches this didn't seem too bad.  However, it was tiring. I was also feeling pain from my wound ( never had this before). Next task was to go up and down 3 steps.  I managed somewhat in clumsy fashion and the physio seemed happy that I would cope at home.  My bathroom is upstairs at home so climbing and descending stairs was important. He told me the nurse would see me.  The others in the room had various exercises to build them up to managing at home.  I felt proud of my fellow patients. They had nasty injuries and would potentially have a longer and more difficult road to recovery than I had. Time rolled by. It got to noon before the nurse told me they were waiting for medication from pharmacy to arrive before I could be discharged. That seemed fine. Lunch was chicken pie and chips with gravy.  It was ok. By 3pm I was getting fed up. I called the nurse. She said she'd get back to me. By 5pm Georgina had called the ward to find out what was happening.  At 6 pm I was finally discharged.  Heather came to pick me up.  I got wheeled to the front door by the porter. Unfortunately Heather went the wrong place and the porter had to go and find her.  Home at last!  The children drew on my cast and I could rest....

Sleeping was easy, the painkillers helped with that.  Only problem was that my dreams were nightmares induced by the strong painkillers.