Hospital – H Date

My lack of blog posts this month is indicative of how hectic life has been the last few weeks. I’ve done a fair bit of travelling for work and I feel like I have a to-do list way longer than my arm so we haven’t managed many date nights.

So, imagine my joy when an H date just dropped into our laps!* Last week I was in the middle of blow-drying my hair, bags all packed ready to head off for an overnight work trip and a two-night hotel stay after that.

My husband came upstairs and said he didn’t feel well with pain coming and going on his left-hand side. It wasn’t getting better and he really didn’t seem well so I booked him a doctor’s appointment and said I’d do the run to the childminder. With half-dry hair I went to pop the little guy in the car only to realise that hubby had taken the car seat out ready to put in Granny’s car as she was going to pick them up whilst I was at work so we could all meet at the hotel. I have a bad back, and I don’t know how to fit the massive iso-fix car seat, so I was stuck having to walk.

Obviously, at this point, it started raining. So, we waited for a bus. The first bus came, it was full. Time was ticking by and I needed to get to the childminder’s and back sharpish in order to take hubby to the Doctor. So, I started to run. On the way, a car went through a puddle soaking me in a way that would almost be comical on any other day. I dropped the little guy off and ran for home! I managed to get a bus this time and I phoned my husband to ask him to come out of the house to be by the car when I get home. By this point, my hair looked delightful and my canvas trainers were showing themselves not to be the right footwear choice.

The doctor’s surgery is literally a two-minute walk from our house but my poor husband couldn’t manage so we parked up. I helped him and he proceeded to run stagger to the toilet to vomit. We made it along the corridor and he sat down on the floor outside the doctor’s room, white as a sheet and groaning in pain. The Practice Manager, who had to step over him, was rushing to direct an ambulance crew to another patient and sent an urgent message to the doctor to see us right away. Before long we were also waiting for an ambulance of our own.

Perfect date transportation?

We travelled in the ambulance, husband dosed up on morphine, me enjoying the fact that both doctor and paramedic assumed I was “in the profession” due to my calmness and ability to recite my poor husband’s medical details.

Every person we met was so helpful. We waited at the hospital for hours for a CT scan. My husband had two IV drips of fluid and more morphine and gradually the pain eased off. By the end of the day, we knew he had kidney stones. One making its way through and small enough that it would pass eventually and one still in the other kidney yet to come. (So, we shall look forward to that.)

Apparently, women who have done labour and kidney stones say that the pain of the kidney stones is worse. In fact, a friend of mine says this. Whether or not this is true I can honestly say I’ve never seen my husband in such pain and it was not an enjoyable experience.

It was, in fact, the most kid-free time we’ve had together in ages although it was definitely not quality time. The hubby dozed on and off most of the time but I did have an incredible sandwich from a hospital cafe that cost as much as I’d pay for food on a date and read a magazine so to be fair that was pretty nice!

We didn’t make it to the hotel for our little holiday, and I missed a pretty big day of meetings at work, but as far as days go it made me so appreciative of my family, friends (who offered help and picked up a very puzzled little guy), the NHS and an incredibly understanding work team who, when I phoned in, said, “family comes first” and totally meant it.

*No joy whatsoever. I 100% do not recommend Hospital as an H Date. I will be getting my Happy Hour! Maybe it will be whilst we’re on holiday next week. Hooray for lots of happier H dates!