Gma and hospitals.

Dum dum dum.
So....
I'm going to write a little post about my grandma/ hospitals. Gma for short, and that's what I normally call her when talking about her in a written format. She did also once sign some cards with Gma as her writing was deteriorating and Grandma was just a little too much.

My Gma was taken into hospital a few months ago. Think she had a stroke but they haven't specifically said that it was. She was up and down, then up and down, and now finally up again. She was always in her bed when she first went in, things from not being able to move to just being plain confused. And now she can walk a bit! She still needs a certain amount of care so it doesn't seem like she will be able to come home but rather be moved to a nursing home, instead of a hospital ward.

While both my mum and Gma have recently been in hospital I've learnt a few different random things. I have never worked in a hospital/care home so please don't take anything to heart if you do work in one.

1. My Gma has now been in hospital for 3 months and has only had one shower. I find that shocking, I can understand nursing staff having to give her a bed bath when she can't move and completely out of it, but having a bath or a shower once a week doesn't seem that hard. Surely its normal part of 'nursing' people, especially ones that can not do it themselves? I just wonder how often people that can't physically wash themselves actually get a good proper wash?

2. The food varies dramatically. I know you hear people complaining about hospital food all the time, I have only ever eaten cocoa pops in hospital so I have no personal experience. But the food varies from good to bad, from hot to cold, and generally tasteless, with also the order to which they are given to be varied. Food storage and sharing. So Gma was allowed to share biscuits but now she's not. Mum was allowed to store food like butter and Philadelphia in a fridge but she wasn't allowed to touch it and it had to be labelled. Fair I guess? Reduce cross infections etc between people.

3. Clothes! This is probably the most talked about thing with my Gma. And I know for a fact that most of the relatives of people on the ward go through similar things. Things that she wants from home and that the nursing staff say aren't there, only for us to turn up in the evening, open the door and it being in plain view. Ie.'I need more vests.' 'There's already 3 in there.' 'Oh. They said they could find any.' That is just a simple example. There's also the random things that pop up, weirdest thing being... a bag full of hair rolls (that were full of hair)! Bizarre.

My Gma is quite funny at times too. We took her down to the cafe today for a hot chocolate. We could only find a wheelchair without feet rests. Which Gma soon pointed out was probably for people without feet. Great :P

My Gma is rather short so she has to have a special sized zimmer frame. Infact it is from the children's ward and its bright green. Love it! Haha.

Rant over and out.
Bryonyruth Xx

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Driving... lesson one.

So. Driving lesson was ok. My instructor is really nice, he was born in turkey but brought up in hackney so he has a strong London accent. I'm learning to drive in a fiat 500 its not so bad, controls wise. The gears are high up which is a bit weird but its ok.

First lesson was basically getting the car to move and stop. How hard! Haha. I only stalled a few times :P I was ok finding the biting point and moving, got better at actually stopping smoooothly. The only problem I had was I kept only putting the hand brake down about a cm so the car moved fine but it wasn't fully off so I kept getting told off a bit. Hehe.
Heading home this weekend, which shall be nice. The Plowman is going swanning off around the world for a bit so she is having a little shindig. Good times.
Over and out for now. Xx

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Update due.

Here I lay in bed. Can't sleep. Loads of things running through my head. I haven't posted a proper post in months. Not because I haven't wanted to, not because I haven't done things but mainly because my head has been working so I haven't needed to write stuff down. I haven't started writing again because my head is a mess, I have because I wanna. Lots of stuff has been happening. Hmm. Where to start?
Current situation has changed completely to that in June etc. I now live in exeter with my lovely boyfriend. I am STILL currently unemployed and have been since I returned to the UK from Norway in July! Poo sticks. I started going out with my new boyfriend, who I will call Coyne, at the end of August. He was working in Ipswich at the time and I was at home in Wales with my parents. I met him while I was at university, he was in my second year geography tutorial class. There was a little something, butterflies or shyness etc, then but neither of us acted on it then because of different reasons of which I won't divulge....(I was on a relationship :P) anyway so time plodded on and following a few messages we decided to meet up in July when I was back home in Wales.
Fast forward a few months. Coyne got a new job in exeter, me and him discussed me moving down there with him. As we didn't want to spend anymore time apart and the current search for a job in south Wales was not going too great, we both swiftly took to the idea and we .moved down here at the end of November. Coyne is just about settled into his job, the place that we live is nicest and we are slowly getting to know the area. I have applied to a good few jobs but have had no such luck recently. I have been rather useless with my job applications, the last month or so because of Christmas, and ofcourse that the general fact about sending millions of applications just to not even receive rejection notifications is... full on over poweringly depressing. I've got back on it this week so fingers crossed I'll get something.
Tomorrow I have my first driving lesson in over 5 years and I think this is primarily the reason why my head is spinning and I can't sleep. I've got to the point that I'm actually scared of driving. I know the theory behind driving a car, but the actual physical activity of doing it... we will see. When I was 16, I could not wait till I was 17 so I could learn to drive.17 came and went, 18 arrived and I finally sorted out my license. I had a few lessons and I went to uni, where I thought I'd pick them up again, I didn't.4 years went past at uni, then I went to Norway for 10 months. Moved home and now... in January 2011... i am taking more lessons and I will get my driving license as soon as i can!
Think I should have another attempt at sleeping now. Will write again soon. God bless. Bryonyruth Xx

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