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Sunday August 19, 2007

Urgences

I have had a rather more exciting 2 days than I planned. On our way back to Boulogne to catch the ferry on Friday, we got about half way to Caen when George was finally overcome by fearsome pains in his stomach. He had slight indigestion since about mid morning and we had left at about 3:30pm with me in the driving seat - but an hour later he was screaming in pain and (thank heaven for sat nav) I drove to the nearest hospital which turned out to be about 10 km away at Aunay sur Odon.

He was in such distress that they immediately whacked in a drip and did a cardiogram - which was fine - and then went on to X-rays and ultra sound. Fortunately during the X-rays his spasms abated and the pain with them. Despite our limitations in language we managed to communicate and they managed to convey all the information. They could see he had some blockage in his intestine and called an ambulance to take him to CHU in Caen (with a view to maybe having to operate!) I pottered after him with the car.

At Caen he was admitted through A&E again. What a difference at Caen - it was very busy with trollies stacked up all over the place - amazing at how they dealt steadily with it all. Lots of foreigners, lots of youthful people having limbs Xrayed, one amusing drunk strapped down in an examination room determinedly calling for another drink....

  smileyinbed.gif   [There would be a picture here of George on his A&E trolley but he made it plain that I might be the one needing surgery if I tried taking one at this point]

George saw a surgeon pretty quickly - lots of amusement with our pocket dictionary and the doctor looking up words like pee, poo, and fart, none of which appeared either in that form or more polite versions. Finally he had another X-ray, and they decided he had to be admitted, but had to wait for a bed. By this time it was about 1am. I hung on there until 4am, and then went to sleep in the car for a few hours. At 8am, they moved him to a bed in the main hospital and I joined him there. By this time he felt fine and, in rebellious mood, just wanted to leave. The doctors again arrived quite quickly and told him relatively good news. He would have another X-ray, and if all was still well with him (no more pain) he would have a light lunch, and if he kept all that down for 4 hours, we could go. Hurrah - no surgery.

This all panned out as hoped and we left at about 5:30. We managed to book the Fast Cat from Cherbourg for expediency (costing lots as it's summer of course) and were home again by midnight...

Cherbourg.jpg

Every moment I was left to my own devices I fell asleep, and still slept for about 8 hours once I got home. George is also very tired as, although in a bed all the time, it was hard for him to sleep properly. He seems pretty fit at the moment and eating normally.

I missed my workshop on Saturday but we made it to the family party at Lyn's today. My cousin Jenny and her family are off to stay at La Gonfrairie and we had to issue them with the keys and reams of instructions, which I'm sure they don't need. I hope the weather is good for them and they have a lovely time - Jenny is so excited.

Posted by Christina at 9:01 PM. Category: France

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