It's a long way home

Gord came with me to Casey to see Lyle yesterday. He always likes to see Lyle and he has been coming to work with me a bit too. His company is comforting, as it always has been. Gord is such a placid soul.
Lyle seemed lucid, in fair spirit, and pleased to see us. He drank thick apple juice from his 'baby cup' while he swallowed medication the nurse brought in. I asked the nurse if she could message the doctor, Holly Hutton, to ask her if she could come to see me. Elvie had given me the doctors name, which Roger had found out by ringing the hospital. He told them that he was Lyle's GP, and Elvie told me he had spoken to her about the medication.
Holly Hutton came in and explained that she had only come back today after her break and had not really had time to get on top of everything. She asked me if I would like to talk to her outside. We left Gord with Lyle and stepped out into the corridor. She said they were monitoring Lyle closely, but as he'd only come in recently and they'd been on reduced staff, they didn't yet have a full picture. She said there would be a meeting tomorrow where a strategy would be decided and we would be informed but we would need to let them know who the appointed person was that they would communicate with. She then asked me did we want him resuscitated should such a decision be necessary. I said no, and she agreed that would be the view of the hospital also.
I asked her about his medication, in particular about whatever he was taking that Roger said could cause nausea. She took me back into his room and looked at the chart and talked pharmaceutial terms which was like a foreign language to me. She said he had pneumonia and was on antibiotics. My impression was that the medication was a bit of a balancing act with the purpose of making Lyle as comfortable as possible. I asked Holly would it be possible to get him a cup of hot tea which he'd told me was what he wanted more than anything, and she took me to a room where she said I was not supposed to be but it would be OK. She apologized that she was so busy and left.
Lyle loved his cup of tea, which he drank slowly in small sips from the 'baby bottle'. It reminded me of the good feeling I had as a parent when the kids were small and showed obvious enjoyment as they busily ate or drank something I'd prepared. When finished he asked was there any more of that apple juice and he drank that too. He then asked for his pee bottle which was out of reach on a chair but when I gave it to him he couldn't use it because he had a nappy on. He asked me undo the tags which I did and he managed to get his dick in the bottle and kept it in there for sometime, before giving me the bottle to empty, but there was nothing in it. He said to leave it close, on his bed and just do the nappy tags up slightly so he'd be able to get them undone. It seemed obvious he was having trouble controlling pee while lying down, which was why they'd put on the nappy. I asked him about not eating and he said he wasn't hungry in the evening but he did have breakfast which the nurses fed him from a porridge bowl sort of thing and it was good.
As we were about to leave he told he'd really like an orange drink so I said I'd get him one if the nurse said it would be alright, as I remembered that before he went into hospital, weeks ago, he was on a strictly controlled fluid intake as his kidneys weren't working well enough to get rid of fluid. I found her in the corridor and she said she would check it out but she thought he was only supposed to have the thick fluids as there was a problem with his swallowing. I told him this and he said, "Well I still want it." He was thirsty. I felt like a hard bugger for not getting one for him from the kiosk.
All in all I found him better than what Elvie and Rosie had reported over the last two days. It had been bad luck his move had come just before New Year's Eve and there was reduced doctors and staff, and those that were on probably were somewhere else in their minds. I saw Elvie on the way home to give her my impression and we agreed that I would be the 'appointed person' to communicate with the hospital.

I have to put any emotion aside now. Yesterday was difficult. Writing about it helps. I have a order for 30 bunches of tall tricolour beech, 40 green beech tall and 40 copper. I can get the tricolour quite easily at Huite's with ladder and pole(he has a tree I haven't cut for two years and he wants it reduced), but to get the green and the copper I'll have to climb to the top of trees at the farm and take the top off with a hand saw. Hard work on a hot day, and the volume worries me as I have some pitto to pick here at home also.