Another Week - Another Hospital

over Ridge Hill
the sun rises slowly
from my hospital bed

gerald england

I was getting back towards normal after my operation at Stepping Hill and on the Saturday we went down town with Craig as usual. Later I developed what I thought was indigestion but there was no relief so an ambulance was called which took me to Tameside Hospital. By about 3am the doctors had got the blood results which indicated everything OK with my kidneys and liver. The ECG showed nothing wrong with my heart. I was sent home with a bottle of Gaviscon to help with trapped wind.

I took it easy on Sunday but my appetite was poor and I still felt in pain. Around 2am Monday morning I took some paracodol and was immediately sick. The same paramedics who'd seen me the previous night arrived again and carted me back to hospital.

It was "nil-by-mouth" until Thursday and the discomfort was considerable. An ultrasound scan revealed the problem as an inflammed gall-bladder and some stones. At my lowest ebb on Friday morning I was feeling very lonely indeed having had little rest and no visitors from outside.

The patient in the next bed loaned me his mobile and I was able to finally get through to Christine. It was fortuitous that we had booked an appointment for Christine's Social Worker to call and discuss her recent respite care. She arrived to find Christine alone and wondering about my fate. She set up an immediate arrangement for people to come in and assist her three times a day.

Christine's hairdresser came to see her on Friday and she arranged for David, her husband, who is a taxi-driver to bring her up to see me on Friday afternoon. He had a scooter meet Christine on arrival at the hospital. He then came back later with a wheelchair to take her back down.

Just after she arrived the doctors came on their rounds and explained that I needed to stay a few more days in order for the gall bladder to start calming down. After that they would send me home and call me back in about six weeks when they would remove the gall bladder under keyhole surgery.

I'm home now thankfully. The support for Christine is continuing. I'll contine to blog spasmodically as and when I feel up to it.

Weekend Reflections/Sunday Bridges:Marsland Bridge

A double contribution to Weekend Reflections and Sunday Bridges.

Marsland Bridge spans the Bridgewater Canal at Brooklands, Sale, Greater Manchester.

Often considered to be the first "true" canal, the Bridgewater Canal was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley. The section from Worsley to Manchester opened on 17th July 1761; it was later extended from Manchester to Runcorn, and then from Worsley to Leigh. Coal was needed in large quantities to fuel the industrial revolution and the canal enabled coal and other goods to be transported efficiently and cheaply to the rapidly expanding towns and cities. Its success helped inspire a period of intense canal building although it later faced intense competition from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and the Macclesfield Canal.

The canal is connected to the Rochdale Canal in Manchester, the Trent and Mersey Canal at Preston Brook, south-east of Runcorn, and to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Leigh. It once connected with the River Mersey at Runcorn but has since been cut off by a slip road to the Silver Jubilee Bridge.

Navigable throughout its history, it is one of the few canals in Britain not to have been nationalised, and remains privately owned. Commercial traffic continued on the canal until 1974. By this time, canals were becoming more important as a leisure facility and pleasure craft now use the canal which forms part of the Cheshire Ring circular canal route.

The Bridgewater Canal is owned and operated by the Manchester Ship Canal Company in conjunction with the Bridgewater Canal Trust.

For more information see the Bridgewater Canal website.