. . . . but not in the ha ha sense.

At 7.15 am I was with my sister and mom at our local hospital to help mom settle in for a hip operation that she had been booked in for.

She’d had the phone call yesterday to confirm that a bed was available and she’d been given the green light.

We duly went to the admission lounge and after seeing no less than 7 different people and waiting for reams of paperwork to be filled in, awaited mom’s turn to be called down.  We were lucky, she was first on the list and should have been down in theatre at 9.00.  However the doctor had ended up another hospital for some reason so she didn’t get taken down until 10.00 a.m.

Not to worry. 

Her blood pressure had been slightly up, so they told her to take her blood pressure tablet and then checked again.  It went up even more (189 over something).  Assuming it was probably nerves, they still agreed to take her down.

Sis and I walked down to theatre, said our farewells and came home.

Half an hour after we got home we received a phone call asking us to come and collect mom.  Even after having a pre med her blood pressure was still too high and they cancelled the operation because of the potential risks ie stroke, heart attack or death.

Mom was completely devastated especially after all the build up and the nerves.  Sis and I feel completely zapped and the whole day is flat.

Don’t get me wrong.  We would rather they didn’t take risks with our mom.  But this has a real knock on effect.

The hospital were great but they said mom has to go back to her GP to sort it out before they can continue as there has to be an underlying problem.  The fact is, she has been under her doctor for a while for this problem, so what’s gone wrong?

At her pre op assessment her BP was slightly high, but within the realms of being okay.  But if you have a history of having high BP wouldn’t you want to double check the patients before they turn up for the operation.

This is such a blow to us as mom has been living in constant pain for goodness knows how long.  It means going back to the drawing board and having to wait yet again.

Plus, my sister had extended her visit to England to help look after mom post op.  She has put her life on hold until the end of October this year specifically for this purpose.  If mom doesn’t get another appointment until after this time my sister will also be gutted. 

She can’t take any more time off and it’s not like she lives a couple of hours away.

Tomorrow sis will accompany mom to the GP looking for answers.  I’ve given her the name of the woman I’ve been seeing as she will act on things (this is the same GP who has arranged for me to have further tests).

We were upset about mom going into hospital (as you do), but now we’re feeling emotional for entirely different reasons. 

Mostly we are upset for mom.