Saturday 18th August MOAS II + 4 Days

 I awoke the next morning feeling much better. I had a reasonable night’s sleep and awoken a few times. Each time I did I did my breathing exercises. After we had been told that I had Pneumonia the day before I was a bit shocked. I remember lying in bed in a quiet moment afterwards thinking to myself “Pneumonia, this could be very serious if it goes the wrong way” and vowing to do everything I could to stop it getting worse.

 Tracey arrived just as I was being whisked off for another chest X-ray. My blood oxygen levels were at 95-96 but this was being supplemented by and oxygen mask that I had to wear 24 hours a day and was currently running at 60% support.

 The girls were also due to come up and visit Tracey along with Joyce and my brother and sister in law. Tracey left me to it for a while whilst she spent some well needed time with the girls and the family. I chose not to see them at this point as I still had quite a number of pipes and tubes and various bits of support and did not want to scare them.

Mr Moran came to visit me and advised that there was no change in my X-ray and that it showed some fluid at the bottom of the left lung. He also advised that my NG tube could be removed. “Great” I thought a forward step. The NG tube can be quite annoying and I was glad to get it out.

Tracey arrived back at 15:30hrs and had a great time seeing the girls. Jess had cooked one of her Victoria sandwich cakes and Chloe had made biscuits. Both were a hit with Robin’s wife; Karen who shared the flat with Tracey. I was again sat in the chair and doing my breathing exercises. Sally, the nurse who was looking after me (and was excellent as were all the staff) told us that my O2 blood levels were still OK at 96%. After yet more breathing exercises (we vowed to do them every hour on the hour and consisted of 10 x deep breathing, 10 x Huffs- like breathing on glass to clean it, 5 x Deep breaths, hold for three seconds and then sniff in a bit more air and hold it for a further three seconds and then finally a few goes on the Spirometer) Tracey decided that she would leave me for the night and let me get some rest as I was again pretty worn out.