Lockdown Blog: Day XXXV

Despite last night being a lateish one, I still managed to drag myself out of bed with time to spare today. It was probably helped by the dog clambering on the bed early and waking me up, before promptly falling back to sleep himself.

After having breakfast and popping upstairs to get ready, I came back down to find Darwin had made himself a nest on the sofa and looked the most content I have ever see a living creature. This did not last too long, as Sarah took him on his first walk of the day.

After logging back onto the computer, I worked my way through the increasing number of emails I am receiving at the weekend, before joining the morning team huddle. It was the first day since about a quarter of the team was redeployed, and there was noticeably fewer faces on the call today, but those of us left seemed to be in good spirits. The dog even made a brief appearance on the call when he jumped up the table, to the delight of everyone who spotted him of course.

After the huddle, I spent the rest of the morning reading through a couple of guideline documents which have been released, as well as more emails of course. Lunch was a quick cheese sandwich, before I had to get ready for a Zoom call with a patient’s relative.

I had Zoomed with the patient’s care team (and a BSL interpreter for an added challenge) last week, but I needed to speak with his family. He has recently been diagnosed with dementia, and this was the first opportunity I have had to break the bad news to them. Clearly this was far from ideal, but with a little preparation and patience the family seemed accepting of the outcome and had no more questions for me.

The day finished with less challenging calls to review a couple of patients who have been struggling over the last month, and I was pleased to hear things have settled down a little. Once it hit five, Sarah had to go buy her parent’s weekly shop, while it was my turn to walk the dog, after which I let him loose on the grassy area near our house for a well earned run around.

Dinner this evening was a chicken Kiev, not the most adventurous culinary, but still good. Friends has been mentioned as tonight’s entertainment, and when I think about it I don’t think we have watched an episode for a couple of days. I am definitely having an early night though, as I am back to the hospital at 8am tomorrow for my second ECT list.