There follows a sequence of emails in chronological order concerning Judy’s surprise stunt in December 2018.
Foreword … This started as a series of emails to Phil Butland but other people got dealt in. Ignore personal references in the 1st few emails. After a time they were hived off into a separate sequence of emails.
Thursday 13th December late:
Am about to go to Scarboro with JB in ambulance
Text me on 07939 537616 (you might need some +44’s somewhere) so that I can let you know the situation.
Not exactly a crisis, but she’s not well. Will explain in detail later
Thursday 14th December about 05:30
I left her at about 04:00 barely awake (her) and comfortable.
There is nothing for you to do at present, but I will attempt to keep you abreast of the situation. If I get a text from you I’ll reply very briefly just so as to establish 2-way contact.
So … she has been unwell for 4+weeks. They cut open a very large infected balloon of infection (?) on her right index finger in Hull Royal Infirmary about 4 weeks ago. It did not readily heal, and they have been dosing her with exceptionally strong antibiotics.
On Tuesday this week she retched up her morning cup of tea, and had hardly anything to eat or drink all day. She still did not want to eat or drink on Wednesday.
I phoned the antibiotic unit in Hull, and they said “lay off the antibiotics”, and come in for your weekly visit to the Unit (at Castle Hill Hospital, Hull) tomorrow, Thursday. They examined her various blood samples, said “it’s nothing to do with us, guv.”, and phoned our GP to get him to arrange for an infusion in Scarborough – it’s easier for us to get to. Marginally.
I spoke to the GP on Thursday pm. – he is a very good man – and said “I’ll need to examine her, can you bring her in?”. I said “OK”, but she had become very uncooperative, and I rang back to leave a message “She can’t be bothered to see you”. In the event they sent a full paramedic team in an ambulance, and took her to Scarborough Hospital.
I’ll visit again at about 11:00 this morning (3 hours time).
The interview at the hospital was very professional, but serious. “We will do all we can to fix the problem, but do we do all we can to resuscitate her if she has a heart attack?”. “No”.
So, start practicing the hymns from the old Methodist Hymn Book which we and your grandfather loved so irreverently. Including “Safe home, safe home in port, rent cordage, shattered deck, Torn sail, provision short, and only not a wreck”
and “Rejoice for a sister deceased, our loss is her infinite gain”
I think your ma will probably be OK. Either way, but more probably with us at home for Christmas.
Friday am – to Phil
Zdena could not get to sleep last night worrying about JB. She hasn’t got the idea at all. Unlike Best Friend Margaret Preece who received a copy of my email to you which elicited …
Thank you for copying me into your messages. Oh bother brother! Judy’s timing is very poor – doesn’t she realise how busy folk are at Christmas? And what about the poor hospital staff? I suppose she just wants to be the center of attention (as usual)!
That’s more like it.
Can an Internationalist like you work on a project to get as many joint Nationalities as possible?
And come on, what does he want for Christmas? I could get you an Anglo-German Tattoo …
It will be good to see you.
Friday pm – to Phil
Have just got back from hospital, pretty exhausted. Your ma is still quite poorly. She is not enjoying life very much. They do not know what is the infection that has overwhelmed her, and are busy analysing cultures to be able to guess what it is. Hmmm, I seem to remember that one.
However, she has been filling up with liquids all day from a drip, and she is (only marginally) a bit more alert. I will visit again tomorrow.
I have told only 3 other people about her condition. None of her brothers. If she improves markedly tomorrow, they may never know. I will keep you informed.
Zdena gave me a lift to the hospital this morning, and then came back to an empty house. It can’t be much fun for her, either. I am sufficiently hard hearted to be reasonably unaffected by the turn of events. Which brings to mind one of my favourite sayings from the Gospels “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”. You know what it must mean, but can’t work out the syntax.
So, I will sleep well tonight.
Saturday pm to Phil
Just got back from Scarborough.
She’s a bit better. The visit started off with a beam and a smile that impressed the nursing staff. “She is well known in Brid for her smile”. When I started to text you she reverted to deep slumber.
The nursing staff are much kinder than Nurse Walsh. I was very impressed that I was interrogated most closely to ensure that I could cope. Well, yes. It’s nothing I had ever thought of, but that was the second day running that I had been pressed so hard about it. I did say that I could do with some basic nursing skills – the way your ma gets shoved round to get her into bed is most unprofessional. They are going to get someone to give me a crash course.
For some time she was very sleepy and not very responsive, but maybe tomorrow …
She will be in hospital for a few days yet, but probably back home by Christmas.
Sunday am
Meanwhile .. today I finish the Lutherbibel you gave me in 2001. It is the third time of reading. Yesterday was not a very profitable passage “Then came one of the seven Angels which talked with me saying unto me “Come I will shew thee the damnation of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters …” The original scarlet woman. I’ve been reading through all year – 4pp a day. However, the Geneva Bible (published 1594) does include the helpful comment in the margin “...the woman (signifieth) the Papistrie, whose crueltie and bloodletting is declared by scarlet.”
But at last we get to the new heaven and the new earth today. Phew! It’s been a bit grim for the last few chapters.
I will probably also finish the Christopher Hill book The English Bible. It is one of the best he wrote. I started it again because I remembered it included the word “bewildernessed” from a sermon. It would have come in handy. The book has a fine chapter on the use of wilderness as (among other things) a state of personal poverty and desolation. And, of course, in revolutionary times, a description of God’s People under a monarchy. I could find no such use of the verb “to be bewildernessed” so my memory is uncharacteristically false. Again. Pity that, it would have come in handy.
But enough of revolution and the evils of Other People.
I’m looking forward to seeing your ma again today, expecting her to be cured. I’ll bring a tablet with which she can listen to Radio 3 to her heart’s content.
Further to the hospital staff’s concern that I will be able to manage OK, I think that they should turn their attention to Zdena. She is dreadfully upset about the present situation, and I spend an amount of energy offering her support. She is working it out of her system by baking, and has prepared Christmas treats for at least a dozen people she knows – friends we have invited for Sunday dinner at different times. Boxes of the most wonderful confectionery. She has worn out an electric egg whisk and a creamer, and has been cooking until 1:00 in the morning. The problem is that I feel she needs an over-positive description of your ma’s condition just so that she does not fall into the Slough of Despond. Another book I must read again along side the Christopher Hill book on Bunyan.
Sunday pm
Bit of a disappointment, really.
Judy is eating, a bit; drinking, a bit; but not even trying to make merry. It was all hard work.
I’ve really got no idea about being ill. For most of my personal experience I was in another world, although I do remember being surprised how long it took to get better.
So let’s be realistic now.
The Nurse will find out at the morning round with the Consultants how the land lies and will give me a full review tomorrow afternoon. The Nurses (as opposed to all the other people whom I mistake for Nurses but are only something else) are extraordinarily competent. They take all sorts of decisions and seem to know what they are doing. They are most impressive.
Good job I never thought of being a Nurse – you have to remember things. Like not leaving your wallet with all your plastic in a taxi, which I failed to do on Saturday evening. There it was, waiting for me at the taxi office this morning.
Just to clear a few matters up… the Geneva Bible was produced in Geneva in English in 1560-ish by British Calvinists who did not fancy staying in England and being burned alive. Or even dead. Whereas the Luther Bibel was produced in Wittenberg in German in 1534 by Martin Luther who also did not really want to be burned alive, or dead, but who dared them.
The wonderful thing (or not) about the Geneva Bible was that it included marginal notes of a generally Republican sentiment, and which the (largely Calvinist) Puritans loved. I may include further notes on the background if deluged by popular request. It is all most interesting.
Monday 17th
That’s a bit better.
I don’t really want to make a meal out of this, and unless there is a popular demand for the information, won’t send any more routine bulletins after this one. We don’t like to make a fuss. I may send out information when it’s all over. Insofar as it’s ever all over.
Judy was trying to finish off a meal when I arrived. Not very successfully, but she was awake, alert, and communicative. The Nurse called in the Registrar and Consultant.
“OK, what has she got?”
“We don’t know. It is an infection which we’ll continue to treat with antibiotics”
“Can she come home?”
“Not yet”
They’ve got her plugged in to all sorts of inputs and outputs which, they observed, we don’t have at home.
However I did tell them what I thought may be the underlying problem – an ulcer at the top of her stomach meaning that it was sometimes difficult for her to swallow, and causing the initial dehydration. They had not picked up on this, even though I had spelled it out when she was 1st admitted. They will work on it.
While the big brass were a bit of a disappointment, the ground troops were magnificent again. An Occupational Therapist came round towards the end of the afternoon. A very pleasant young woman. Who has been married for 6 months, she told us.
Her: “I’m Rebecca”
JB “At the well?”
She looked non-plussed. The best part of this exchange that Judy is bright enough to sparkle. The sad thing is that no one had ever told Rebecca about Rebekah.
She asked about how we manage at home – perfectly well, thank you.
Judy lied through her teeth and told her how she drives her car around and does all the washing, but was willing to admit that her information might be a bit out of date.
I asked about getting a crash course in nursing skills and some physiotherapists will come around tomorrow with Rebecca to demonstrate. They will give Judy some exercises to try out. Zdena will come as well – which will be good for her.
So things are looking a little brighter.
Meanwhile back in Bridlington, strangers keep stopping me in the street to ask “how is she?” I of course give a slightly exaggerated report of how there’s nothing really wrong with her and she is taking more of a rest cure than anything.
AWW
If case some of you have not got the “well” gag, try Genesis 24. It is a delightful story
Tuesday 18th
Zdena called in to see Judy in the morning. Judy welcomed her and was bright and cheerful. When I arrived at about 13:00 she was awake, but did not sparkle. She had a notice behind her bed Nil by Mouth. She was going to have an endoscopy.
At about 15:30 some porters came to take her away. I asked if it was OK for me to come with her. Just as well. When we reached the gastroenterology section they had me confirm details about her general condition and took her away. 3 minutes later they came back a little embarrassed, took me to the theatre, and got me to confirm that the person they were about to examine really was Judith Butland. It was.
After about 30 minutes they brought her back on a trolley, breathing with some difficulty with her mouth agape. She may have still been under some sedation. They said they had enlarged the base of her gullet which had become constricted. We went back to the ward, where she lay looking quite exhausted.
I left her at about 17:15 to get the train back to Bridlington. The train arrived in Bridlington 45 minutes late. At home there was a series of messages on the phone. I was to ring the hospital. “Make sure you are sitting down“. “I am“. “Your wife passed away at 17:30“.
I felt a huge sense of relief. It really did feel a matter of “Rejoice for a sister deceased; our loss is her infinite gain” She had gone through an increasingly difficult last 5 weeks, and had very little to look forward to in this life. Apart from me exercising my new nursing skills. I am going to miss her at a level you can barely imagine.
Postscript:
Scarborough hospital was unable to establish the cause of death. They therefore could not issue a death certificate, and Judy was taken to the Coroner’s laboratory in Middlesbrough. Didn’t they know she hated travelling? 2 days later they couldn’t work it out either. They have taken tissues for further analysis, and are going to issue a document to the effect that she really is dead, but they’ve no idea why. What a star! If she’s not going to tell her husband about the progress of her pregnancy, there’s no way she is going to tell a bunch of strangers what was wrong with her.
The next week I visited her body at the Coop funeral parlour. This was more upsetting than they would have understood. They had applied makeup to her. She never, ever, ever wore makeup. It would be dishonest.
jbrip 