Out, damn'd spot!

This quote from Lady Macbeth when she was a bit upset, seems to sum up the experiences of Keith and myself over these past two days.
About seven years ago, Keith had a few episodes of venous bleeds from one of his feet but  fortunately, nothing since, until yesterday, that is. The day before, he had noticed a tiny pinprick of broken skin on his left foot and put a plaster on it, which he removed yesterday morning in the bathroom. It wasn't until he was halfway down the stairs, and I was in the middle of making the bed, that I heard a cry of anguish and, rushing to the top of the stairs, I was confronted by the sight of Keith, sitting on a step vainly trying to stem the flow of blood spurting out of his left foot. Several sodden towels later, the bleed was showing no signs of stopping so I took the decision to dial 999 and request an ambulance pronto, which duly arrived within minutes, together with two very nice men in green who proceeded to investigate, interspersed with a conversation about their ambulance and Keith's  along the lines of 'My one's better than your one.'
And, guess what? The bleeding had stopped under all those towels, but they bandaged it up, wrote copious notes, decided he didn't need to have a ride in their ambulance after all and departed.
The rest of the day was as normal - for Keith anyway. For me, it involved lots of cleaning up of blood and phone calls about insurance and quotes for new stair carpet. 
So, last night, with the stairs now looking as if half a dozen axe murderers had been let loose on them, we took ourselves off to bed.
Fast forward to this morning. Keith got up at six o'clock, as he has a 'round bottom' and doesn't tend to linger in bed once he's awake, whilst I promised myself that, today, I would not be leaping around with towels, doing battle with fountains of blood, and turned over for another hour of zeds.
Unfortunately, fate decreed otherwise and we were soon in the middle of a scenario almost identical to yesterday's except that, this time, it was the bedroom carpet that was getting it.
This time, the bleed didn't stop properly so, foot tied up in a plastic bag, I drove him smartly down the road to the hospital. This time, he saw a very nice doctor, who put a couple of stitches in, which, fingers crossed, have sorted it.
However, Keith has spent the day looking pale and interesting and confesses to not feeling 100%, so I am hoping a good night's sleep will have him feeling much better by tomorrow.
"I can't see how murderers are able to clean up every speck of blood like they do in the films," Keith mused last night.
"Oh they probably have dark coloured carpets," I said.
"What colour carpet are we going to get?" he asked.
"Something dark," I said...


14 comments:

Yorkshire Pudding said...

Poor Keith! What have you been putting in his tea? I have never heard of his complaint before - it sounds most unpleasant. Forget the carpets - I think that laminate floors throughout are in order.

Jennytc said...

I would like laminate floors, YP but Keith isn't keen on them. His problem arises from a DVT he had years ago. As a result, the veins in his legs are not good and neither is the skin.

Rosie said...

Poor Keith, sounds horrible. Hope he is better soon. A nice dark red carpet perhaps next time?

Shooting Parrots said...

You make light of it, but it must have been pretty scary. Perhaps you could insist that Keith wears wellington boots around the house?

Helsie said...

Oh dear that sounds really scarey. It will take him a while to make up all that blood.
But don't go for laminate floors. Next time the blood will spread everywhere ( on the laminate floor ) and you'll slip and break a wrist into the bargain!!
cheers

Cro Magnon said...

I've never heard about this problem; sounds ghastly. How about heavy duty plastic bags tied at the knee?

A few years back we had a friend stagger to the house, after he'd almost cut his foot off with a chainsaw. I phoned the usual services, and eventually he was flown off to Bordeaux in an air ambulance. He was very close to death. If he hadn't been able to drive his car to our house.....

Jennytc said...

I have considered it, Rosie! :)

Jennytc said...

It was worrying, SP. The wellies idea sounds ideal. :)

Jennytc said...

He certainly wasn't feeling too good for the rest of yesterday, Helsie. For a while he was as white as a sheet - just not like him at all and I only realised after we had got home that they hadn't done his BP while he was there, which the ambulance men did do the day before.

Jennytc said...

That sounds appalling, Cro. Keith did actually go to hospital yesterday in a plastic bag tied at the knee. Well, I had to protect the car... ;)

elaine said...

OMG what an awful thing - maybe you should have made some black pudding with all the blood.

Jennytc said...

Funnily enough, Elaine, the doctor suggested that his diet in the next few days should focus on liver and black pudding. ;)

Kate said...

Oh dear. This was an eventful couple of days! Rest, fluids and lots of red meat. Hopefully he'll make lots of blood again quickly.

Jennytc said...

Yes, hopefully, Katherine.

Plaster board and dust

So, we're still no further forward on the British Gas smart meter front and I've given up making non-existent appointments with them...