NHS nurses' diary tell patient's 15-day intensive care Covid-19 story

From islingtongazette.co.uk

London: An Islington man spent five weeks fighting Covid-19 at the Whittington, just yards from his home. Now he wants to share the diary nurses wrote for him, and pay tribute to their amazing care.

Nick Martens, 70, was admitted to the Whittington Hospital with Covid-19 in early June. He spent five and a half weeks there, including 15 days in intensive care. 

During his time in intensive care, the nursing team looking after him did something they do for all of their patients – they wrote a diary for him, keeping track of his care and his condition. 

'Hi Nic, It's me Carlo, your nurse for today...' Nurses wrote to Nick Martens while he was unconscious during his fight with Covid-19 - Credit: Nick Martens

Nick wants to share the diary, which he was given at the end of his stay in intensive care, to pay tribute to the medics who kept him alive – especially as at times it was not always a sure thing.  

Nick told the Gazette: "I had not seen anything like it to be honest. I remember nothing of those 15 days - there's just this diary which the nurses left by my bedside.

"The [hospital] is absolutely amazing. The doctors were amazing. The nurses were amazing. I could just wax lyrical about the care I received all day."

A Whittington Health spokesperson said: "We are pleased to hear that Mr Martens continues to recover following his time with us and we’re proud to have been there for him when he needed us.

"His case serves as a reminder to everyone of how serious Covid-19 can be which is why it is so important that everyone gets the protection of two doses of Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible.”

The patient diary written by Nick's nurses during his time in intensive care is presented below - it has been edited for brevity, but the words remain the nurses' own.

June 10 - day shift

Hello Nicholas

My name is Maybelle, your nurse for today. This is your second day here with us in the critical care unit. You remain to have a breathing tube connected to the breathing machine. 

We are doing the best we can to help you keep fighting. I will pray for your recovery.

Maybelle

June 10 - night shift

Hi Nicholas

My name is Wincey. I am looking after you tonight.

I was helping her Wednesday night. And tonight I get the chance to look after you. Your oxygenation somehow improved after putting you on the ventilator. 

Unfortunately it was not a very good night for you. You remain very unwell at present. I hope today will be a better day for you Nicholas. I will pray for your recovery just continue to hang in there. We are all doing our best to help you get through with this.

God bless.

Wincey

June 13 - night shift

Hi Nicholas. I wonder if they call you Nick or it's just Nicholas.

It's me again Wincey, your nurse for tonight. 

I must say for the past night shifts I have looked after you. This is the most stable night you have had. I hope this will carry on but we must just take it day by day. In reality, you will have good and some not so good days but that's OK  - as long as you are still here and fighting.

I wonder what the sound of your voice is like

Keeping you in my prayers

Wincey

Nick Martens spent five weeks in the Whittington Hospital suffering from Covid-19 - Credit: Nick Martens/PA

June 16 - day shift

Hi Nick

My name is Sophie and I'm the nurse looking after you today.

You remain on the ventilator with the breathing tube in your mouth - however today we have managed to wean down your oxygen and the amount of support the ventilator is giving you which is really good.

We have also reduced the amount of sedation we are giving you and although you remain very sleepy you have just been able to squeeze my hands when I asked you to, and you have been able to nod and shake your head to me when I've been speaking to you which, although it may seem like a small thing, is an amazing achievement considering how unwell you have been.

Sophie

June 18 - night shift

Hi Nicholas

I'm looking after you tonight. You are still on a ventilator and improving slowly, day by day. You are on a sedation and may not remember me, but the most important thing is you and it is a pleasure to take care of you. Your ventilator settings needs adjustment during the night. Our doctors are still seeing you as well. So good luck, hope you will have a speedy recovery. God bless.

Carlo A

June 19 - day shift

Hi Nicholas

I'm Sheila and looking after you for the first time today. It's a Saturday and not the best weather in London as it's been rainy/drizzling outside. 

You appear to be comfortable and after the wash I put on some music for you. I hope you did not mind me choosing a variety of music. I played The Supremes, and some blues and 70s hits just to mix it up a little for you. I do hope the music helps relax you. You remain quite ill and do need quite a lot of support. We will continue to work together to help you through this so be patient.

I wish you all the best recovery.

Regards

Sheila

Intensive care patients at the Whittington receive a Patient Diary - composed by their carers - Credit: Nick Martens

June 21 - day shift

Hi Nicholas

It is a pleasure looking after you today. We are hoping to remove your breathing tube as soon as you are ready. I really hope you recover rapidly and when you read this diary, you will realise how sick you were.

I wish you all the best and am hoping that you remain strong in this fight.

Sheik

June 22 - day shift

Hello Nick

It's Sophie the nurse looking after you again today.

You should be very proud of yourself. We have been able to take out the breathing tube and take you off the ventilator.

Wishing you a continued speedy recovery.

Sophie

June 22 - night shift

Hi Nicholas! I'm MJ your night nurse.

I am just ecstatic to see you doing so well after the great difficulty you've been through. You've been and still are quite disorientated after two weeks of induced sleep. Well I would probably be too! You told me as we conversed that you went on a very long sailing trip on a boat. I said that you are not the only one who shared that experience.

I am afraid I will be leaving you for now Nicholas. I hope you'll have a lovely and productive day. May you have a speedy recovery. I wish you all the best.God bless!!

Your Nurse

MJ

June 24 - day shift

Hi Nick

It's Dennis your nurse today.

You made a big progress and you're making good conversations with the doctors regarding your treatment plans. You also had a phone call to Tristan to surprise him about your transfer from ITU to Nightingale Ward.

I wish you well and be better every day.

Your nurse

Dennis

The diary ends on June 24 - when Nick was transferred out of intensive care. Not all of the entries in his diary could be included here. They were written by Whittington nurses Dennis, Susile, Carlo A, MJ, Sophie, Sheik, Maria, Sheila, Meron, Wincey and Maybelle.

https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/health/nhs-patients-covid19-diary-whittington-hospital-8221788

A cancer diary: Up to date without a conclusion

From edp24.co.uk

Back in 2019, north Norfolk photojournalist Maurice Gray shared his cancer diary with us.

Three years on from his original diagnosis, he’s been bringing us up to date with a series of features about his treatment for the ‘big C’. 

I am writing this instalment in my diary while having treatment, in the Weybourne Day Unit, at the Colney Centre at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, which brings me to the end of the first year of my ‘maintenance’, two-year planned programme. (It sounds mechanical!).  

I will then be booked for a scan to see how I am getting on and the results will determine my next year of treatment. 

I have kept an up-to-date diary while receiving my treatment after being diagnosed just over three years ago and kept as much detail, from day to day, as I could.  

Maurice Gray, who has been sharing his diary from his cancer treatment with us  Credit: Maurice Gray

With my wife, Margaret, we were determined to fight cancer from the time we contacted our GP, who spotted the signs while we sat in his surgery thinking that I must have a bad cold that brought out lumps in my neck and groin.  

But due to our GP’s vigilance, he was looking for more serious symptoms. “I need some blood”, he said (I thought, ‘don’t we all’), a sample he explained and added: “I’m making an appointment for an X-ray tomorrow”. 

My wife and I looked at each other saying, “Do you think it’s something more serious?”  

“Yes”, he said while tapping on his computer keys, then took a sample of my blood from my arm saying: “I’ve made appointments for an X-ray for you to go to Cromer hospital tomorrow.”  

Wow, we thought then, what’s next? 

An appointment came within days to be seen by an ENT (ear, nose and throat) consultant surgeon, and after examination, within 20 minutes a biopsy was taken.

The diagnosis eventually came back as Non-Hodgkin Follicular Lymphoma, Stage 3 Grade 2. Difficult to remember, but it’s a ‘bloody’ cancer. 

I was then referred to the fantastic haematology team in the Colney Centre where The Professor explained the chemotherapy suitable for me, to control the cancer.  

He mentioned that this particular cancer cannot be completely cured and would be likely to come back (a worrying thought). But he said: ‘If you don’t have treatment now the situation would be very serious.” 

Anyway, we logged everything, including the helpful and kind reception staff, nurses caring with a smile, doctors, consultants, surgeons, volunteers, and diagnostic staff who are all so caring too and devoted to their professions. 

We noted everything we experienced, as well as that of others in similar situations, finding those who were more than willing to explain how they coped, family and friends. 

We have made many visits to the Colney Centre, Weybourne Day Unit attached to one of the best hospitals, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, famous for its care, teaching and team work. It’s almost becoming a family on first name terms. 

During the three years, we met so many people, patients’ volunteers, doctors and we are both so very grateful to them all, including the hospital’s communications team headed by Janice. A big thank you for all their help. 

We also thank the EDP and Evening News for allowing us to publish our experiences during treatment as well as mentioning to readers and encouraging them to get checked out if they’re concerned about feeling ill and/or find any lumps and bumps. to contact their GP or medical centre as soon as possible because it saves lives.  

We have met lovely people, but in some cases, sadly their treatment came too late. That is why our gratitude extends to a very high level to all medical people involved in my care, keeping up with the hurdles but not jumping them: consultants, doctors, nurses, laboratory personnel, chemists, those who deal with diagnostic imaging, secretaries who work their fingers off tapping the keys and solving problems, therapists, volunteers and many more personnel who work on the front line and often behind the scenes (have I missed anyone)? They all work very hard. 

We are very fortunate to have our NHS, thank goodness. I understand that the cost of my treatment to the NHS to date is well over £20,000, and rising. 

While being treated, during a period of three years, I said I would record as many procedures and conversations as I could and do some research about cancer and the great deal of information that comes out.  

Some stated very strongly about various suggestions, such as laughter producing ‘endorphins’ from the human brain, a substance very much like morphine - the body’s own type of anaesthesia/relaxant which helps human beings to sustain pain. 

There has also been research into the effect of intensive states of depression, of brief anger and/or fear on cancer. And there has also been research into the impact of creativity and how having hope, faith and love can contribute towards healing and wellbeing. 

A positive outlook is so important. So, go for laughter. Yet another good tip is that as we become older the memories seem to get lost, but we discovered by ‘humming’ favourite music/songs, once that settles in the brain, lyrics or words will come back. It could also help to avoid dementia and/or memory loss. 

So keep up the laughter and humming, of course!  

We picked up more good tips. For example exercise (not too heavy) is important and cutting down on the booze, which does not go well with medications.  

While using a bath or shower regularly, for hygienic reasons, you can exercise at the same time with just a single towel. Using both hands, after stepping out of the bath, hold on to each end of the towel and pull tight while drying back, front, and under the arches! 

We also mentioned a helping hand by using olive oil, cider vinegar and honey and don’t forget to eat  fresh fruit and vegetables and drink plenty of water. 

Here are two things to consider. Firstly chemotherapy. I had to accept that what goes in has to come out in some sort of way or other, but, once the cannula pumps the cocktail medications through the veins, which travel all round the body including the head and brain, this affects that area and I for one have experienced scrambled brain commonly known as ‘chemo brain’. 

Also the treatments often make me ‘pee ‘more, so I am always on the lookout for the vacant signs or find an alternative! 

I think by doing all of these things, it helped, along with my treatment, to keep me on the planet! And, Id like to give a big loving thank you to my wife, Margaret, who has certainly helped to keep me going, whilst continuing to deal with her own medical problem: an undiagnosed bone disease in her sacrum, complete with a large tumour on the inside of her sacrum, christened Charlie.  

To date, she is still undiagnosed and has to be scanned regularly to check on the condition.  

However, she continues, in spite of the pain, to carry on as normal and certainly looks after me. What a wonderful ‘nurse’ she is. 

Although cancers seem to get at us, as well as the plagues that are nibbling at us all causing worrying times, there are various improved equipment and better diagnostic techniques nowadays.  

Especially for checking and treating prostrate problems, which are less intrusive. But it is very important to check, with the GP, if in doubt.  

For the ladies, breast screening is more refined now and less uncomfortable. More procedures are quite simple and the robotic systems are taking over. 

All of us must press on, laughing and humming which keeps our endorphins going and throws some determination and creativity in. 

A very big thank you to all the haematology team who have looked after me, and I will be back later this year with the outcome of my scan after my first year of my two-year planned maintenance treatment. Fingers crossed it will be a good result. 

Bye for now! 

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/maurice-gray-cancer-diary-part-9-8132206