9th October: Settling down

Off to work early to deliver a full-day workshop on negotiations. Only four students, and they were all lovely. Knocked out most of my input by 11.30 then set them up in two groups on a fiendish negotiation exercise. I was able to steal away for an hour to visit Simon at Repat, and was happy to find him sitting out in the day room with his fish and chips lunch (always the same of Fridays). They had not yet had confirmation of the MRSA, and so he was still in the same bedroom.
Back to work for the afternoon workshop. The students eventually did reach a negotiated settlement, but only after lying, cheating, and going to the brink of walk-out. Funny this, since when I asked them to assess their preferred conflict handling style first thing this morning, they all claimed to prefer collaborative approaches! We also gathered some nice insights into their previous experiences of negotiating - everything from buying cars from dodgy dealers to the role of mothers in brokering peace between battling siblings. I was pleased with my day's work and left them with homework to devise a plan to negotiate their own starting salaries. A very real assignment for them.
Dashed home to cook something for Simon's tea, managed to put a reasonable meal together, then back to the hossie. In the meantime, Simon's MRSA had been confirmed and identified; it is a very common one and well understood. I think there is at least one other case on the ward, not someone that Simon has had close contact with, so may have been passed by health staff. Hand hygiene is the most important containment technique. We are asked to use an alcohol gel on our hands when entering and leaving a room, this is straight forward enough. This germ will not make Simon ill, it is actually widespread in the community, many people carry it on their skin. It is only the risk to very sick patients, especially those with surgical wounds, or poor immune systems e.g. chemo patients, that presents the problem and so they must do everything possible to isolate it. Repat has a very good reputation of fighting this, and even recently recorded a 150 day spell of no MRSA incidents, a rare thing.
Simon has been moved to his own room, and it is rather pleasant looking out onto a garden courtyard, and he has a patio door that he can open and go walk about if he chooses. Also the luxury of his own bathroom which is roomier than the old one. With a bit of cheering up, it will be quite comfortable. I plan to take in some posters for the walls - inevitably he asked for a poster of the Swifts ladies netball team! Another advantage is that Simon can now choose which side of the bed to put his table. In the old room everything was put on his right hand side, which is the wrong side of course. All in all, things are not so bad. The staff are using gloves, but not masks or gowns because the germ is not airborne. That's a great relief for Simon, he was freaked out when his physio team turned up yesterday gowned and masked, he thought they were going to take him to surgery. His Doctor has been in and out several times today talking to Simon and explaining that he is safe, which he is. So too are all the people who have visited Simon. Visitors are still always welcome, just follow the hand hygiene instructions displayed around the ward.
George, Simon's old room mate, is leaving Repat next Tuesday. He is going to a hospital at Meningie which is only 70kms from his home (currently he is around 250kms away from home). This will give his family better access. They hope from there to get him home completely once the alterations to his house are complete. Simon and George have promised to stay in touch, and we will try to meet up with him at his son's hometome of Strathalbyn which is not so far from us. George has been a very good mate to Simon and I thank him. What struck me about George was that although he had everything to complain about what had happened to him, he never once did complain.
Thanks to David McGladdery for the talking books - great series of Peter James novels, I have read three of them so will appreciate them too. Simon spoke with Shirley last night and said that she had a good night out with Eleanor and then Asher collected her next day. Hope the English weather is behaving well.
Simon will come home for Saturday and Sunday afternoon. We plan to review some abstracts for a journal that he edits, then relax and chill out. He took five steps in the gym today. This evening, Simon told me the only thing he could give me was his heart; that's good enough for me, Shurv. Just keep it ticking.
Love Marian x