The day I went to the pub!

The title of this post is 100 % accurate. They let me out of hospital and I went to the pub. I’ll get to that in a minute.

Remembering when they said I could leave the hospital for the day is getting me excited even now, and I am typing far too fast and correcting lots of mistakes as I write!

To put it in perspective my residence in Ward 34 was pretty mundane. I had observations every couple of hours, spent an hour or so on a machine monitoring the movement of the baby and then would wait for visitors. And of course, wrap a few presents. Go to sleep. Repeat.

Sometimes when I did get in to a deep sleep, the nurse would try and gently wake me up, but I often got a fright and jumped. Which made her jump. Then we’d both be in fits of laughter and have to wait a few minutes to do the test. 
That was the height of the entertainment during my stay! 

I was always asked if I had any headaches, blurred vision, pains in my abdomen. Other than a few headaches, I never really did but it always highlighted to me how weird this whole thing was. As fine as I felt, something inside was going seriously wrong and I honestly had no idea the scale of it. That’s the thing with preeclampsia, it’s so easy to overlook because of how you feel.

37 weeks was still the target for delivery and that was always the focus when the doctors did their rounds. On Sunday December 9, I was around 33 weeks, and the Doctor asked if I’d like to go out for the day. Looking back I can’t remember exactly, but I am pretty sure I would have cried when he asked that. Yes! Yes I’d like to go out.

As long as all my obs were ok, I could leave for a few hours and get back for my next set of obs. Now I know the world wasn’t exactly my oyster, but this was BIG!

I had to get through the blood pressure test. I was so bloody excited I was worried my BP was going to sky rocket and they’d say I couldn’t go, but I remained optimistic and made the call for my boyfriend to bring me a coat and some proper shoes.

A few calming deep breaths, and my BP was OK and I was good to go. I ran to the loo and put some mascara on and walked, very slowly, out of the hospital with my boyfriend. I think it was expected that I’d be going home, but I didn’t. My boyfriend was going to the Newcastle match and meeting my dad and some friends in the pub.

I could have easily said I wanted to go home and he would have cancelled his plans, but for the all the excitement of getting out, I just wanted normality for a few hours. And a normal match day was him going to the match and me being in town.

I've already mentioned how hard I think it was for my family, and so going to the match for my boyfriend was probably a bit of escape from the reality of it all for him too, and I wasn't going to take that away from him.

So I went with him to the pub. Ahh my dads face when I walked in to the pub was priceless and I enjoyed a full fat coke with the boys.

While they enjoyed some pre match pints I met my mam and sister and headed in to town where the Christmas Markets were on. I actually surprised my mam at the bus stop when she got to Newcastle and it was a mixture of being pleased to see me, and wondering what on earth I was doing there!?

It was a brilliant afternoon, the smells, the feeling of the cold winter air, the bustle of a city centre. I loved it. I remember nipping to the loo when I was out and catching myself in the mirror. I looked rough and my ability to put makeup on had clearly gone, but who cared!? NOT ME!

We went to Zizzi’s for a pizza, and I remember comparing it to when the celebrities leave the jungle. Just those different tastes compared to the hospital food were lovely and I absolutely demolished my pizza before heading back to hospital with some chocolates for the staff. 

Maybe if I bribe them they’ll let me out again? It was worth a shot.

The boys came back to visit after the match, Newcastle lost but we didn’t care. It was a great day and made such a difference to how I was feeling. The doctor knew it would do that, that it would perk me up. They really do know what they are doing and I am so grateful for that!