Saturday, December 04, 2004
Here I am again Saturday night and I am back in C5. It was all going so well - I had managed over three weeks I think, without an admission then it all went pear shaped on Monday when I fell over - I was in so much pain I think I may have over done the painkillers - at least I took some Tramadol before I went to bed and woke up feeling sick on Tuesday. I was not feeling that bad but I stayed in bed and then I threw up about mid morning - I waited for mum to get home at lunch time and she helped me up - I was in a bit of a panic as Jane was supposed to be coming for coffee and bringing her little girl Daisy to visit so mum stayed to welcome them and explain why iu was being antidocila - I ran off (well I staggered with the pain in my back) to the bathroom and threw up a couple of times while Jane was there and by the end of it I thought “it’s not going away” and figured I should call the doc then rather than wait until the middle of the night when I couldn’t stand up on my own anymore - Mum rang through th=o the surgery - at about 2pm and was told she couldn’t even speak to a doctor until 4pm - all we wanted was a referral to Addenbrookes - so Jane rang and they accepted her referral and told me to come straight in. I was in a bit of a state by this point - my back was so sore and getting up and walking was a real problem - I even fell over on the way to the car and arrived at Addenbrookes with a bloody knee like a five year old. I felt awful about missing out on Jane and Daisy’s visit - It is the first time I have met Daisy and she’s so funny Jane had warned me she was a bit of a madam - even Ash was a bit bemused by her - she was so sweet - she was a bit scared of him I think, but he didn’t really take any notice of her - especially when she wanted him to get out of her way so she just kept repeating “excuse me doggy” but he didn’t understand and just wanted to lick her - she kept squealing at him but I don’t think he minded. I think mum was surprised at how bossy she was and she is just so friendly - talks to everyone - it’s a real shame I was being so sick when she was there - we could have had some fun other wise! At least Ash didn’t growl at her or Jane this time.
Apparently as we arrived in Medical Admissions someone said “Jo Parker is here” and the receptionist said “Oh god” I’m sure it was mum hearing this out of context though I can imagine a few people would think “Oh god” when they hear I am coming in but it’s hard to imagine anyone is rude enough to say it out loud! I had some trouble getting line in but they let me keep my pump - which is a good thing although it is lucky it sort of looks after itself as I wasn’t really well enough to do it and no one lese actually monitored what I was doing or told me what my blood sugars were - well not that I remember anyway. I was out of connecting tubes for my pump and I knew they were going to run out so I was a bit worried - I came up to C% pretty quickly - back in to the usual bay they put me in - Carol is still here but I wasn’t really feeling chatty enough to speak to her - I spoke briefly to her mum before they moved me out.
Yes I have a room to myself again - when Archie came to move me I was surprised and asked is I was MRSA again - but apparently I am now something else - immune to vancomycin - which I suppose means if I get MRSA again then I am buggered. I really need to ask someone what it means as I hope this is not something that will keep me off the transplant list - and what if I do get MRSA again - will I end up dead even if it is just a small infection? What if I get another ulcer? Will they have to amputate? At the moment I am wildly overreacting and imagining all sorts of terrible outcomes - and you know how good I am at that - so I will just have to bury my head in the sand for a while and wait until someone explains it to me a bit more clearly. Still it can’t be good. You’d think I would be pleased with a side room - except it is further from the toilet so I have to walk much further to get to the very public bathrooms which are a bubbling pot of MRSA germs - not only that but my overhead light doesn’t work so it’s too dark when I want it to be light - and the light shines through from next door so it ‘s too light when I want it to be dark AND the TV and phone aren’t working in here - I was saying to mum I reckon they put me in here on purpose - told me I was immune to vanc just to try and put me off coming in so often - I reckon they must think I like it too much here. All the nice nurses and docs are here but there is no real eye candy - I haven’t seen the cute cardiologist for MONTHS and quite frankly I’m miserable - I’d rather be home putting up Christmas decorations.
I am upset that the suppositories they had given me didn’t work - but I did recover much more quickly this time - it came on very suddenly too and I’m not sure how things would have panned out if I had just stayed in bed and waited for the drugs to kick in before calling the hospital. Maybe I could have avoided this admission? Who knows - I am much better now - I got mum to order me some more tubes and to be helpful, Mark, at Roche had them sent by special delivery (next day guaranteed delivery to be signed upon receipt) directly to me here at Addenbrookes - well they were supposed to arrive Friday morning and now it is Saturday night they have still not found their way through the Addenbrookes mail system - you’d think that a special delivery package from a medical company to a hospital would find it’s recipient within 24 hours wouldn’t you? I even asked one of the nurses to chase it up but he had no luck tracking it down either - I have no doubt that the post office fulfilled their part of the bargain and delivered it on time but somehow Addenbrookes have mislaid it. It’s not even as if they would be worth anything to anyone else either. Of course if I ring Mark on Monday and he apologises and says he forgot to send it then I will apologise to Addenbrookes’ post room but he never has let me down before - and Addenbrookes…… well….. I asked the Pharmacist to order some insulin for me on Thursday and on Friday I asked if it had arrived yet - only to be told there was no record of it - I only had 15 units left in my pump so I would have had to call mum and get her to drive all the way in to Cambridge with a spare cartridge so before I gave her the bad news I asked them to check again - and there it was all ready dispensed and sent up for me! I’ve had to use the connecting tube again as I have no spare ones so I hope it lasts until I can get some more sent on Monday - maybe I will be home tby then anyway - I feel well enough as it is but I do have an iron infusion scheduled for Monday - I think it would be a shame to pull out my femoral line before then. Maybe they will let me go home straight from there.
More good news I got an interview for the ward clerk job - I knew it would be a problem though - the date for the interview is the 15th December which is when I am doing the medical exams - it is at 2pm so I might be able to do it if I have lunch at that time - if not I will have to ask if I can rearrange the time or the date of the interview - I’m sure they will be ok when I explain why - but I have already committed myself to the exams for the whole day so I can’t withdraw from that now.
It is so hot in here - I am so bored!! I will be able to watch some movies tonight though - I have three - Underworld (which I have been meaning to watch for weeks) and I have Thunderbirds the movie and also 30 First Dates - not sure what mood I am in yet but I think I will at elast watch Underworld tonight - see how tired I am after that. Thank good ness for Laptops when Patientline isn’t working. I did ring them yesterday when I had spent the day with a screen that said it was out of service and would be resumed shortly - when I called I was told it was a hospital wide problem and people were working on it and it would be fixed either that night or the next morning - by lunch time the next day nothing had changed so I went back to the vending machine and called again - I checked and everyone else seems to be able to use their phones and TV’s and when I spoke to a very helpful guy he told me there was no record or my call and no fault has been recorded so he then recorded the call and told me someone would be up to look at it asap - and now it is 7:30pm and I haven’t seen anyone - someone really is trying to make me miserable this admission - at least they haven’t messed up my food this time - shit - I really shouldn’t have typed that out loud…..
Oh dear I just had a hypo -well, it was down to 3.4 so technically I didn’t feel too bad - I got toast - in around five minutes much better than last night when it took half an hour and even then she argued about putting sugar in my tea - I’m not sure what her name is but she is a mean nurse - she never really smiles - oh except she did find it funny that my light didn’t work (after she had checked it wasn’t just me lying about it - like I don’t know how to switch a lamp on…) anyway she always makes me feel bad. There was a cleaner on today who was working in the toilets and I asked her if it mattered which one I used - mostly because the women’s toilet has an out of order sign on it and the other two men’s toilets looked messy and so I assumed she was cleaning one - she practically bit my head off and yelled “Der are tree toilets! One toilet here - one here! And one der! TREE TOILETS!!” which frightened me a bit. I was going to try and point out that there are only TWO toilets not TREE but I was afraid she would hurt me. She was holding a broom after all. They haven’t made my bed for two days - and my dinner plate still hasn’t been cleared away and soon they will be turning off the lights and expecting us to go to sleep. It was a very nice dinner - the vegetables and potato had little burnt bits on them where they had dried up and been over done but I like them like that and there was lots of fish - I ordered chicken supreme at lunch time and I got minced chicken which has a very odd feel in the mouth - I think I have chicken supreme again tomorrow and then pork crumble for tea - I have no idea why I ordered pork crumble - I guess I didn’t fancy any of the other options - I used to think that the low potassium diet had a wider choice than the “normal” menu which it does - but just the same wider choice every day so eventually you have tried every combination of everything on there - at least it is all fairly bland - the normal menu has casseroles made with cider amongst other odd flavours for an invalid’s menu - which are fine if you like odd flavours but snot so good on a stomach that has been vomiting for a week. They do these “fool” desserts which taste of nothing really - vaguely fruity I think and no sweetener as they are “diabetic” but they are perfect if you want to just get something in to start with. Today I also had a jam tart - it came in its own little plastic carton with a hospital label on it saying “Diabetic Jam Tart” it looked so sad in it’s little box but tasted much nicer than the ones you get if you are “normal” they are more like bought jam tarts where as this tastes home made - much nicer - it’s the same with apple pies - the “diabetic” ones come in their own little plastic box and they are filled with real apple and made with real pastry unlike the “normal” apple pie which is like a Mr Kipling style individual pie. I do like my pastry.
I am so fat today - I have put on a lot of weight which probably has a lot to do with having only yellow bags since I’ve been in here - I definitely feel like I am retaining fluid at the moment and my BP is up as well as my weight which would also indicate this. Not only that I haven’t been to the toilet since I came in here on Tuesday so I am a bit worried about that - I keep taking whatever they chuck at me by way of senna or lactulose but I think it was the painkillers that finished me off - that and the anti emetics don’t go well with bowels - good grief I said the b word - I am officially a moaning little old lady. Shit. Literally.
How are you Slim? I haven’t heard form you mate, in AGES - true I haven’t been here but I have been thinking about you and I hope you are ok - same goes for all my little buddies out there I’ve not been very vocal recently but I will try and be good when I get out
Happy Belated Birthday Paul!! My oldest uni mate (ha ha you’re older than me!!)
Apparently as we arrived in Medical Admissions someone said “Jo Parker is here” and the receptionist said “Oh god” I’m sure it was mum hearing this out of context though I can imagine a few people would think “Oh god” when they hear I am coming in but it’s hard to imagine anyone is rude enough to say it out loud! I had some trouble getting line in but they let me keep my pump - which is a good thing although it is lucky it sort of looks after itself as I wasn’t really well enough to do it and no one lese actually monitored what I was doing or told me what my blood sugars were - well not that I remember anyway. I was out of connecting tubes for my pump and I knew they were going to run out so I was a bit worried - I came up to C% pretty quickly - back in to the usual bay they put me in - Carol is still here but I wasn’t really feeling chatty enough to speak to her - I spoke briefly to her mum before they moved me out.
Yes I have a room to myself again - when Archie came to move me I was surprised and asked is I was MRSA again - but apparently I am now something else - immune to vancomycin - which I suppose means if I get MRSA again then I am buggered. I really need to ask someone what it means as I hope this is not something that will keep me off the transplant list - and what if I do get MRSA again - will I end up dead even if it is just a small infection? What if I get another ulcer? Will they have to amputate? At the moment I am wildly overreacting and imagining all sorts of terrible outcomes - and you know how good I am at that - so I will just have to bury my head in the sand for a while and wait until someone explains it to me a bit more clearly. Still it can’t be good. You’d think I would be pleased with a side room - except it is further from the toilet so I have to walk much further to get to the very public bathrooms which are a bubbling pot of MRSA germs - not only that but my overhead light doesn’t work so it’s too dark when I want it to be light - and the light shines through from next door so it ‘s too light when I want it to be dark AND the TV and phone aren’t working in here - I was saying to mum I reckon they put me in here on purpose - told me I was immune to vanc just to try and put me off coming in so often - I reckon they must think I like it too much here. All the nice nurses and docs are here but there is no real eye candy - I haven’t seen the cute cardiologist for MONTHS and quite frankly I’m miserable - I’d rather be home putting up Christmas decorations.
I am upset that the suppositories they had given me didn’t work - but I did recover much more quickly this time - it came on very suddenly too and I’m not sure how things would have panned out if I had just stayed in bed and waited for the drugs to kick in before calling the hospital. Maybe I could have avoided this admission? Who knows - I am much better now - I got mum to order me some more tubes and to be helpful, Mark, at Roche had them sent by special delivery (next day guaranteed delivery to be signed upon receipt) directly to me here at Addenbrookes - well they were supposed to arrive Friday morning and now it is Saturday night they have still not found their way through the Addenbrookes mail system - you’d think that a special delivery package from a medical company to a hospital would find it’s recipient within 24 hours wouldn’t you? I even asked one of the nurses to chase it up but he had no luck tracking it down either - I have no doubt that the post office fulfilled their part of the bargain and delivered it on time but somehow Addenbrookes have mislaid it. It’s not even as if they would be worth anything to anyone else either. Of course if I ring Mark on Monday and he apologises and says he forgot to send it then I will apologise to Addenbrookes’ post room but he never has let me down before - and Addenbrookes…… well….. I asked the Pharmacist to order some insulin for me on Thursday and on Friday I asked if it had arrived yet - only to be told there was no record of it - I only had 15 units left in my pump so I would have had to call mum and get her to drive all the way in to Cambridge with a spare cartridge so before I gave her the bad news I asked them to check again - and there it was all ready dispensed and sent up for me! I’ve had to use the connecting tube again as I have no spare ones so I hope it lasts until I can get some more sent on Monday - maybe I will be home tby then anyway - I feel well enough as it is but I do have an iron infusion scheduled for Monday - I think it would be a shame to pull out my femoral line before then. Maybe they will let me go home straight from there.
More good news I got an interview for the ward clerk job - I knew it would be a problem though - the date for the interview is the 15th December which is when I am doing the medical exams - it is at 2pm so I might be able to do it if I have lunch at that time - if not I will have to ask if I can rearrange the time or the date of the interview - I’m sure they will be ok when I explain why - but I have already committed myself to the exams for the whole day so I can’t withdraw from that now.
It is so hot in here - I am so bored!! I will be able to watch some movies tonight though - I have three - Underworld (which I have been meaning to watch for weeks) and I have Thunderbirds the movie and also 30 First Dates - not sure what mood I am in yet but I think I will at elast watch Underworld tonight - see how tired I am after that. Thank good ness for Laptops when Patientline isn’t working. I did ring them yesterday when I had spent the day with a screen that said it was out of service and would be resumed shortly - when I called I was told it was a hospital wide problem and people were working on it and it would be fixed either that night or the next morning - by lunch time the next day nothing had changed so I went back to the vending machine and called again - I checked and everyone else seems to be able to use their phones and TV’s and when I spoke to a very helpful guy he told me there was no record or my call and no fault has been recorded so he then recorded the call and told me someone would be up to look at it asap - and now it is 7:30pm and I haven’t seen anyone - someone really is trying to make me miserable this admission - at least they haven’t messed up my food this time - shit - I really shouldn’t have typed that out loud…..
Oh dear I just had a hypo -well, it was down to 3.4 so technically I didn’t feel too bad - I got toast - in around five minutes much better than last night when it took half an hour and even then she argued about putting sugar in my tea - I’m not sure what her name is but she is a mean nurse - she never really smiles - oh except she did find it funny that my light didn’t work (after she had checked it wasn’t just me lying about it - like I don’t know how to switch a lamp on…) anyway she always makes me feel bad. There was a cleaner on today who was working in the toilets and I asked her if it mattered which one I used - mostly because the women’s toilet has an out of order sign on it and the other two men’s toilets looked messy and so I assumed she was cleaning one - she practically bit my head off and yelled “Der are tree toilets! One toilet here - one here! And one der! TREE TOILETS!!” which frightened me a bit. I was going to try and point out that there are only TWO toilets not TREE but I was afraid she would hurt me. She was holding a broom after all. They haven’t made my bed for two days - and my dinner plate still hasn’t been cleared away and soon they will be turning off the lights and expecting us to go to sleep. It was a very nice dinner - the vegetables and potato had little burnt bits on them where they had dried up and been over done but I like them like that and there was lots of fish - I ordered chicken supreme at lunch time and I got minced chicken which has a very odd feel in the mouth - I think I have chicken supreme again tomorrow and then pork crumble for tea - I have no idea why I ordered pork crumble - I guess I didn’t fancy any of the other options - I used to think that the low potassium diet had a wider choice than the “normal” menu which it does - but just the same wider choice every day so eventually you have tried every combination of everything on there - at least it is all fairly bland - the normal menu has casseroles made with cider amongst other odd flavours for an invalid’s menu - which are fine if you like odd flavours but snot so good on a stomach that has been vomiting for a week. They do these “fool” desserts which taste of nothing really - vaguely fruity I think and no sweetener as they are “diabetic” but they are perfect if you want to just get something in to start with. Today I also had a jam tart - it came in its own little plastic carton with a hospital label on it saying “Diabetic Jam Tart” it looked so sad in it’s little box but tasted much nicer than the ones you get if you are “normal” they are more like bought jam tarts where as this tastes home made - much nicer - it’s the same with apple pies - the “diabetic” ones come in their own little plastic box and they are filled with real apple and made with real pastry unlike the “normal” apple pie which is like a Mr Kipling style individual pie. I do like my pastry.
I am so fat today - I have put on a lot of weight which probably has a lot to do with having only yellow bags since I’ve been in here - I definitely feel like I am retaining fluid at the moment and my BP is up as well as my weight which would also indicate this. Not only that I haven’t been to the toilet since I came in here on Tuesday so I am a bit worried about that - I keep taking whatever they chuck at me by way of senna or lactulose but I think it was the painkillers that finished me off - that and the anti emetics don’t go well with bowels - good grief I said the b word - I am officially a moaning little old lady. Shit. Literally.
How are you Slim? I haven’t heard form you mate, in AGES - true I haven’t been here but I have been thinking about you and I hope you are ok - same goes for all my little buddies out there I’ve not been very vocal recently but I will try and be good when I get out
Happy Belated Birthday Paul!! My oldest uni mate (ha ha you’re older than me!!)
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