From the Drs to the Hospital to… erm what now? (by sarah)
Warning this post contains mention of poo and medical procedures!
Wednesday I went for my Drs appointment - the one I had to wait over a week for. I went in and told him all the symptoms I could remember and he stopped me and said he was concerned that I had been bleeding and how long had I had the squits? A set of questions about how much, what and how frequently plus the whole run down of the stuff from my second year and it was taking pulse and blood pressure and then prodding the stomach and then the internal.
I had been ill quiet badly just before we left for the Drs in fact we were almost late for it becuase of me and the proding and internal really really hurt.
Pulse high, blood pressure low and obvious dehydration even though I was sipping continously from a bottle of water I bought in with me.
He said he'd send me to the hospital for some tests and things but I was "erm... but I have my presintation this evening at college" and I get a look and he says that I can have a doctors note maybe not for the whole time period I've been sick for but definatly for the last two weeks and anytime in the hospital and you need a drip.
And so we headed off to the Gloucester Royal in the van - to my suprise he asked if Al could take me or if I needed an ambulence - this is so different from the treatment I had during the pregnancy back in Essex I couldn't believe it. (I went to cuasulty on the bus with a pulmniary anurism whilst mid-pregnancy plus pnumonia etc... not that I'm bitter).
So I get a letter all sealed saying AAU on it - accute accessment unit and instructions on how to find it (which I promptly forgot!) we get there and its time to try not to panic - I arrive and its ECG's and canular's put in and things like that. It was very close to what happened during the pregnancy and I feared being in hospital for weeks again, in pain etc...
They took a swab of my nasal cavities and the crease between my leg and groin to test for MRSA and we had a brief discussion about weather I had come into contact with it - yes a while ago i.e. mums infected wound from the lumpectomy.
If infected I would be moved to a side room.
I was moved to a side room with mutters of testing for swine flu etc... I had gone to the loo several times by this point and only then did they ask for a sample (this turned out to be part of an on going comedy).
Bloods taken - more proding and poking and internals and then more bloods and I spent the night in the AAU - I even got visited by a cute 'baby' Dr a.k.a the student who was just starting his on site training.
Again there was a vast improovement here above Harold Wood Hospital - they didn't just write - allergic to latex they gave me a nice bright red wrist band with LATEX written on it - an obvious and neat system if ever I saw one.
After all the proding and poking I felt very nuaseus and couldn't eat (when I arrived they said nil by mouth this got changed but no one told us and I didn't get any water till the evening). As the day wore on I slept alot - this was and is part of the problem I am just so tired.
However my body decided to embarrase me by deciding to stop what it had been doing and suddenly I was in hospital becuase I had bad diarreha and they wanted a sample and well... I erm... now had the opposite problem but produced something that night. (The assistant who came to get said she didnt think it was any good as it was mixed (ie I'd weeed too) and disappeared - it was still in the bathroom the next morning - I threw it away then the nurse came round demanding and I explained and she said it didn't matter that it was mixed for stools - sigh).
I then produced another for them about midday just as someone turned up to take me up to another ward - I told her that it was there in the bathroom (I hadn't had a chance to call anyone to collect it)
Anyway I was moved to ward 7a and put in another side room and about 1/2 hr later was asked for a stool sample to be sent for culture - if I hadn't been feeling so rough I would have laughed.
I had a fantastic view from this window and I was allowed to go walkies when Al turned up. Also the nurses actually realised I was scared and spoke to me about what was going on.
Obviously with the risk of cloting I shouldn't really be laying in bed all day and my back has been agony becuase of it but I'm just so tured at the moment.
I went for a potter to the shop and stuff and found the wall my art teatcher had made which was fantastic to be honest - it really is!
My blood pressure was low or normal the whole time - I did notice though that it was only normal if I saw them coming - I try not too but I panic when I see nurses wheel those trollies of instraments over to me :/
I actually ate the second day but my stomache just bloated and no stool sample. I had to have stronger pain killers that night to sleep and anti sickness drug - can't remeber what they were called.
I had the second book of the Wheel of Time series with me and Al had got me a note book the first day when I was in the AAU but I spent most of my time asleep.
Part of me did wonder if the diarrehia stopped because suddenly I wasn't trying to do things and was sleeping lots especially as the bloods they took were relatively normal (I hate it when they say things like that so are they normal or not?).
They still insisted that I have a sigmoidal arcoscopy (no idea how to spell it but it appeared to be a giant fibre optic camera on a flexi tube that they rammed into my lower cut). I had to have an enimia before hand - bizarly as soon as that was done I felt a lot better - I mean like a 100 times better but still had to have the camera.
The staff where very reassuring and chatty and I was asked if I had a normal labour - no - cesarian? - no - natural birth - erm yes - ah well you don't need sedation then! Mew 🙁
Well it wasn't that bad when they inflated me with air it just made me feel sick - there where some 'tight corners' which he had to tackel which hurt - he kept saying he would stop if the pain was too much but the pain of it going in was more that it shifting about once in. I had been on my side but he got me to lay on my back and that abatted both pelvic pain (my pelvis still clicks if I lay on my side on a hard surface) and the proceedural pain.
What I didn't like was the fact I could feel it moving about inside - it felt alien - not like being pregnant. I put my hand on my stomach and could feel it from the outside too - the nurse did the same.
I watched the video and it didn't look anything like the time in the second year when Becca took me - then it was just sort of a yellowy pink tube little hollows where things sat this time it was pale pink with a network of fine red lines spread across it. I assume these are for digestion etc... I watched the little three pronged claw come out and nip bits aways leaving little bloody marks - I didn't feel the biopsies being taken at all!
There was a strange nipple-esk thing near the beginning but he didn't seem to worry about it still I wish I had asked!
Obviously I was puffed up with air and they kept telling me I could let it out once they had finished but I couldn't and though my stomach was twice its normal size I just couldn't and I felt even better after they had done that.
So I went back to the ward and had breakfast and he sent some notes up with me - they took more bloods but on the plus side it looks like there is no evidence of colites or crohns so the biopsies should be clear.
Just after lunch the dr came to see me - I've had an infection which acted up my IBS (now the only reason I new I had a diagnosis of IBS was I saw it on the computer at the Dr surgery). This is why it's lasted for weeks instead of days. Blood was probably from a tear or possibly piles which got sore with all the going to the toliet.
More bloods were taken and I have to go back to the GP - GP wanted thyroid testing, glandular fever, gluten allergy and some other things I can't remember the name of done - the hospital where only testing some of these things. I also had to have x-rays done of both my lungs and my stomach - this was painful as the radiologist had to hold my legs in possition and reposition my stupid pelvic.
I was let out later that day (Friday) after being asked if I wanted to go home - this is a stupid question - I'm scared of hospitals I try not to look ill so they will send me home of course I wanted to go home!
I'm feeling abit stupid that it was just IBS but it is becoming stupid - I can't cope with doing things between my stomach, back adn pelvis and now I'm just getting skin infection and random rashes and just feeling ill all the time and I'm so tired all of the time and am having palpatations - heart feels like its in my throat fluttering.
Alaric thinks I have 'real' illnesses worse by becoming stressed and trying to do too much - I find I don't really care whats cuasing it I just want to stop it and get my life back. And on top of that I've screwed up my course again and I'd done the work for the presintation as well.
I suppose I'll just have to see what the Drs say now :/
Sat 9th May 2009 9:12 pm 
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