Tuesday March 8th International Women’s Day
Yesterday’s catch up
Well, Sian arrived before I left. They went down to Pret to have something to eat and then, of course, the transport arrived. I called them up and we got me on to the trolley. The reason why they wee so late is because they had been sent to the X-ray dept, which was closed and then they were trying to get hold of someone to find out where I was. An hour wasted, and the ambulance crew were late going home – they were supposed to have finished by 8.
Arrived at Swindon and taken up to Jupiter ward, and started to get settled in. Let them know that Julio and Sian were arriving with my suitcase. Very welcoming staff – I was given tea and toast. Juli and Sian arrived., then left. My ward companions are all old ladies – one (M) is 103! They tend to answer anything said to anyone else, which is a bit confusing.
I didn’t get my evening painkillers as they hadn’t arrived ( unsurprisingly given the time I got here) and I had to have been “clerked” by the junior doctor before meds can be dispensed.
Fairly grotty night – Dr came to see me at around 2 and said that as it was late (!) he wouldn’t clerk me then but would wait until the morning, although he would authorise the meds for the morning. Listened to the radio with the new small earphones Sian had bought me. It was amazing – they were ordered on line at 7pm on Sunday, and were delivered on Monday.
M was confused and hallucinating and shouting so was moved into the corridor at around 2.30 so that the rest of us could get some sleep, but it didn’t work for me and I was awake for most of the rest of the night. For some reason, it was Dotun Adebayo on 5 live instead of Rod Sharpe. You know what I said about it being a pleasure listening to people who knew what they were talking about? After listening to half an hour or so of people talking gaming jargon, I’ve changed my mind!
Tuesday, 9th March – not a good day
Properly woke up at around 5 and listened to Wake up to Money. Dr came and clerked me.
6 am obs – blood pressure 95/52 but sugars only 2.5, so I was given a glucose tablet and then brought cornflakes, orange juice and a mug of tea.
Ali, my night nurse explained that over the next couple of days they would like to do a DART assessment (this is a discharge assessment and involves assessing what agencies/physios/ specialist services etc need to be involved).
Day staff came on. More obs – sugars up to 6.9, so all good. More breakfast (tea and toast) and then bath, change etc. meds – 18 tablets. Number due to fact that I didn’t have early am ones and my nerve endings painkillers hadn’t arrived so I’m making do with paracetamol for the time being. Not as effective!
Got out of bed and rotor-ed into chair. Almost immediately, the porter arrived to take me down for a chest x-Ray. For some reason (I have no idea why) it is to check for pneumonia. There was some discussion as to whether I should go down in a chair or bed, so nurse rang x-Ray to explain that I needed a rotor stand to get in and out of chair and they confirmed that they could do the x- Ray whilst I was in the chair, and that it was actually better. So, downstairs with a surly young female porter. When I got into the x-Ray room, I was asked if I could stand (!). Back up to ward with cheerful porter and back in chair.
Nursing staff and aux having difficult job with 2 of my companions, but being very patient.
Some work emails and texts and another cup of tea arrived with a packet of biscuits, but not eating them until I check with someone that it’s ok to. I think I’ll stick with the “ no sweet things” rule established at Oxford ( although given the hypo this morning, might have a biscuit in the middle of the night!).
Phlebotomist arrived and got 2 phials of blood out of me very efficiently.
I must admit I am missing Oxford already. I feel as though I am in a geriatric unit.
Seen by Dr Miller the registrar who was well informed about me, did some doctor stuff ( felt legs and feet, knew what NMO is, listened to chest and heart) talked about what had happened, what is likely to happen and said the x- Ray had been clear but it was routine. I asked when likely to see physios and he said they were coming to see me but he’d got in first with the notes.
Physios arrived and got me doing some exercises. I know it is in the nature of physios to get you to do things, but I think that they may have overestimated my ability at the moment – and I’m being optimistic about what I have achieved so far. They got me standing on the rotor (called turnaid here) and putting weight on my weaker right leg. This then gave out and I was hanging on for dear life to the handle. This happened several times. Same exercises as I had been given at Oxford, with no gym. More talk of moving to rehab unit (I am still in acute part of hospital) and they had no record of me being here and seeing physios before move to Oxford. Not inspiring a lot of confidence. I asked when I would be seeing them again and they said possibly tomorrow but this was not the intensive physio regime I was expecting. They did talk about going to rehab unit but it seems that this will be Chippenham as the rehab unit here at GWH is a Swindon commissioning one, and me and my GP surgery are in Wiltshire commissioning area.
I have looked at the Chippenham Community Hospital website (to be fair, most people speak quite highly of Chippenham), but it is a fair way away and it seems that the neuro ward is under Bath not GWH, so I don’t know how that all fits together.
I have just had my MRSA swabs done. Will be having bloods done now.
Discharge team lady from Wiltshire Council came to see me. Waste of time – just told me I was going to community hospital when bed available and medically discharged. Could be Chippenham or Savernake. Looking at the facilities, I want Chippenham. Really, I just want to get out of here - first time I have felt like that properly since all this started. At least up until now I have felt that I was making progress and not just dumped.
I am definitely not in JR. There have been no obs since 8 this morning; no pre lunch bloods; no meds with lunch (insulin not arrived). Lunch arrived – fish fingers in parsley sauce, croquette potatoes and cabbage and fruit salad instead of the grapes I’d ordered.
*****too much info warning******
Aux arrived with colleague to check my pad – it seems they were going to do this whilst I was standing up on the rotor stand until I said I’d like to go back to bed.
OK!
I had been out of bed for 4 hours by this time, which is a lot. The aux and I had to say that I needed the bed lowered as the other aux (a male aux) didn’t think of that. Got back into bed. Still no sign of the air mattress. Got into bed without air mattress on either bed or chair.
Dan, the diabetes specialist nurse came, discussed medication and the difficulty of balancing insulin and sugars when steroids are involved. More complicated today as didn’t have the insulin with breakfast or lunch, so he went away to do some thinking. Came back twice and I think we have a plan! We’ll see what happens tomorrow morning. Sugars taken – 24.9 at 4pm.
Julio arrived and rang the NMO team at Oxford regarding the apparent lack of “intensive” physio. They rang back and said that they would ring the ward and physios tomorrow.
Sugars done again at 5 (presumably because the diabetes nurse said they had to be done regularly) and they were 26.4.
Juli went downstairs to get some Night Nurse to help him sleep, and supper arrived. As it is Swindon, we are back to the soup and sandwiches. Sod the sugars – as well as vegetable soup which was very nice, I chose cheese and pickle. That’ll do nothing for the sugar levels!
Meds, but with no insulin. I said that the diabetes nurse said that I was going to have the prescribed amount of insulin at supper time. She said she would have to check and came back 10 mins with the insulin. Don’t know if it’s the high sugar levels or the low blood pressure, but I am feeling a bit odd and my eyesight is a bit funny – I am having difficulty focus sing on my crossword clues and this typing, so I apologise for any typos not picked up by auto.
So at the moment, had supper, had supper meds and sitting on chair with a pressure cushion that magically arrived. It helps bed is bare, waiting for a pressure mattress.
Don’t think I’m allowed off the ward, so no wheelchair.
That’s it for now.
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