In the early hours of Monday morning I woke up shaking, teeth chattering and with my whole body hurting like hell. I woke hubby up and sent him downstairs to make a hot water bottle because despite being hot I felt freezing cold.
It looks like I'm wearing the worlds biggest hospital gown, or that I have a teeny tiny head!
Hubby told me to switch off my IV fluids just incase it was the start of an infection and after about 30 mins of convulsing I fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later and felt a bit better, but a bit dry, so I started the fluids again. Big mistake.
Within hours I was unable to get out of bed, felt sick and like the worst case of flu had hit me. Hubby got the kids ready for school and off he went with me saying I 'was ok, don't worry about me'. But I could feel my temperature rising so I rang one of my very good friends and asked her to being her thermometer over as mine was broken.
Hubby had left a key out for her so I didn't have to get out of bed. I really wish that we had installed the key hider thing that I wanted to do last year. You fix it to the side of the house and put a key inside and it is opened by a combination.
Anyway, I digress.
So my friend came round, made me call St Marks while she went to the GP to collect a prescription for me, the chemist to get the medicine, brought me drinks and helped me to get changed. The specialist nurses at St Marks were on their Monday morning ward round and I was told they would call me back.
I decided that if it was a line infection I should probably stop the fluids so I did and started to feel better a couple of hours later. I had a sleep and after lunch I rang St Marks again and was told to pop in for them to take some blood from the line. They could culture it and see if I had an infection.
So I called hubby at work, he came home and we set off (with an overnight bag packed, just incase). By the time we reached the hospital I had started to feel more and more unwell and could barely stand or walk. There were no disabled parking spaces so he dropped me at the main entrance while he went off to park.
Do you know that Northwick Park hospital (the hospital that is attached to St Marks) have 10, yes 10 disabled spaces. St marks have 5. Probably because you don't have to pay if you're in a disabled space hubby reckons but we think it is an absolute disgrace. Even if you paid but were able to park closer then it would be fine. Again, I digress with one of my little rants.
So I made it from the main entrance to Costa ,which for those of you who have never had the pleasure of a visit to St Marks, is not very far. Maybe 100 metres. I had to sit down before I collapsed and I text hubby to say I hadn't made it to the ward and could he meet me in costa.
He arrived and we attempted to walk to the lifts to get to the ward in level 9 but after about 5 steps I felt like I was going to drop so I sat back down and hubby went off to find a wheelchair. Finding a wheelchair in a hospital would be an easy thing you would think. No. Prepare for rant 3... It took 40 minutes to get one. Hubby walked round the hospital, went to a&e, the wards, the corridors but could he find a chair? It was like searching for a needle in a haystack. He asked at reception and they said they could call a porter but it would 'take a while'. I even rang the ward to explain bit they couldn't do anything to help.
Eventually a wheelchair was found, I was put in it and we went to the Intestinal Failure Ward. The nurse wasn't available so we had to wait in the day room. When she came in and found me sat in the chair, head slumped on the table she called the doctor straight away.
She took the blood tests but I think they had already worked out that I had an infection and I needed to be admited. There were no beds on the ward and they couldn't magic one for me like they normally do so I had no choice but to go to A&E.
I was worried that I would have to go to A&E, sit in the waiting area for hours while feeling so, so ill but the St Marks team were amazing liaising with A&E and Fredrick Salmon (the other st marks ward) to get me seen quickly and to try and find me a bed.
I was taken to the Rescuss area, which shows how ill I was at the time.
Next to me was a tiny baby boy, crying, as were his parents. He was so tiny and so poorly and was transferred to Great Ormond Street. I hope he was ok. I said to hubby that at least it's me that's ill, not the kids. That's a worry for me though. What if they end up with colitis or Crohns? There is some heriditry links but nothing proven as yet but it's always there at the back of my mind. It would break my heart to watch my kids suffer like like this.
Anyway, in A&E they wanted to get fluids and antibiotics into me so tried to cannulate me. And they tried. And they tried. I have bad veins. At one point there was a doctor on each leg and a nurse on each arm, all trying to get a needle into me at the same time.
After 18 attempts they decided enough was enough and told me that I would need a central line which is a big cannula in the neck. I've had one before and they're not nice. But neither is being a pin cushion.
So the A&E doctor prepped everything to put the line in. It has to be done sterile and they put a theatre sheet over my head which meant that it was a bit hot and claustrophobic.
This was the sterile trolley all ready for the procedure.
They gave me local anesthesitic which stings like hell as it goes in and then they started. It took 30 minutes of pushing, tugging, cutting and stitching. The doctor said it was hard to get in because I have strong neck muscles. "Like Dierdre Barlow?" I said and we were all laughing. It was one of those moments that just broke the tension. So just call me Dierdre from now on!
But being serious now. This was the end result.
The dangly orange things are part of the central line and the red circle things are the wires and sensors for the ECG. They had to check that my heart was ok and the infection hadn't got into it.
The st marks team had found me a bed on Fredrick salmon ward, so I didn't have to go onto a Northwick park one. It's not that they're horrible but they don't have the specialism that at marks do. So at midnight I was transferrd into a side room on the ward. I've never had a side room on this ward before and it was massive.
So popping in for blood tests resulted in this. All part and parcel of my life unfortunately.
NB x
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