Skip to main content

Blood test results


Whilst out in the car this afternoon I got a phone call from the hospital. I recognised the voice straight away as one of the deputy sisters from the ward- the same one that took my bloods the day before I went on holiday. Apparently Dr B had reviewed the results and most of my levels are holding reasonably steady but they’re worried about the results of my liver function tests. So much so that they want to see me again for more tests as soon as I’m back from holiday. Oh joy!

Unfortunately being on TPN can cause damage to the liver as the liver has to work harder to process the feeds. This can lead to long term damage to the liver which can ultimately lead to liver failure and the need for a liver transplant. Obviously I’m nowhere near that stage yet but that’s why it’s so important that my team continue to monitor my levels closely. 

Today the stitches securing my Hickman line had to be removed. They stay in place for 3 weeks to stop the line from coming out while it embeds itself in the chest ok wall. Usually the stitches would be taken out by one of the nurses at the GP practice but a couple of years ago I went to have them removed and instead of using sterile gloves and following the correct aseptic technique she just grabbed a pair of gloves out of the box on the wall. Needless to say that nurse came nowhere near my line and I’ve never gone back to have Hickman line stitches removed at the GP surgery again; instead I go up to the ward at the hospital and let the nurses there do it where I know it will be done properly. 

But being in Cornwall when the stitches needed to come out meant that getting the ward nurses to remove them wasn’t an option and there was no way I was going to let a district nurse in rural Cornwall anywhere near my line. Chances are they might not have ever seen a Hickman line before and I’m not going to be their guinea pig! So before I was discharged from the hospital I got the nurses to give me a stitch cutter and sterile tweezers as I would rather take them out myself. 

So that’s exactly what I did.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Caravan wankers

Over the last few years when I was stuck in hospital for long periods of time Hubby and I would talk about what we would do if I ever got ‘better’. During some of those times when I was so, so poorly the idea of just being at home for more than a few weeks at a time seemed like a far fetched dream. But I’m currently living that dream! And obviously I know I will never ‘get better’ but for these purposes ‘getting better’ meant being well enough to be at home, not in pain 24/7 and not in bed all day, every day. Not too much to ask now is it??  So in our talks, once I was at home and was well enough to do the real basic things like watch Big Fella play football, Big Girl play netball, go to Tesco, play with the dog, go to the cinema etc one thing kept cropping up. We would love to have a motor home and tour round the country. We talked about the places we would like to visit, how much Buddy the dog would love it and how it would give us a chance to reconnect with each other.  But...
1 comment
Read more

The light at the end of the tunnel is a train

Last week was a busy and pretty crappy week for me health wise. I had to go and have blood tests done with the nutrition nurses and I had two hospital appointments; one with the gallbladder surgeon in Nottingham and the other with colorectal surgeon at St Marks. I was hoping to have at least one surgery date to write in the diary following these appointments but I came home empty handed on both occasions. Here’s what happened.  I began noticing over the last few weeks that I’ve started feeling really crappy. I’m feel lucky to have been at home for the last 6 months and I have been the most well I have been for years but it felt like things had shifted slightly recently but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. But years of being sick means I know my body and I can tell when something isn’t right. I have been feeling permanently exhausted and having way more bad days than good. I’ve gone back to spending 2, 3 or more consecutive days in bed, unable to do anything but watch tv and sl...
1 comment
Read more

Trying to get vaccinated

When I was an inpatient recently I asked about getting the Covid vaccine because I’m classed as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (ECV). Apparently other patients on the ward had gotten theirs but I was told that it wouldn’t be possible and that I would have to get in touch with my GP. Apparently staff within the hospital had been using the system to book vaccinations for friends and family by saying that they were an inpatient and as a result they were now only vaccinating staff who could show their ID badge.  I can understand that people are worried about the people that they love but to think that people abused the system in that way makes my blood boil.  So when I was discharged I rang the GP surgery and was told that they had absolutely nothing to do with the vaccination programme and that I would need to get in touch with NHS England. So I called NHS England and spoke to an adviser who told me that according to the system I wasn’t eligible for a vaccination. I explain...
Post a Comment
Read more