In Sickness and in Health

[Xela]

On 12/02/2019 at 18:32, mottaloo said:

Sorry to hear that Alex. I'm no expert with BP although i do have a monitor in my home and was able to drop my readings from 160/102 to typically 130/75 thanks to more regular exercise.....and it didn't take my body long to get the message. I'm sure you know this already but from the sounds of it, your job is pressured with long hours. Does your company have a health scheme you can be referred through ?

Fingers crossed anyway 

Cheers mate. I've been put on pills to control my BP. 

Will see how these work out. Got to go to a hypertension clinic as well. 

 

[mottaloo]

12 minutes ago, Xela said:

Cheers mate. I've been put on pills to control my BP. 

Will see how these work out. Got to go to a hypertension clinic as well. 

 

Credit to you for doing something about it. I'm on BP tabs too but better lifestyle and more exercise are key to dropping it to a safer level

[choffer]

12 hours ago, Xela said:

Will see how these work out. Got to go to a hypertension clinic as well. 

Sounds stressful. Hope it all goes ok. 

[mjmooney]

Oh boy, this cataract surgery was fantastic. Distance vision in the treated eye now sharp and clear. Can't wait to get the other one done! 

[Xann]

My Sister was diagnosed with cancer at back end of last year. A couple of days before Christmas we found out it had spread. Critically it has got into her pancreas. Surgery is out. Initially she wasn't willing to countenance chemo, but as it was the only option left on the table she agreed to give it a go.

On Sunday 3rd, a couple of days after her second chemo session, she suffered a massive heart attack. At first she thought she'd taken too much oramorph the previous day. Then she lost consciousness.

Her other half rang the emergency number in her cancer pack. The operator told him to fetch the local defibrillator kept at the local undertakers(!). Off he went.

The voice on the phone said i was to give her CPR.  Her face was cold and her eyes had rolled back. Crying like a baby I pumped her chest for 10 minutes until her bloke got back with the defibrillator. We only got as far as unpacking it when the ambulance arrived. She needed resuscitation again in the ambulance on the way to Worcester Royal.

She was wheeled in to Resus. I was put in a waiting room. A doc came in and said she'd gone. Because of the cancer issues they wouldn't resuscitate or feed her. If she regained consciousness she would likely be brain damaged through oxygen deprivation. Her other half arrived in his car. We were shown the room she was in. She was still breathing. We held her hands crying our eyes out.

About 4 hours in, John (her other half) went to the bog. I hugged my Sis and she murmured something. John returned and I said to him she was trying to speak. We both stood over her and called her name. She opened her eyes and said "F*****g Hell". There's a laugh or cry moment. I fetched the doc. He came into the room. He called her name, she responded - "Oh shit". So then she was moved to the Medical Assessment Unit. I slept next to her Sunday night in the chair next to her bed.

Monday morning at dawn, her eyes opened. She said "I need a wee", then got out of bed and went to the loo. The nurses stood by, astonished. They ran tests again. She had arrhythmia caused by an infarction. It appears that she'd had a previous heart attack triggered by the first round of chemo, but shrugged it off as a side effect.

Monday night I slept in the seat next to her bed again. Tuesday morning she awakes and her long term memory's back. Up until the incident anyway. She was moved to a cardio ward.

She's slowly got some strength back since. They won't operate, she's too weak. It's softly softly with medication for now to try offset the arrhythmia.

She went home day before yesterday with 18 different sets of meds.

We don't know how long we've got her for, but we've had an extra 11 days already. I hope to be regular visitor to the  Midlands for a while yet.

 

Worcester Royal gets a lot of stick. When we arrived the corridors were packed with beds and patients being treated and fed, but the staff were wonderful. The consultants, the junior nurse in MAU that washed and plaited my Sister's hair and the staff in the Laurel wards, everyone was brilliant.

 

Jeremy Hunt and the Tory filth deserve to hang for driving the NHS into the ground, to let fat uncaring corporate fingers take control of a priceless service.

[mjmooney]

Bloody hell, Dave. That was some read. Don't know how I'd have coped. Sounds like your sis is some fighter, though. 

[Xann]

12 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Sounds like your sis is some fighter, though. 

She had a fag in the car on the way home, with a chest infection she went in with and a stack of broken ribs from the CPR.

She's an infuriating dumb blonde.

I love her so much though.

[lapal_fan]

58 minutes ago, Xann said:

She had a fag in the car on the way home, with a chest infection she went in with and a stack of broken ribs from the CPR.

She's an infuriating dumb blonde.

I love her so much though.

I work at the hospital Xann, as you say, it's been under the cosh for a few years.  

If it helps to put your mind at rest - whilst there is a lot of political issues surrounding the management of the Trust (inc Kiddy/Redditch), please let it be known that the actual care staff onsite are a great bunch of people, who often go way beyond the means of their contracts.  I'm very glad that you've managed to see your sister regain some of her strength and hope that you continue to have quality time together, for as long as possible.

[Xann]

1 hour ago, lapal_fan said:

... please let it be known that the actual care staff onsite are a great bunch of people, who often go way beyond the means of their contracts.

They're amazing.

Been to A&E on a Saturday night after my parents got into a dementia and alcohol fueled punch up on his 80th.

Again the department was overrun, again the staff were wonderful.

[lapal_fan]

11 minutes ago, Xann said:

They're amazing.

Been to A&E on a Saturday night after my parents got into a dementia and alcohol fueled punch up on his 80th.

Again the department was overrun, again the staff were wonderful.

It's weird, but the things you see and hear in the media really do affect staff morale too.  

For example, there was a piece in the Worcester News about the new bridge (did you sister go across?!) and in the comments section people were being generally negative about the A&E etc ("28 more beds is pissing in the wind" was one comment) and that information spread quite quickly.  

The hospital has grown as quick as a cannibalized site (new PFI and retained estate) can grow in accordance with finances, without taking anything away from the current levels of care.  But with the amount of new builds going up around Worcester, it far outstrips the demand for sick people.  It really is a case of "no win" for the Trust, and as you pointed out it's genesis is from the government(s).

From my view (as the hard service provider side), the Trust have pitbulls running the place, and whilst there are bureaucracy issues, made worse by the management of the site, everyone working within the confines of it give everything they can to maintain a high standard of care.

Word of warning though, the shit traps exploded in medical short stay this morning .  Our guys and the cleaners from ISS have been there most of the day with the subbies to get it sorted.    

[Xann]

15 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

For example, there was a piece in the Worcester News about the new bridge (did you sister go across?!)

Maybe? She got to go a different way to us between the MAU and Laurel wards.

The worst thing about the place is the parking

On the Tuesday (IIRC) Some absolute bellend parked on a cross hatched zone in what was already a poorly implemented car park. It stopped incoming traffic getting to the spaces further from the hospital and and denying escape to those who were there already.

Absolute mockery.

[lapal_fan]

5 minutes ago, Xann said:

Maybe? She got to go a different way to us between the MAU and Laurel wards.

The worst thing about the place is the parking

On the Tuesday (IIRC) Some absolute bellend parked on a cross hatched zone in what was already a poorly implemented car park. It stopped incoming traffic getting to the spaces further from the hospital and and denying escape to those who were there already.

Absolute mockery.

Ha! The parking.. 

I have to get a park and ride bus from Sixways to get to my job, it's a very sore point! Staff parking is essentially nothing, and the wardens don't get around the site half as much as they should, which has led to a "who the **** cares?" attitude. 

[choffer]

After suffering what's probably best to call an unsettled stomach since October, having had multiple investigations, my body now appears to have healed itself. Rather than something sinister or something long-term unpleasant, my calprotectin is now back to normal, I'm no longer sh*****g through the eye of a needle at a moments notice, no longer having painful stomach cramps and I can now eat normally again. The human body is amazing, eh?

It has given me a renewed respect for those who suffer long-term with gastric problems though. To have to live with that every day (and I know a number of VTers do) must be the biggest bumache going. 

[Xela]

8 hours ago, choffer said:

Sounds stressful. Hope it all goes ok. 

Cheers mate. I'm glad Ive moved doctors as my new one has done more for me in a month than my previous one has in 15 years. 

[Xela]

1 hour ago, choffer said:

After suffering what's probably best to call an unsettled stomach since October, having had multiple investigations, my body now appears to have healed itself. Rather than something sinister or something long-term unpleasant, my calprotectin is now back to normal, I'm no longer sh*****g through the eye of a needle at a moments notice, no longer having painful stomach cramps and I can now eat normally again. The human body is amazing, eh?

It has given me a renewed respect for those who suffer long-term with gastric problems though. To have to live with that every day (and I know a number of VTers do) must be the biggest bumache going. 

Did your quack check for IBS, crohn's or colitis?

Glad that you are better. Yeah gastric problems are a right shitter (pun intended). It makes every outing like a military procedure!

[choffer]

2 minutes ago, Xela said:

Did your quack check for IBS, crohn's or colitis?

Every test under the sun. I maxed out my annual bupa allowance (I’ll save my conflicted stories of guilt for having private healthcare for another time). 

It was suspected IBD for most of the last few months but now it looks like it was just an infection it took me a while to get over. 

Lost three stone through the process though so, every cloud. 

[KenjiOgiwara]

Ok weird question. 

I am a pretty experienced traveller.  Recently I've had some pretty awful airplane travels.  I get a really thick throat, nauseas, feel really shit and look like a corpse.  I just have to stare at something and hope not to throw up, but I never have. From the outside it looks like claustrophobic panic attacks, but it feels so weird cause I've always loved flying. 

I wonder if it's connected to being a bit vulnerable mentally atm. (Covered in the other thread) or smoking too much weed. 

Either way I've read people have taken valium or xanax for the travels to counter it. 

Anyone ever experienced something like that? Right out of the blue I mean. 

Cheers 

[theboyangel]

Air aids? 

[mottaloo]

8 minutes ago, theboyangel said:

Air aids? 

Eh ?

[Xela]

3 hours ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

 

I wonder if it's connected to being a bit vulnerable mentally atm. (Covered in the other thread) or smoking too much weed. 

 

I'm not medical professional (like Dr Fox or Dr Dre) but i'd say cutting out the weed while being a  bit mentally vulnerable would probably help you in all aspects of life at the moment, not just flying. 

In terms of what you experience, I used to be a huge fan of flying. Now I just view it as a necessary evil as part of the holiday. I'm not nervous, I just find it a chore but I always feel a bit rough afterwards. I put it down to the lower air pressure in the cabin.