Life on David Ferrier

It's been a bit of a crazy week so please bear with me if this turns into a long post. I've divided it into days to make it easier to read.


Monday

I was up early on Monday ready for the transport to bring me to London. They say to be ready 3 hours before admission time so I was ready to go by 7 and by five past seven the ambulance was at the door. I was pleased cause I thought we would be at the hospital early and I could get settled on the ward before treatment began. That did not quite happen, we had to pick up in Barnet, Edgware and Watford so did not get here till five past ten. I was pretty tired when I got up to the ward so was a bit fed up to find that the ward was full and there were no spare beds. So I and two other patients in for DHE spent the next two and a half hours in the day room. We finally got our beds at 1 ish. Our treatment is meant to start at 2.30 but due to delays in beds, shortage of Drs etc we were told we would not start till 10.30 in the evening. I was a bit fed up but passed the time talking to the nurses I know from previous visits, getting to know the people in my bay and meeting up with people I have been talking to on the internet.

My first treatment started at 10.30 but I had only got halfway through it when my cannula blocked. I have bad veins anyway but the DHE treatment is pretty toxic and shuts your veins right down. Luckily the night nurse was a good shot and got one in first time so I could finish the first treatment. I finally managed to settle down to sleep at 1.30 - it had been very long day.


Tuesday

I didn't sleep great the first night - the ward is like Blackpool illuminations at night with lights everywhere. I have an eye mask but it does not block it all out. I was woken up at 7 for the next treatment and felt halfway through that the cannula was blocking again. I finished the treatment and got one of the nurses to check it. She reckoned it was okay although it was getting very painful. It was pretty sore all morning and I was dreading the 2.30 dose. Again it was really painful but the nurses did not want to admit defeat and carried on pushing it through. I was so glad when the last drop went through.

I managed to persuade them to get the SHO down who was lovely. He had a number of stabs before calling in reinforcements. The anaesthetist was then called and he had a couple of tries before admitting that I needed a femoral line. As it was 5 o'clock I would have to wait until the next day to go to theatre to get it down. I was not that pleased cause I had been telling them all a long that I needed a line doing. I was glad though it was finally being done and spent the evening resting and even managed to get a good nights sleep.

It wasn't all bad though. Two of the conditions I have are quite rare and they are doing research into them here. I was asked to talk to a research Dr about my symptoms etc. and was quite happy to because not only was he Italian and had a lovely soft voice and sexy accent but he was drop dead gorgeous. I'd be more than happy to talk to him again!


Wednesday

I was told in the morning that I would not be going to theatre until the afternoon so spent the morning trying to keep myself busy. I would be staying in an extra day due to the doses that I had missed so I had to re-arrange tranposrt, carers and the cats.

During the morning I met up with a couple of people from the online headache group that I am part of. It was good to meet people with similar conditions. One of them has had the surgery that I am trying to get funding for and it was great to see the difference it had made in her life.

I went to theatre late afternoon and getting the line in was pretty easy and painless. I was then able to get started again on treatment at 10.30. It made me feel pretty sick that time but the nurse on duty was great and got me sorted.


Thursday

Thankfully today has been uneventful. I managed to go out for lunch to Pizza Express with Mum which made a change from hospital food. I'm now hooked up to my afternoon treatment and so far so good. I am hoping that the rest of the stay will be uneventful. I'll update again when I get home.