Wednesday 6 February 2013

It's all gone a bit wrong!!

So lets see shall we what have I learned since my last blog? Falling and dislocating your hip is excruciatingly painful not just at the time but for much time after especially when you start trying to walk on crutches.

My body has a mind of its own somehow managing to allow me to put on over half a stone in a week and a half without changing my diet in any way (more weight than I managed to gain the entire time I was on bed rest).

Finally I have learned heart attacks can seemingly happen without all the histrionics that casualty and other such programmes would have you believe are involved and that seemingly harmless pains in the chest and a few palpitations are actually a heart attack!!

An explanation perhaps, following my fall my stomach swelled up and I put on as I said over half a stone something that both the dietician and doctor said could not possibly be "real" weight but must be caused by swelling from the fall and constipation. I am completely distressed by the weight gain and the size of my stomach and that no one seemed to really be able to explain why. I have been taking lactulose to ease the constipation and yet still my stomach remained swollen and the weight continued to go up. Finally on Friday, a week after the fall and me telling them of my swelling the doctor did a blood and urine test which found a high level of protein in the urine but not so much in the blood, having contacted the renal team for advice it was decided to repeat the tests and then liaise with them once the results were back. Friday night they should have been back and by Monday I had not heard a thing and had come to the end of my tether. Deciding I could no longer cope and the only way I could deal with the situation would be to go home not eat and loose the weight and wait till my stomach went down so I demanded to go home. Ben and my dad came over as I was so distressed and it was decided that I should stay the night and wait to see the doctor the next day and have some official leave put in place, dubiously I agreed but then spent all of Tuesday in a distressed state waiting for answers. Finally the doctor seemed to take me seriously and arranged for me to go to the general hospital on Wednesday for an ultrasound and X-ray of my abdomen, he also agreed for me to go home for the night and then return to the unit after my tests.

The ultrasound showed no reason for the swelling of my stomach much to my dismay but did however show that I had fluid round my lungs which would explain why I had been so wheezy despite having taken a weeks worth of antibiotics for a suspected chest infection. They proceeded to X-ray my abdomen but also my lungs after which I was told I needed to go to A&E to be seen, luckily the doctor from the unit had called and spoken to the consultant who had agreed for me to be seen in CDU in order for me to avoid a three hour wait. I saw the registrar who said that the fluid was not severe enough to warrant aspirating it for which I was so happy as the thought of a needle in between the ribs was not filling me with joy. He explained that it was due to the heart failure and that is why I had such bad edema but they would prescribe Water tablets and the ace inhibitors the cardiologist had prescribed. He did an ECG and some blood tests and said to wait round for the results which would be about two to three hours, I explained my situation and he allowed me to return to the unit to have dinner and then back to them which I did.
To cut short what was an exceptionally long day and night for my dad and I and then for Ben and my mom blood tests revealed that I had a particular raise in a protein that would indicate a trauma to the heart and so the test would need to be repeated after six hours which it was, just after 12.20pm they advised the level had gone up again which would indicate that I had had a heart attack and would need to stay in over night in order to be monitored and then see the cardiologist in the morning.

So here I am sat in the general waiting I have had all of about 30 minutes sleep and am now getting so anxious waiting for breakfast. Ben was amazing liaising with the unit to get me the correct size milk jug and cup to measure the cereal and made sure all the staff were aware of my situation he must have been to and from the unit about five times finally at around 3.30am in order to get me some bread as the hospital don't do toast as someone nearly set the ward on fire!!

I am hoping the cardiologist will come this morning and allow me to return to the unit and that the tablets will get rid of all the excess water and that my swollen stomach will go down and the weight come off back to it level prior to all this mess and I can continue working on my eating disorder to make sure my heart can get stronger so that neither me or my family have to go through the trauma of this ever again.

5 comments:

  1. This sounds hellish. :( I wish I could send you some extra strength to get through all of this, but I am thinking of you if nothing else xxx

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  2. Oh, man. (my apologies for my comment-absence - got a bit swamped with stuff at this end)

    I do wonder if this might help to shut up one part of the 'anorexic voice'... you know, the one that keeps trying to suggest that you're not really ill, that you don't need to be in hospital and so on? Next time that voice pipes up you can tell it to p*ss right off because while you're clearly not quite as near the brink as you were, you've got some getting-better still to do.

    I've had quite a few dislocations but hips are definitely the worst - you have my sympathy there!

    Fingers very crossed for your safe return back to the unit (it's not like they can't do obs on you up there if the cardiologist wants them to!) and a swift return to your path on the road to recovery.

    Becca xx

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    1. Many thanks, how's things with you?

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    2. Pretty good, thankyou! I'm applying to become an adoptive parent so things have got very, very busy at this end - social worker visits and specialist OT and whathaveyou. I'm pretty unusual as potential adopters go, but I've got some valuable stuff to offer a very specific group of very hard-to-place children, so I'm currently talking to a few different local authorities as we all try and figure out what the best way to go about it is.

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