Well, it is good to be back home and able to update you on my story. And it's been a tale of a whirlwind of events over the last two weeks since I have ben able to write out my thoughts and experiences. So let's start back on Tuesday 24th November 2009.....
It was raining and I was staying home first thing as we had a chap coming to fix a new aerial for us. Reception had been bad since we moved into the house but that didn't matter too much over the summer months but the signal seemed to get worse as winter arrived and we were soon limited to just being able to watch BBC whilst ITV and Channel 4 just gave up the ghost. Not a bad thing normally but this was the season of Xfactor and IACGMOOH!
But the aerial man was good and carried on working in the torrential rain and although it took him over two hours we now were able to watch every channel that freeview could offer us!
I seemed to be getting over my cold/flu bug by the application of serious amounts of lemsip but it didn't worry me when I ran out of supplies that morning, I was feeling good.
So off I went into the office where we were having our phone system installed and Simon had come up from the Bristol office so that we could chat through some business stuff whilst the work was being done. But I soon started to shiver. And I mean uncontrollable shivers as if I was resident in a freezer. I was starting to feel decidedly unwell. This was crazy, an hour before I'd felt good.
"It's not cold in here is it?" I asked. "Nope" came the replies from everyone. "I think I'm coming down with something" was my understatement of the century. An hour later I was arriving at my local doctor's for an emergency appointment. "You don't look well" she said i true doctor's logic as she started to prod and poke me all over to see if she could find out what was wrong.
In the end she decided that I needed to get on a course of antibiotics asap whilst she waited for the results from urine sample etc to come back from the lab and so I shuffled round to the chemist to wait for a prescription with the "if you are not feeling significantly better by Thursday morning you must come back so that we can see what else we need to do..." ringing in my ears.
I went home. Office stuff would have to wait. I now felt very poorly and needed the comforts of home. One minute I was shivering with cold and next minute I was sweating like i was resident in a sauna. Me thinks the lemsip didn't work after all :-)
I stayed at home all day Wednesday which meant that I had to cancel a renal appointment but that wasn't too bad as it was just a follow up and we expected that it would be the final one. This will now happen in January so the diary is filling up for next year already! As Wednesday developed I wasn't getting any better and it seemed that the antibiotics were not man enough for their task.
And the shivers and the sweats were still alternating throughout the day as i Came to realise that I hadn't eaten anything for days now -just picking at food and even saying no to whole meals. I was beginning to remember these symptoms from back in September....
Wednesday night the vomiting started and T wanted to call out the emergency doctor. I was a typical man and said that I was ok until the morning when I would go back and see the doctor as already arranged. That was another mistake.
Thursday morning the vomiting continued and I looked totally grey and gaunt when I arrived at the doctors on Thursday morning. T had come with me to make sure that I didn't tell anyone that I was "alright" and within the hour I was arriving back at the urology ward at the local hospital.
"Hi Andrew" is how I am greeted as I walk into the ward "Your bed is over there". I've know I have been here way too many times! Two minutes later the on duty consultant comes over to see me and have a chat. Five minutes later I have an IV in the side of my hand and the stuff has started pumping antibiotics into my veins.
I looked at the and it was 11.15 am, just one hour after I had my morning appointment with my local doctor. That's what I call a good and quick service from the wonderful NHS :-)
By then I had reunited with all the nurses on duty and all were old friends who came over for a chat. I had also met the two new junior doctors on the ward, Will and Sharly, and they were both bright, confident and being well trained by the senior team. I instantly felt I was in good hands again.
But I still felt like pooh and just didn't want to eat anything. Fingers crossed that the antibiotics they were pumping into we started to work soon. It was Thursday lunchtime and I had a deadline. I needed to be well by Saturday morning as it was my daughters wedding and I just had to be there!
I called doctor Will over to my bed and explained the situation to him. I used my best puppydog eyes just willing the sympathy. He thought for a moment and said "well, if you're not sorted by then we might be able to give you a ward pass for the day as long as you came back that evening"
It was an opening, a possibility, fingers were now crossed.
More later, I need to go do some work!
Toodle pip!
Andrew xx
