Carol In Hospital

This is a continuation of the previous post. Read on . . .

Carol hasn't been feeling well for at least a week now. She's been complaining about not being able go walk properly, feeling extremely tired as well as having a severe thirst and having absolutely no appetite. She's been drinking a lot of fruit juice to try to relieve the thirst. Maybe, with the current hot weather, it's not such a bad idea to drink plenty. You don't want to get hydrated when the weather's so warm. Not just her, but also myself. She hasn't been able to eat properly and has only managed to eat breakfast cereal and had some of those protein drinks I managed to buy in Sainsbury's. As mentioned in the last blog post, we tried to get an appointment at Ashfield Medical Centre, first attempting to ring but then I drove there at gone 9 o'clock this morning (Monday) and managed to get a 'ring-back.' We had to wait several hours before the doctor rang and spoke to Carol and gave her a 5 o'clock appointment with one of the practice nurses.

When we went into the nurse's room, the nurse took Carol's temperature and found it was about 38.2. Carol had been told that if it went over 36C she would need to go to the A and E department of the hospital because she was going to be prone to infection, as she was on chemotherapy. At the same time as doing all the usual observations (blood pressure, temperature, heart rate etc etc.) she also did a blood test and it showed that Carol's blood sugar levels were hight. Since Carol has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, she has been on medication to keep it under control, but since she has been on chemotherapy since before Christmas, she hasn't been taking the medication, basically because they gave her a glucose solution as a drip before giving her the chemotherapy as the glucose acts on the chemotherapy. The glucose would therefore give a high blood test result so she stopped taking the diabetes medication.

The nurse rang the hospital. I'm not sure which ward or department. She described the symptoms that Carol had and immediately she was told that Carol needed to go immediately to Ward 1, the Acute ward at Milton Keynes University Hospital. She printed off the information gathered from the tests at the surgery and we immediately drove to the hospital, deciding it was best to go through the Accident and Emergency department. Fortunately the carpark had plenty of spaces and I was able to park virtually directly opposite the A and E entrance. On arriving in A and E we were directed straight through to Ward 1 by the receptionist and checked in at the ward's nurse's station. We soon went into a side room off the day-room and a nurse came and took down notes and did more obs and took blood for testing before a doctor came to talk to Carol. It took some time for a bed to become ready on the ward and Carol and I went through to the ward. It seems that most wards in modern hospitals are arranged in the same way, smaller eight or six bed 'bays' with beds facing one another, with their own chairs and cabinets in for the patients to put their belongings, also, with curtains that can be drawn around the bed so that they can be more private when the doctors and consultants do their rounds. Unfortunately Carol didn't have a cupboard or cabinet for her to use, although one of the nurses said that if one became vacant she could have it.

After a while a doctor came to see Carol and looked at some notes, listened to her heart and so on and it was decided that the problem she had, the fact that she was thirsty and generally not well was possibly down to her not taking her diabetic medication. They needed to keep her hydrated and to give her insulin to stabilise the diabetes. This would take a couple of days, as no doubt they would need to keep her in hospital for observation to see how things developed. They also needed to make sure there was no infection as a result of the chemotherapy, so there are quite a few things that need sorting out before she can be discharged.

I had to return home to collect some things for Carol. First I had to make sure I knew exactly where the ward was, which may sound crazy, but if you know Milton Keynes Hospital, you will have some idea how complicated the layout is and finding your way around is quite difficult. Once you realise that each department is within a colour coded area it is actually quite straightforward. I had to walk all the way round the site and back to the carpark and fortunately found that the barrier was raised so I didn't have to bother with payment. I soon got home and managed to find the items Carol needed as well as feeding Alfie, who must have wondered what was going on, why we had gone out and left him alone in the kitchen. Having gathered the items together in a holdall, I drove back to the hospital and no sooner had I got there and was again with Carol than the doctor came in to speak to Carol.

By this time it was near enough 9 o'clock so I went home, expecting to return at around 8-8.30 with the hope that we will get further answers when results are back from the blood test so they can get the diabetic problems resolved.