Almost Spring-like

 Wednesday. 9.20 a.m. The weather is currently extremely mild and not wintery. Usually, at this time of year, we get snow and ice and freezing conditions.

There are daffodils beginning to show green shoots in various parts of Oldbrook, and at the front of Dexter House, there is a hedge with signs of green.

Friday. 9.45 a.m. I had a letter from the D.V.L.A. (Driver's and Vehicle Licensing Agency. You know the sort of thing I mean; they come in a buff envelope with an address window. The letter inside informed me that I had an 'untaxed vehicle.' My car, because it has very low emissions, doesn't have to be taxed, although I should inform the D.V..L.A. that it is still on the road and being driven. If the car wasn't licenced and I didn't register it, the car was likely to be scrapped, which I didn't want to happen, for obvious reasons. As a result, I went on the D.V.L.A. website and had hoped to be able to sort this problem out without speaking to a person, but it didn't seem as if this was possible. I then went on the 'chat' facility, but that wasn't much help and was given a phone number to ring. I needed a document, I think it was the paper part of the actual licence and to deal with the registration, I needed the VSC number off that piece of paper, but I couldn't get it from this chat facility. I then rang the number, I had to go through many menus and then the long wait, with that dreary music, until a human actually answered. When I was eventually able to speak to a human (who had a lovely Welsh accent, making me think of the character played by Ruth Madoc in 'Hi De Hi', Gladys Pugh.) I was told that I would need the chassis number of the car to continue. So, I went out to the car and searched for this elusive number. I'm not sure if I actually found it, and I had to go back indoors and phone that wretched number again.

This time, after the long wait for someone to answer (and that confounded repetitive music!) I spoke to another person and this time I was told I didn't need that VSC number. I couldn't remember if I'd received the letter from the D.V.L.A. which reminded me about registering the car and that I didn't need to pay for the annual road fund licence. I had to pay £25 for the document that I didn't have (I must have had it somewhere. But where it was I have no idea. So, I paid the £25, using the keypad of my phone and that was the end of the matter, thank goodness.

Monday. 10.10 a.m. I had a text message a couple of weeks ago, asking me to take my blood pressure twice a day, for a week. As I didn't have a blood pressure device, I would have found this very difficult, so I bought one from Amazon and it arrived very quickly.

I had a problem getting it to work, but after some fiddling with it (for want of a better way of describing it!) I got it to work. Unfortunately, when I couldn't get it to work, my blood pressure went up and so the reading was high. I was supposed to use a link in the original text message to send the blood pressure readings to the surgery, but when I came to use it, I got a message telling me that it had expired, which was somewhat annoying. What on earth was the point of it, if it had expired? I rang the surgery, to be told that the link could not be opened. I thought that I was going to have to ring the surgery to give them the readings, but after some thought, I decided to write each reading down and take the completed week's readings to the surgery, which is what I did on the final Monday.

A couple of days later I got another text message from the surgery. Could I make an appointment to have my blood pressure taken? I did this through the text message and thought no more about it, until I got another a few days later, telling me I would need to make another appointment as the practise nurse wasn't going to be available on the original date I'd booked. I got another date and time, which was last Tuesday at 11.10. I arrived there in plenty of time and the computer system, which has a touch-screen on the surgery wall, wasn't working, so I went to the reception desk to report that I had arrived. I then sat down in the waiting area. The time I was due for my appointment came and went. Many people came in and some went for their appointments, which came up on the digital screen. It got to 11.30, and I was still sitting and waiting, so I went to the reception desk and told the receptionist. She couldn't see my name in the system, and it turned out that it hadn't been keyed in, so I had to make a new appointment, for the next day, 21st February, at 11 a.m.

I went to the surgery and the practise nurse took my blood pressure. It was quite normal, thankfully. I am going to get a doctor's appointment soon, either face-to-face or via telephone, because I'm still not feeling 100%, certainly not since I had that blackout and ended up on the floor and not knowing why I was there when I came round and then having to go to hospital.  I am now on Sertraline, which might explain why I'm not feeling myself. But generally I feel better than I have done in quite a while.

Mild and Sunny Weather

Sunday. 8.15 a.m. Well, here I am again, once more writing this blog. I haven't real;y wanted to write it, but after such a long break, I did decide to continue.

I now have my bed reconstructed. It came with me when I moved from the house in Eaglestone and had come with us when we moved from the house in Crownhill. It is a rather nice IKEA king sized bed and because of it's construction, it didn't really appreciate being dismantled and then reconstructed. I think there were parts that got mislaid, and I had broken it up and put the mattress on the floor and attempted to sleep on it. I asked someone at church if there was the possibility of him being able to reassemble it, so he came to have a look one Saturday and then got some brackets which were used in the reconstruction. It is now in one piece and my sleep-pattern is getting more or less back to normal, thankfully.

Around three weeks ago, a Wednesday, at around 6 a.m., I had a sharp pain in my chest. Having had two heart attacks, I have a fairly good idea what a heart attack feels like, although in some ways if I have heart burn, it can feel very similar. I used my G.T.N. spray, but it didn't make a lot of difference and then I took a  Gaviscon, a tablet  which usually relieves heart burn fairly rapidly, but this time it didn't.

By about 9.30 the discomfort hadn't gone away, so I thought it necessary to get assistance from Vashti, the Dexter House S.H.O. She wasn't in the front office, so another tenant went to find her in a flat with another tenant, and she eventually came to talk to me. It ended with me using my mobile to dial 999 and the paramedics came within about 20 minutes.

The paramedics ran a few tests on me, one hooking me up to their portable E.C.G. machine and from the printout they could see I had an irregular heartbeat. From this they decided that I should go to Accident and Emergency at Milton Keynes Hospital, but then they decided that I should avoid A and E and go into the Maple Centre.

I was left in the reception area by the paramedics, who handed me over and I was eventually taken into a triage room and a nurse took my blood, which was somewhat difficult as I might have mentioned in earlier posts, I don't like giving blood, or needles and at one point in the past, I passed out. Anyway, she did eventually manage to take some blood and I was then taken through to wait in a corridor, which seemed to be for a long time.

I texted someone from church, just so they knee where I was. I was eventually texted back to say where I was and part-way through the afternoon I was joined by Margaret, who sat with e in that corridor.

I was eventually seen by a doctor, who had seen the various blood tests and E.C.G. readings and informed me that I had had a abnormal heart beat which would have caused the pain I had felt earlier. He informed me that I hadn't had a heart attack, which was a relief.

So, having had this piece of news I was free to go home, and Margaret, bless her, drove me there.

The following Wednesday night I woke up to use the toilet, but on the way back to bed I collapsed on the floor. I had no idea why, but it was somewhat unexpected. I told Vashti when she came to my door around 9 o'clock. The next thing I know is I'm laying on the floor, but having absolutely no idea why. I think I must have blacked out and, as a result, collapsed on the floor in the space between the bathroom and bedroom. It was the oddest sensation, and Vashti was standing over me, calling my name. She got me to sit up and said that, because I'd collapsed twice within 24 hours, it would be advisable for me to go to Accident and Emergency.

I had intended ringing 111, but I could not get through, so, instead, I rang 999 for an ambulance. It was around 30 minutes later that paramedics were knocking on my door. I was soon given a check and then an E.C.G. was connected to me. From this, it was possible to read the print-out and see that I had a somewhat irregular heart beat.

I was whisked off to A and E (although I noticed it isn't called 'A and E.' It's referred to as the 'E.D' department, which is short for 'Emergency Department.' But it could be mistaken for something else which has those initials. 

A great deal of being left waiting, which is the usual thing in any A and E department. I had bloods taken, several E.C.Gs and at one point, because I had fallen heavily when I'd blacked out, I had a C.T. scan and an X-ray, which didn't show any breaks, fractures or anything else. But they had to take a fresh blood sample because the first one wouldn't take, for some reason or other.

After a doctor had seen me, it was decided that I should be fitted with a heart monitor. This consisted of similar contacts  that are used when you're connected to an E.C.G. machine. This had contacts stuck on my chest and then to a machine, so I had to lay on a bed in the A and E department, which made moving around quite difficult, particularly if I had need of the toilet, because I had to get a nurse to disconnect me from machine. If I pulled any of the cables off accidentally, the machine made a noise. All this made life very difficult.

Quite late in the evening, it was decided that I would need to stay in over-night. At around 2-3 a.m. I was eventually taken upstairs to Ward 1,  a new ward and part of the Maple Centre. It was dark when I was eventually taken in, being pushed in a bed by a nurse. The unit had only 4 beds and t was very spacious.

A doctor came to see me on the ward during the morning. He said that my blackout was a rare occurrence, but, since  had had two heart attacks, it was likely to happen. He also said that I was on far too much medication and took me off caesarean and isosorbide mononitrate

I had breakfast and lunch and I was eventually discharged at around 3.30 that afternoon and was collected by Margaret Jobling. She managed to find a place to park at the front of the hospital. I had intended walking there, but I wasn't allowed to and had to wait for a porter to take me by wheelchair. I don't actually think I would have managed to walk as it was quite a distance, but I was glad to be out of the hospital environment and soon back in my flat.