Guildford at Last

Mark and I had such a major misunderstanding which I think was for the best in the end. The Nuffield hospital did have a bed for me on Wednesday! But they said to Mark either Wednesday or Thursday and he hadn’t realised this was a choice rather than they would let us know!!

Well we found this out first thing yesterday morning and managed to get all the paperwork signed and me released before 1.30, a whirlwind of a day and the most I have done for the last 2 weeks! To add to the usual complications of being released from hospital, e.g. pharmacy, doctors doing discharge letters, we added into the mix getting all the paperwork of discharging from the NHS to private. I felt better yesterday and I was glad, the day before had been a bit down and so had the emotional energy to tackle all of this. I called the Nuffield to find out what they needed and was told just the financial codes and when I was arriving and was quite surprised. However when I got here the nurse was ever so surprised no doctor or nurse had spoken to them as a handover – it defeats me that this was missed out of the instructions. As I was going to a private hospital and was good to travel, Mark drove me. It was lovely to get out – despite Test Match Special all the way – shades of my childhood! Kept the old man happy.

I am safely sorted here in an amazing room they call the VIP room no 28. I am on my own, which is lovely as I have peace and quiet and can play audio books, podcasts, have as many visitors as I want, but as I am a nosy old cow I actually prefer the hustle and bustle and companionship of a ward, I know I will be grateful for visitors especially this weekend.

I have met my consultant – an tall impressive man called Professor Tim Worthington, who immediately organised a CT scan to check the bleed has stopped, changed the antibiotics, said my bile levels were too high to do an op they are currently 210 and should be 20! And my red blood cell count is too low at 71 and should be 115. So I have had one blood transfusion last night and another 2 this morning and will have a drain inserted into my liver to get some of the bile out of my system at 1. So until this is a bit more stable no operation. This he expects to be next week. The scan showed no more bleeding.

In order to have the CT scan I had to have a cannula put in even though I had a pict line. I told them I was hard to cannulate and they sent in their doctor who is a F2 level Zimbabwe doctor (this is similar to the doctors at the Montefiore in Brighton) and I was worried. To give him his credit he did cannulate me but hit a sore patch in my arm which meant he could not even flush it without causing huge pain. I was in tears and in the room was Tessa and Mark. Tessa is very protective of me and was asking him to take it out came over funny and passed out hitting her head, the doctor couldn’t find the call button so pressed the emergency and the room filled with about 12 people! A farce. However they now know to believe me and I was eventually cannulated with no pain by a lovely consultant anaesthetist.