So I ended up in Hospital. Again.

A lot of you have been asking why I was in Hospital recently so I thought I’d post you a bit of an update. It feels weird to be writing this now but I wanted to wait until I was out of the woods to write about it because I tend to see the positives a little better after some time has passed.

If you’re following me on Twitter you’ll have seen that a few weeks back I was trying my best to get in with my Consultant or GP because I knew things weren’t going well. I ended up making a visit to our local out of hours service after Mum, Matt and I decided it couldn’t wait any longer.

They decided pretty quickly that I needed to be admitted and I probably should have been sooner. Things had gotten worse, I wasn’t keeping food down, I wasn’t keeping water down and I wasn’t managing to walk around on my own. It wasn’t a routine stay.

We spent a couple of hours in a bay of a&e whilst they got things ready for me to be moved to a ward. After a bit of poking they managed to get a cannula in me and started some IV rehydration. The lovely male nurse had never heard of my condition and the Doctor was in the same boat. It was pretty blatant that I was severely dehydrated, I’d known that was coming, but they also noticed that the Ph of my blood was far too acidic – I had Metabolic Acidosis. That was a new one for me!

I actually can’t remember some of my stay, I don’t remember how I got to the first ward from a&e, all that tells me is that things were probably a bit worse than I realised but after a game of musical beds I ended up on Oncology. They use the same drugs I take so it was the logical move. It also came with the hidden bonus of staying in a relatively new area of the Hospital with single rooms, all with ensuites and lovely comfy beds. Matt had fun in the remote controlled chair and I was pleased to see some art on the walls. It might have still been a Hospital but I wouldn’t complain if my Hotel room looked like this!

Oncology are also very lucky to have a higher nurses to patients ratio than most other wards in the Hospital. That means they have a little more time, and makes it an all round nicer place to stay – you can really see the impact just a few more nurses makes. They really went above and beyond their duty.

One of the nurses was so interested in my condition that she did some research. She got in touch with a Doctor at Great Ormond Street that treats a child with the same disease and arranged for him to speak to my Consultant. Hurrah! My GI Consultant was happy to have found someone that has some experience of EGIDs and is now in the process of arranging for me to go down to Great Ormond Street to meet this other Doctor. See what nurses can do when staffing isn’t stretched to breaking point? (Take note politicians).

My Consultant wanted to take some more biopsies of my stomach whilst I was in, a pretty routine procedure but things got a little hairy because my blood pressure dropped below 70/40. That’s far too low. More bags of things were added to my IV pole, a second cannula was stuck in me and poor Matt was left worrying. He was told I’d be out in 30-40mins but he didn’t hear anything for a good 2 hours. I honestly don’t know how I got him but he’s pretty amazing!

After that, things were on the up. I’d had some lovely vistors and some equally lovely drugs so I started my petition for discharge at the start of day 3. My Consultant wasn’t over the moon at the idea but I’d finished any drugs I needed on IV and he saw my point – why keep me in if it’s just for things I can do at home?

As far as Hospital stays go, this has been my nicest to date. We popped back with a huge box of Malteasers to thank the Nurses. It’s was reassuring to have had such a positive experience especially with all the negative journalism surrounding FGH at the moment.

So what have I been up to since? Last Saturday, I got to spend a few of hours with my girls. It felt so good to get dressed up after weeks in PJs. It knocked me back but it was worth it.

Right now I’m still trying to get as much rest as I can and build myself up again. You’ll find me curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea in my lovely new mug from Utterly Personal. They have lots of lovely gifts to customise and I was over the moon with how cute this mug is, I just love the quote on the back: