sideroom 2 has been on the receiving end of some high level cleaning this morning.
the cleaner arrived and the room was swept and wiped to an inch of it's life, even the bed was raised and all the bars and levers given a wipe.
soon after she left another lady, a supervisor i think, came and inspected the room, even getting onto her hands + knees to see under the bed. all was going well until she went into my ensuite. she came out tutting and told me that she was getting the cleaner back, and whilst she was waiting, she took the bin out of the frame and inspected the underside of the frame!! eventually she got impatient and went to fetch the cleaner, and the 2 of them disappeared into the toilet, something was pointed out and after a short discussion they both left.
a few mins later the supervisor reappeared with another bloke and they both went into the ensuite, before leaving.
a few mins later a chap turns up with a hoover and apologises but he needs to get into the ensuite to hoover the air-vent!
as he leaves thank him and tell him that i'm sure the rest of my stay has been improved by his hoovering. he laughed and told e that they had finished early and were now being found 'silly little jobs to do'.
suffice to say the supervisor has been back and sideroom2 is now fit for habitation again!!
when matthew reads this he will probably comment that our house should be so lucky to get this degree of treatment!
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
privacy and modesty
one of the things you have to surrender when entering hospital is some of your privacy + modesty (p+m). you are constantly being examined and scanned and a lot of that happens when you are in a flimsy gown, that only has two ties on the back, gapes and is generally incredibly unflattering!
i always remember a friend of mine telling me about her experience after a c-section (though i believe in childbirth you have to really give up your p+m), she had got so used to the drs and nurses wanting to see the scar, that when a friend was asking about it, she didn't hesitate to whip back the sheet and her gown to show her. it was only the look on her friends face that made my friend realise that a friend didn't need or indeed want to see that!!
having said that, i have to admit that the staff here have been lovely and most helpful in helping me maintain a degree of p+m, even when i was in the backless gown, struggling to breath and being transferred from trolley to machine and back again.
there is a moment in your treatment when you realise that this is it, your p+m are gone. for me this was at 5.30am, when there were 3 (male) paramedics in our living room, i was in my dressing gown, struggling to breath and they wanted to do an ecg. one of them attached the pads on ankles and wrists and then looked at me with the remaining pads, asked me if i had had one before. i nodded. so you know where these go. i nodded. he looked at me as if to say 'you ok with that?' i nodded. he very gently undid my dressing gown, fortunately i had kept my bra on overnight as it helped with my breathing, i think he was quite relieved. but for this particular bout of ill-health, that was the moment when i realised my p+m were being left behind.
perhaps the most fortunate thing about losing your p+m in these circumstances is that you are usually desperate for someone to help you and too ill to care!
i always remember a friend of mine telling me about her experience after a c-section (though i believe in childbirth you have to really give up your p+m), she had got so used to the drs and nurses wanting to see the scar, that when a friend was asking about it, she didn't hesitate to whip back the sheet and her gown to show her. it was only the look on her friends face that made my friend realise that a friend didn't need or indeed want to see that!!
having said that, i have to admit that the staff here have been lovely and most helpful in helping me maintain a degree of p+m, even when i was in the backless gown, struggling to breath and being transferred from trolley to machine and back again.
there is a moment in your treatment when you realise that this is it, your p+m are gone. for me this was at 5.30am, when there were 3 (male) paramedics in our living room, i was in my dressing gown, struggling to breath and they wanted to do an ecg. one of them attached the pads on ankles and wrists and then looked at me with the remaining pads, asked me if i had had one before. i nodded. so you know where these go. i nodded. he looked at me as if to say 'you ok with that?' i nodded. he very gently undid my dressing gown, fortunately i had kept my bra on overnight as it helped with my breathing, i think he was quite relieved. but for this particular bout of ill-health, that was the moment when i realised my p+m were being left behind.
perhaps the most fortunate thing about losing your p+m in these circumstances is that you are usually desperate for someone to help you and too ill to care!
good morning
it's tuesday 30th and i'm still here...
a relatively quiet night, a drip @ 10.30 and another @ 6.30am. i am now up, showered and dressed. though have to admit to feeling a bit weaker this morning. probably as i am now no longer having intravenous steroid and have been given tablets today - 6 uncoated ones (they taste foul) and the tablets take a bit longer to kick in than a drip.
unfortunately i didn't get to see the consultant yesterday, so i'm crossing fingers and touching wood in the hope he comes today... and then i may have more news about a release date!
i ad some lovely visitors yesterday - so thank you for finding time and money for the carpark - is is appreciated.
today i will keep you updated and do a spot of reading and maybe a spot of snoozing.
a relatively quiet night, a drip @ 10.30 and another @ 6.30am. i am now up, showered and dressed. though have to admit to feeling a bit weaker this morning. probably as i am now no longer having intravenous steroid and have been given tablets today - 6 uncoated ones (they taste foul) and the tablets take a bit longer to kick in than a drip.
unfortunately i didn't get to see the consultant yesterday, so i'm crossing fingers and touching wood in the hope he comes today... and then i may have more news about a release date!
i ad some lovely visitors yesterday - so thank you for finding time and money for the carpark - is is appreciated.
today i will keep you updated and do a spot of reading and maybe a spot of snoozing.
Monday, 29 March 2010
12 year old doctors!
when my lupus was first properly diagnosed i was a student.a stay in hospital meant that you might know some of the med students, and boy did medsoc have a reputation in Cardiff (always a slight worry if you thought of them as consultants of the future!). flirt with the junior doctors and the consultants were reassuringly grown up (a bit like your parents).
as an outpatient i was aware that consultants are nearer in age to me, but this stay (first in 13 years) has alarmed me by how young the junior doctors are.
last night i was waiting for a new canula, a dr was requested at about 7pm and i was woken at 1.30am by a 12 year old boy who was trying to convince me he was a dr and he was here to put in a canula. he looked the part, stethescope and all, but surely he was no older than the teenagers i work with?!
well i gave in but i think i've blown his cover - his first attempt was awful, i have 2 inches of lovely bruise on my arm to show for it. fortunately the second attempt worked.
i've told a couple of the nurses who have laughed and agreed with me that they do look too young! unfortunately the reality is more that we are getting older - aaaarrrrgggghhh
update - the photo is the handiwork of said 12 year old doctor, taken 4 days later! the 14 year old doctor told me that the vein is now dead...
meals tomorrow
in case i forget...
lunch, lamb + veg pie, with veg + mash followed by a banana + a bowl of custard (can you guess what i'm going to do?)
evening, tuna salad and a Cornish fruit yoghurt.
breakfast is served in the ward and to date it's been a bowl of branflakes + a mug of tea
matthew did bring me some saffron bun hot cross buns this lunchtime :)
lunch, lamb + veg pie, with veg + mash followed by a banana + a bowl of custard (can you guess what i'm going to do?)
evening, tuna salad and a Cornish fruit yoghurt.
breakfast is served in the ward and to date it's been a bowl of branflakes + a mug of tea
matthew did bring me some saffron bun hot cross buns this lunchtime :)
view from my room
thought i would set the scene and describe my room/views.
in my luxurious sideroom there is a locker (standard issue), an electric bed (luxury, actually acquired from the high dependency ward as when the nurse who transferred me saw that i was abut to get a bed with an air mattress, she decided to swap the beds as she had been looking for an air mattress for another patient in hdu!), a rather uncomfortable chair (fake black leather - seat splitting and showing the foam underneath), a bedside trolley and joy of joys an ensuite toilet!!!
this is especially cool as the majority of patients are male and one of the things i see a lot is the men in the neighbouring bay shuffling across the corridor to the unisex bathroom opposite. i'm happy to shower in there - not so happy to share the toilet...
other views down the corridor include the nurses station and the staff going about their business answering calls etc. they also store the trolley with the patients notes near my door, so i get to hear hushed conversations about patients. all very exciting but i don't know who they are!
i do have a window with a view to a wall with more windows, but if i get up and have a look i can see grass and a road (can't quite see the helipad). i am also above a+e and if there are several ambulances in place, i get to hear them arrive and unload their patients.
so there you have it. although siderooms are a luxury they can be a bit lonely as there is less interaction. hence my enjoyment of a slightly wider view of the world through the internet than the physical view from my room.
in my luxurious sideroom there is a locker (standard issue), an electric bed (luxury, actually acquired from the high dependency ward as when the nurse who transferred me saw that i was abut to get a bed with an air mattress, she decided to swap the beds as she had been looking for an air mattress for another patient in hdu!), a rather uncomfortable chair (fake black leather - seat splitting and showing the foam underneath), a bedside trolley and joy of joys an ensuite toilet!!!
this is especially cool as the majority of patients are male and one of the things i see a lot is the men in the neighbouring bay shuffling across the corridor to the unisex bathroom opposite. i'm happy to shower in there - not so happy to share the toilet...
other views down the corridor include the nurses station and the staff going about their business answering calls etc. they also store the trolley with the patients notes near my door, so i get to hear hushed conversations about patients. all very exciting but i don't know who they are!
i do have a window with a view to a wall with more windows, but if i get up and have a look i can see grass and a road (can't quite see the helipad). i am also above a+e and if there are several ambulances in place, i get to hear them arrive and unload their patients.
so there you have it. although siderooms are a luxury they can be a bit lonely as there is less interaction. hence my enjoyment of a slightly wider view of the world through the internet than the physical view from my room.
lunch
in hdu we chose lunch about an hour before it arrived. moments after arriving here yesterday a menu was placed in my hand for todays meal choices.
my chicken frickase, rice and peas was ok. for some reason i chose an orange for pud. juicy and difficult to peel. can't remember what i ordered for this eve...
lunch had an added bonus as Matthew (my beloved) arrived with some goodies from home.we have often moaned about him working at threemilestone (the wrong side of truro) but right now it is good news as he can pop in in his lunch break and on his way home :-)
my chicken frickase, rice and peas was ok. for some reason i chose an orange for pud. juicy and difficult to peel. can't remember what i ordered for this eve...
lunch had an added bonus as Matthew (my beloved) arrived with some goodies from home.we have often moaned about him working at threemilestone (the wrong side of truro) but right now it is good news as he can pop in in his lunch break and on his way home :-)
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