Aah, Friday! I was so looking
forward to today.
Brandon was going to Breakfast Club but I was still going to
get up relatively early so I could have a long, luxurious lounge in the bath,
wash my hair, exfoliate, face mask, etc., you know, the proper girly pamper kinda day. Then I was going to
do a Make Up related blog on
some new products that have recently come into my possession, then it was off
to the School to pick Brandon up and hear all about his 1st ever School Trip
and, finally, have a couple of hours at "Inflatable’s Day" at the
School before returning home and, hopefully, having a quiet and non-eventful
evening with my Husband - my perfect fun-filled Friday.
Now, you'd have
thought I'd have learnt my lesson by now. Usually when I have plans set out for
the day something usually goes a little wrong, or plans alter slightly, but
this tends to be when I have made plans with someone else so I wasn't too
worried about my relaxing day going wrong, but perhaps I should have been.
My day didn't just go a little bit wrong, it went spectacularly wrong...
The day started
just before 7am when I started stirring before Matt's alarm went off. At
this point I was aware of a "niggling" sensation to the centre of my
lower abdomen. I sleepily thought it was probably because I'd just woken
up and, perhaps, my bladder was full but, with no desperate desire to go to the
bathroom, I made the most of snuggling with Matt for a bit longer, becoming all
the more aware of the niggling turning into something a little stronger.
Matt and Brandon
got up at just gone 7am and went downstairs and I was going to treat myself to
an extra hour of sleep before getting up and starting my day - by which point
the boys would have left for School & work.
I was fidgeting
around, trying to get comfortable with this ever increasing sensation in my
stomach, which had now moved itself over the left and kept taking a trip round
to my lower back. I had, at first, tried to attribute it to maybe being a
little on edge about Brandon having his first School Field Trip today, but it
was now too strong to just be an apprehensive Mummy Tummy. It was also
too much to be "butterflies" about my 1st full session of acupuncture
tomorrow.
By
half past 7 I was decidedly uncomfortable and getting hot & bothered from
the pain. I'd tried the foetal position, stretching out, laying on my
front, my back, my side and even tried getting on all fours doing "happy
cat", "angry cat" and "dancing cat", but nothing was
easing the discomfort. Thankfully I had some Tramadol, Diclofenac and Co-Codamol in the bedroom so I decided 2 Tramadol and a Diclofenac should do the trick nicely, even if
they knocked me out for a couple of hours, I would still have plenty of time
for my day of R&R.
However, by 8
o'clock when Brandon and Matt came to say goodbye, I was still very
uncomfortable and, shortly after they left, I decided it was pointless
stressing myself out with trying to relax and that I may as well go downstairs
and, if nothing else, take some Buscopan and
have something for breakfast.
I'm not altogether
sure where the next hour or so went; all I do know is that I took 2 Buscopan but didn't have any breakfast or any coffee!
(That in itself is a problem for me; I can't function without my morning
coffee).
I remember phoning Matt and almost crying because of the pain.
I remember being on all fours on the sofa, trying to find some sort of
comfort. I remember phoning the new 111 service (which, in my opinion,
isn't much cop; bring back NHS Direct
any day!!).
I remember thinking (just after 9am) that, clearly, the Tramadol and Diclofenac weren't
going to work and that pain is always that much worse when you are on your
own.
I ended up phoning the ambulance service and telling them
the problem and going through a load of questions, most of which I can't even
remember and then, shortly after hanging up to them, a Paramedic Car arrived to
do the general first assessment. Again, I was asked
all sorts of questions, he took my blood pressure, pulse, etc., and then he put
me on the Entonox (Gas & Air
for those who aren't aware of its other name). It did take the edge off
but, unlike usual, I could still actually feel the discomfort so I kinda knew
something wasn't right. After a few
minutes the main ambulance turned up and took over.
At this point it was
probably a good thing that I wasn't fully compos-mentis because one of the ambulance
paramedics that came in (David) was really nice and chatting to me. He
noticed my dogs and took quite an interest in them, and was asking me questions
about them, and he asked me what breed they were. When I told him, the car
paramedic (Eric) turned round and said, quite blatantly and, actually, to me
"well I don't like them, they look like rats!” Anyone who knows me
would know that, had I been of sound mind and body, I probably would have punched
him for that or, at least, verbally attacked him. Perhaps thankfully (for
him) I just said "Well they're not to everyone’s tastes, but I love them".
I then had to get
into the ambulance and then we were on our merry way to the Hospital. At
this point no one had actually clued me in to what they thought could have been
going on...
We arrived at the Hospital and A&E was heaving! Seriously? It's half 10 in
the morning?! All of the cubicles were full and there were people on stretchers
waiting for cubicles!
I was sitting in a wheelchair at this point, still hooked up to the Entonox, the Paramedic that drove the
ambulance was talking to another crew member and David was checking me in at
Reception. I decided to eavesdrop to see if I could pick up anything
interesting; All the usual jargon, what meds I'm
on, medical history, "a chance she could be pregnant, querying
ectopic"...Oh! So that's what you think is happening with me? Nice!
I guess I kinda knew that they didn't think I was having a miscarriage
due to the lack of blood, but no-one had mentioned that they thought it might
be an ectopic pregnancy. Oh well, at least I knew.
Shortly after David came back over and said that, unfortunately, I
was going to have to wait in the main A&E waiting room (oh lucky me!) and
that too was absolutely packed! At this point I
was really starting to droop, I think the tiredness and stress had kinda caught
up to me and I was fighting to keep my eyes open. Thankfully I was called in to
Triage really quickly.
The girl did a few obs, didn't really ask me any
questions and then told me that I'd been seen by their overflow Doctor Service
(just across the corridor) but that I should just sit and wait for a bit. So I toddled back off, very aware that I must look absolutely
frightful, and plonked myself on a rather uncomfortable chair; though feeling
slightly better now that the pain had dropped down a little. I can only assume
that the Entonox gave the Tramadol and Diclofenac the kick up the backside they
needed to get working, either way, I felt a little better, which is probably
why I was aware of how frightful I must have looked: no make up, hair not even
brushed, trainers, jogging bottoms with a hole in (from where I fell through a
glass table a couple of years ago) and a purple 3/4 length sleeve top with a
pink mark on the back where my hairdresser had got hair colour on it ages ago
and it had bleached the colour out! Oh well, I looked around me and decided
that I really didn't look that bad compared to some of my fellow A&E
occupants.
Again,
perhaps thankfully, I was called through rather quickly, along with around 4
other people. As I started walking across the corridor I realised that
walking wasn't exactly helping the pain so kinda shuffled the rest of the way.
I got seen by a
no-nonsense kinda Doctor, though it did almost appear to me that he didn't
really know what I was there. After running through it all again he asked
me to do a urine sample which, surprisingly, I managed to do pretty quickly
(usually I can't pee on demand).
He went off to, I assume, do a pregnancy dipstick test on the sample and then
came back in and asked to feel my stomach. He started on the right side
because that wasn't giving me much trouble, though didn't particularly like the
degree of pressure with which he pressed. As he moved over I couldn't
help but start to tense. He pressed in the lower middle of my abdomen and
I flinched and then, when he moved over to the left and pressed (really quite
hard) I was glad I was already lying down because I am pretty sure I would have
passed out otherwise!
He then told me to
take a seat again; sure, just give me a minute to re-gather my equilibrium
won't you! He then told me he was going to go and check my wee again... When he came back
in he said that I'm not pregnant at the moment and that it is unlikely that
it is an ectopic pregnancy.
Just as I thought it safe to relax he said
"but there is a lot of blood in your urine which
leads me to believe you have a very severe kidney infection". Oh... He then asked if I was allergic to anything and then, when I told
him no, prescribed me some strong antibiotics (the name of which escapes me,
they're in the kitchen and I really can't be bothered to go and check). He
told me that they may well give me thrush because they are so strong, and that
I must drink plenty of fluids.
Then that was pretty much that. I then had to wait
over 3 hours before Matt could get off work to come and collect me from the
Hospital. Thankfully he managed to get a half day at work and, eventually, the
time rolled round (after I slept most of it away in the Doctor's waiting room)
and I, finally, got back home just after 3pm, Matt then went straight off up to
the School to collect Brandon. I was quite thankful that it was Inflatable’s
Day as this then gave me a good couple of hours’ peace and quiet, in which I
slept, before the boys arrived home.
It's now almost 9:00pm. Brandon is in bed and, needless to say, my
fun-filled Friday kinda went out the window. I still have my acupuncture
appointment tomorrow so I think I'll get up at a reasonable time and have my
bath, hair wash and
pedicure before I go over there. I'll put a blog up about that soon after too.
Until next time,
Gem. xx
