Morning everyone. Not feeling so great today, after yesterdays LP. Kicked my rear end to get to hospital for 9am. Sis was waiting for me.........she
s also one of my carers. Got to the ward and was really needing a wee. Was shown into my room (private…great) and then told to get into a gown and get into bed. This is the dialogue twixt me and nursey.
me Er, excuse me, where is the hoist please?
nursey Hoist? What hoist?
me I rang to say I need a hoist and was told you would
acquire one
.
nursey No-one told me. Oh
me I can
t transfer without a hoist. Oh and I need a wee please.`
My sis had looked into the loo and saw a commode.
nursey How are you going to get onto the loo?
me With a commode
nursey Commode? What commode? We don
t have one`
me There
s one in the loo`.
nursey Oh, right. I
ll see if I can find a mobile hoist then. We do have a ceiling hoist in another room.`
me Can I use that room then please?
nursey No, it
s occupied, but they dont need a hoist
.
Sis and me rolled our eyes and I held onto my bladder!
Ten minutes later a magical hoist appeared. Nurses didnt know how to operate it. We told
em…nothing…magical hoist wasn`t so magical afterall…it was dead as a dodo. Even when plugged into a socket, still nowt!!!
Nursey, Oh, it won
t work.`
me No. I still need a wee
.
A man appeared…looked at hoist…fiddled with it a bit and said, It won
t work!`
me.have you got another one?
nursey I
ll go to another ward and see if I can find one`.
Ten minutes later another hoist appeared. Now this one was truly magical, `cos it did work! Fantastic.
Sis undressed me and got me into gown. We used the hoist ourselves and got me onto commode. Then over the loo…ahh, relief! I looked at my feet…theyd gone all purply and blotchy. I aksed nursey if it had footrests. Daft question, I know...it didn
t!
Right, onto bed. All wonderful. Doc came. we discussed the procedure. I asked him to try not to hurt me, as memories of the horrendously, painful previous one was. He said he wouldn`t. Then another doc appeared. Guress who it was?
It was that lovely neuro who showed me 3 distinct blobs on my 2008 MRI, in my neck area. The 3 blobs which had miraculously disappeared in 2010 when yet another neuro showed me the same
scan. Hmm, wondered how that happened. I asked him about that and he said he couldn`t remember!
So, the procedure began. Curled me up into the fetal position. Not easy when your legs/feet/toes wanna argue! Okay…needle with aneasthetic went into. Oooo, that smarts, I thought. Then longer needle to draw the CSF.
Arrgghh! Ow!!!!!
I yelped.
Doc Oh, I
ll give you a second lot of aneasthetic`. More smarting followed! Procedure continued. Still made me jump. But I knew I had to just lie there and thing of England…oh and the possibility of an MS diagnosis…maybe!
About 20 mins later, it was completed and I was more than relieved.
For the next 2 hours, I laid flat and felt more comfortable than I had expected. But during that time, my heels began to burn and tighten. This is the fairly new problem I have with pressure soreness. Sis put my gellies on…heel protectors.
At 12,30 I needed to wee again. I called nursey and she had to go back to the other ward and re-claim their hoist!!!
To end this sorry tale, I was allowed home at 3pm and vowed never to have another lumber puncture.
Results in 3 weeks…what will they be? Answers on a postcard please…
luv Pollxx