This topic contains 13 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by 
BADGER 12 years, 6 months ago.
For now I'm partly blaming you lot. All that talk on Friday about infections and hospitalisation (I even gave advice about past experience :-/) and lo and behold on Saturday I woke up with a temperature reading 38.2. I monitored it for about three hours and Janet asked if I was going to phone it in (like they ask us to do in Nottingham). The thing is… Janet, our daughter Kirstin, granddaughter Edith and Kirstin's mother-in-law Gerry, had long planned (and Kirstin had paid just over £140 for the tickets) to see 'The Nutcracker' ballet. I didn't want to ruin that by whipping off to hospital so i took paracetamol (which they tell us never to do because it can disguise something serious) and my temperature dropped to 37.2 and stayed down. Janet and the girls thoroughly enjoyed a great day out and I thought all was well. I was wrong.
I woke on Sunday to a temp of 38.6… I phoned in to the bleep nurse on our specialist ward and I was told to come in. There were no beds available on our two specialist haematology wards so I was booked into the assessment unit ward, a very busy ward where they ship people in, assess them and then direct them over to the appropriate ward as soon as a bed becomes available. By the time I was admitted I had a temp of 40.2… and I was out of it… barely able to hold a conversation and only wanting to doze and sleep.
More later about some of the workings of that peculiar ward and my consultants thinking about my Rev & Dx treatment today but glad to say that after six IV shots of the superdrug/anti-biotic 'Tamasin' sp I am now home.
I feel completely washed out… even on a Dexday, very anaemic (HGB 9.1) and weak and weary, with two very strong anti-biotics for a week… but thankfully and somewhat emotionally charged up.
I was diagnosed with Pyrexia (fever) but the on duty Haematology consultant who saw me Monday morning said he thought by the sound of the wheezing on my chest that it was possibly pneumonia (happy chappy). The unit administered Tamisin and I went from 40.2 to normal in six hours but at the 6am. intravenous drip of Tamisin I was back up to 38.7… so another day's stay. I developed the trots and thankfully was moved into a side-room (as a precaution) last night. My temperature had returned to normal by last evening and this morning at 6am. my breathing was pretty much clear and my temperature has stayed down (after my first proper sleep/rest) so when my consultant came to see me I bullied her into agreeing to let me home.
So here I am, with a shed load of drugs, wiped out, tired and somewhat emotional but overwhelmingly grateful to be home… and Janet, as always, has been a complete star throughout.
I blame you lot, I do.:-)
Dai.
Hi Dai
Well….. There you go, all these bugs must be catching…….. Even over t'internet,:-) It was probably me! I've just had another chest infection last week too. Finished the dreadful doxycycline on Sunday. I'm just hoping for a clear week before we go away. You just get yourself fit and well by the time I get back. Glad Janet enjoyed the ballet before resuming nursing duty:-)
Love Helen
Well we have been through the wars Dai 🙁 and may I say you cope with it realy well take in your stride and dont blame anybody (ang on am gonna read it again) erm read it again and ye am sure we are guilty of throwing in the "Its Ok it will get better" and "Biotics will soon sorth that one out" ye av done it Lol.
But seriously Dai I am pleased to read your getting better and am sure your Biotics will soon (erm erm Tom ur doing it again)??
And may I say Dai that ill and you remember all that Wot a memory you have 😀 . I aint on anything and I forget loads lol.
Pleased your better Dai Keep strong
Tom (the biotics will soon sort you out kinda guy 😉 ) "Onwards and Upwards" xx
So sorry to hear you have been poorly Dai, but glad to hear you are on the mend, look after yourself and get back to normal soon,
love Mari x
Hi Dai.
You sound like you went through a similar experience as I did a couple of weeks ago – though my temperature topped out at 38.9 Glad your on the mend now.
Take care
Andy
Hi Dai,
Sorry you have been poorly, hope you are on the mend now. Just thought how lovely of you not wanting to spoil the ballet for everyone – what a trooper!
Take care Alison x
Thank you all, your support is truly appreciated. 🙂
Janet brought in my Dex yesterday but a nurse spotted them and locked them away until the pharmacist wrote them up… so I didn't get them until 4.30pm… which left me with 2 hours sleep last night.
I have just had a couple of hours and I feel a bit more human. I didn't take any paracetamol between coming home and 10am this morning and my temperature has remained normal… so it looks as if the drugs have won, Breathing normal and feeling generally okay, so hopefully on the mend.
Thanks again. 🙂
Dai.
Hey Dai am sure you didn't expect anything different, keep on keeping strong 🙂
Tom "Onwards and Upwards"
Hi Dai
Glad to read you are back home and building your strength back up.
cheers Paul
Hi Dai
What is it about these infections that they can come on completely unexpectedly. I have every sympathy with you trying to deal with it with paracetamol although it is a complete no, no! If my experieince is anything to go by, being in a general ward will have not been a bundle of laughs.
Glad you are back home, if weakened, and bravo to your wonderful Janet.
Take care.
Love Mavis x
Tom, Paul & Mavis, thank you very much.
Janet has had a stinker of a cold all week, just beginning to clear up today… so thank goodness for the anti-b's. I think I must have caught her cold as it was coming on and was unlucky enough to get the lung infection.
Dr Happy, saw me on Monday am and told me that I most likely had either pneumonia or some kind of streptococcus infection which would mean me being transferred to a specialist unit where air would be pumped in and out of my room so as not to spread infection to other patients. He said that MM almost guarantees that what might be mild to him would be a danger to me (hence my nickname for him).
The good news was that last week my Neutrofils were 2.3 – they took my blood as I was admitted and even with the infection and a temp of 40.2 my Neutrofils returned at 2.3… so they held up well to the infection and helped me fight it (with the aid of the wonderful Tamizin).
The registrar who saw me Sunday evening told me that as far as MM patients were concerned the first number to check should always be your Neutrofils and I agree. They are the barometer of how fit you are to fight lurgy's and infections… and they are the first thing that I always check on my read-outs.
You are right Mavis, General wards can be horrific. The ward I was in had two main bays… one for men and one for women… 7 beds in the mens and 8 in the women's. There was another, larger bay with 12 beds but it was empty. The ward, or unit, was an Assessment Unit where patients are examined, processed and more often than not shipped off to an appropriate ward within hours. My men's bay had 6 men in it when I arrived… 4 were moved on before the day was out and another 3 moved in. By the end of the next day the bay was full… and I was the only original member.
And of course, as has been noted here before, it had to be a bank holiday… my third in hospital in under a year. The staff were either part-timers or 'bank' nurses and the routines and discipline were a real shambles. Not because the staff weren't caring but because they had little idea of normal procedures. Tuesday am was a real eye-opener, with efficient, industrious staff working to a well ordered system.:-)
But I survived the small ordaal and continue to feel better each day..
Dai.
Hi Janet and Dai
OMG I can't believe what you two have just been through. I feel so sorry for you both and on a bank holiday just to make things that bit worse.
I sincerely hope you both make a good recovery and have an infection freen rest of the summer.
Do take care Dai and of course Janet who I know has all the worries as well as the infection.
Love Teresa.
Hell Dia you have been gong through the mill. I took my chesty cough and head cold to Spain and got rid of it by giving it to all my relatives:-D .
You hang in there buddy now is the time to VASBYTE 😉 .
Kindest regards
David
Well Dia
you never semm to do things by halfs all or nothing a!!! glad you now seem to be on the mend and with the care of nurse Janet will pull though ok its a shame really as you seemed to be doing ever so well upto now
Love and a big (((hug)) Jo x
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