An Unexpected Trip to A&E

Since last weekend, (by last weekend I mean the 17th May) I've had abdominal pain. I thought I had eaten something bad so just got on with things and went into work as normal. By Wednesday I had violent chills, was sent home from work, then was alternating between chills and fevers. Alongside those, a pounding headache, backache and dizziness. When I got home from work I crashed out in the thickest onesie I own, wrapped in my duvet. I had a fitful sleep for a few hours, then got up to wait for Andrew to come home - I wanted him to take me to the doctors as I was not fit to drive with the dizziness. Once Andrew was back from his late shift at work, we called the NHS 111 number to get advice on where we should go. After answering questions about my symptoms, they advised we go to an Urgent Care Clinic. So we did. We waited to see the doctor there, he did some tests, prodded my belly and advised we go to A&E.

We drove over to A&E with a letter in hand from the Urgent Care Clinic doctor, saying he thinks it could be appendicitis. After I was seen by the A&E Nurse, I had a short wait before being taken through to the ward just off the A&E waiting room. I was to be put on an IV drip with fluids to re-hydrate me, and have intravenous paracetamol. Before that, I had to have some blood taken for testing. They couldn't find the vein in my left arm, so they moved to the right arm and were able to draw blood and insert a cannula for the IV bags. The A&E doctor examined me, and agreed that it looks like appendicitis, though there are other things it could be. He called a surgeon to examine me as well - as they would have a better idea of where the problem lies. Once the surgeon had prodded my belly, they decided to admit me and put me on the list for urgent surgery. I was wheeled through to another ward, to sleep before waiting for surgery the next day.

Thursday I wasn't allowed to eat as I was on the list for surgery. I was getting occasional strong waves of intense hunger - I hadn't eating anything since 11am Wednesday. Luckily, these would dissipate quite quickly - providing the breakfast/lunch/dinner trolley was taken away swiftly! I was also having some stomach issues - which were not pretty I can tell you that for free. It was a long day interspersed with a couple of visits from the surgical consult/anesthetist through the day. A loooong boring day. By the end of the day, I still hadn't had any surgery. Thankfully the night-time surgeon came to see me late in the evening (read: middle of the night) and gave me the okay to have some food (Hallelujah!). I had some toast, juice, and yogurt - Best. Meal. Ever. Then had very fitful sleep.

Friday was another long day. I was told I was at the top of the list for surgery, but still had to wait for most of the day before I heard anything. It was all too much, I was tired, felt crap and was bored out of my mind waiting to be called in for surgery. Also I was scared, I've never had surgery before. Around 5pm I was finally called down to theatre for my exploratory laparoscopy. It was nerve-wracking, but the surgical team made me feel at ease by cracking a couple of jokes. It all happened really quickly from when I was brought down to surgery, at one point there was two people talking to me at the same time and I had to work out who I needed to reply to! Quite disorientating. Especially as they had given me something which they forewarned would make me woozy (A prelude to being K.O.'d!).

I have some weird vague memories of waking up feeling panicked, hearing a voice saying my name, someone saying 'she's fighting us' and someone talking to me, telling me about my operation and saying I ripped out my cannula. That's all very fuzzy and I'm not sure what exactly actually happened. The next time I became aware again, I was on oxygen in the recovery room - waiting to be wheeled back to my ward. That felt surreal.

Anywho, it turned out to be appendicitis, so they removed my appendix and I'm feeling much better now. Yaaaaay

#BLOGTOBER - Day 12

Day 12

Best Advice I've Ever Been Given

Don't eat yellow snow?

Sorry, that joke was in bad taste... See what I did there?

I genuinely don't know what the best advice I've ever been given is. I guess a lot of the advice I received from my mum growing up was invaluable - if only I had listened at the time...

It's important to listen to advice from others. Especially from someone who has been through whatever it is they are advising you on. On the flip side of that, your decisions on big things should always be what is best for you.

Leading on from that, the best advice I have to give - which I have received in the past - is:

Sometimes you have to be a little bit selfish and think about yourself and what you need.

You can't always live for other people and for making other people happy, it doesn't work. You end up exhausting yourself and having zero energy to give. Occasionally taking that step back and asking yourself 'Actually, is this what's best for me and my needs?' is absolutely necessary.

I have a tendency to go along with whatever other people want, and to let them make decisions. I am working on speaking up and expressing my needs and wants in my relationships. A big part of this is saying no to social events that revolve around food. I am a bit of a food addict, so I really struggle with saying no when there are options to eat the unhealthy foods I love in front of me. And no, it isn't as easy as 'just order a salad/fish/[insert healthy option here]' because that option is not always available. This is an area in which I am trying to improve by following the advice above, and suggesting other things to do instead of going for a meal or having a BBQ.

An example of following this advice, I cancelled plans to see Mandrew this weekend because I'm so ill I can barely move. I haven't been this ill in a while and I hate it! Painful throat & chest & head, and zero energy. It's helping me to stay at home and get better, but also helping him by not subjecting him to my germs.

On the plus side of having this bug, I have plenty of time to blog and read blogs...

Tomorrow's prompt: 

Favourite Fall Recipe

Link up here

August Round Up

I wrote a huge post on my way into work this morning but it didn't save :'(

August is over!  It flew by! We're heading into the last few months of the year, and Christmas is on its way. It's official. I saw christmas stuff in shops last weekend. Now I'm just waiting on the CocaCola advert.
August felt really busy, there was a lot going on!

August summary:
Week 1:
The month kicked off on a weekend, with a pool party at a friends house. It was not pool party weather, but we did it anyway. Typical me ended up with an awful cold afterwards. It was my brother's birthday at the beginning of the month, so I spent time with family having a take away and watching films. Good times!
The weekend was well recieved. I spent time with the usual suspects, went for a walk and hung out with some friends.

Week 2:
Work was busy, as usual! By Thursday I was more than ready to head down to Pip's for her birthday. Had a really busy weekend: party no. 1, go karting, party no. 2, riding, running, and a day shopping and sightseeing in London before heading home. I was exhausted!

Week 3:
Woo bank holiday weekend! I was really hoping for a nice relaxed weekend, but of course, that wasn't the case. I had a whole load of stuff to get done on saturday, including cleaning my bike with the intention of cycling to the train station for work. I also had to bleach sisterbell's hair as she had been bugging me to do it for a little while...I was also pulled into an impromptu shopping trip, which was tiring! Then there was a house party, which I was designated driver for... ended up staying up super late and dropping a couple of people home. I was glad to be home on Sunday night - after a cinema trip. I was looking forward to relaxing on the Monday, and I took sisterbell into town so she could pick up some running kit, and I could grab a cycling helmet. Of course that turned into a massive fail, as this is when the neck incident occurred. Ouch.

Week 4:
Great start to the week, couldn't move, couldn't work and went to A&E. Awesome. Ended up being off work until Friday, when I went in armed with the tablets I was prescribed at A&E. By that point my neck was starting to feel a bit better. (Yay!)
MrBoop and I were house sitting for a friend on friday night, then headed out on another imprpmptu shopping trip on saturday. Back to the friends house we house-sat the night before, for a gigantic barbeque. By gigantic I mean lots of food. Seriously, loads. That was our last hurrah to summer. I finally got a chance to relax on Sunday.

Goodbye August!

Hello September...

Pain. So. Much. Pain.

Yesterday afternoon I was driving myself and my sister to town to pick up a couple of sporting bits and bobs-she needed running gear, I needed a cycling helmet. I pulled into the shopping centre car park and  spotted a large space to pull into. There were cars behind me who had to stop while I (badly) manoeuvred into the space. Let's bear in mind that I only passed my driving test in July and have not had a lot of practice. In my rush to get into the space, when readjusting I turned my head very quickly from looking right, to look behind my left shoulder. As I did this I heard popping & clicking sounds and felt an immense amount of pain up the back of my neck, on the right hand side.

I have cricked my neck countless times before, but never like this. I felt completely incapacitated. Every movement was agony and sent my neck into spasm. Imagine getting a really bad muscular cramp, but more painful and on your neck. Every time you move. My bewildered sister had no idea what to do...neither did I to be honest.

I sat and waited for the pain to diminish, but it didn't make much difference. It just ensured I had got past the initial pain shock so it was a slightly more manageable level. I use the word 'slightly' in the loosest sense. Headed down to the shops and first stop was for painkillers galore and deep heat spray. Nurse Sisterbell helped to administer pills and deep heat. I decided to trudge onwards to get the shopping intended done, though I decided against loading up on cycling gear.

Once we were done we headed back to the car, where I was unable to do much more that sit in the driver seat. There was no way for my parents to come pick us up as I was the one who had the car which we were all sharing; and my brother was at work with his car. Quite the predicament.

After having a cry and a handful of spasms later, I decided to bite the bullet and get me and Sisterbell home. It was really hard work, and sis had to basically be my left and right eyes. Roundabouts were certainly a challenge. Eventually made it home, where I've been wearing an airplane pillow as a neck brace ever since.

Popped into A&E today and was prescribed some strong painkillers and anti-spasm pills which I can take alongside paracetamol and ibuprofen. So far they don't seem to be helping much as I'm unable to lie down to attempt to sleep. I hate this so much.