Arrival at PRUH

So we arrive at PRUH and go straight into A&E and hand in my letter and notes.  We are advised to take a seat which is fine.  After some time it's clear that my notes and whatever the letter says isn't really speeding up my admission.  However after a bit I'm called into the assessment area where my blood pressure is taken again and of course it's still high.  I'm also asked some questions however there doesn't seem to be any indication being 'fast tracked'.

I return to my seat and wait a bit longer then I'm called by a nurse who takes me into a side room and inserts a Cannula.  As you all know this doesn't hurt in the slightest but allows bloods to be taken freely without inserting any more needles as it's effectively now 'on tap'.  She also takes a few blood samples and lets me go back to my seat.

Probably 25 to 30 minutes later I'm called again, this time by a lady doctor who takes me through to the A & E 'ward' for want of a better term.  I'm taken to my little cubicle and I sit on the bed and Lisa on the chair.  The doctor asks me some questions, looks in my eyes again and suggests I need an ECG.  2 nurses duly arrive and wire me up.  At this point all this is happening fairly quickly and again they are checking my blood pressure.

The first doctor arrives back with a senior colleague who has a look in my eyes, says a few things to the first doctor, and then she looks again.  The more senior of the 2 then suggests to me that my high blood pressure is the cause of the blurry vision and part of the internals of my eye had swelled up because of the pressure.  It's starting to sound serious, I'm not usually ill that much let alone being in a hospital.  Anyway she then says that although I didn't realise as in general i felt fine that this was a serious medical emergency and it needs to be resolved before further damage of the eye or other parts of me.

They lay me down and advise they will need to get a blood pressure drug into me and that tablet form wouldn't be fast enough and in needed to be an 'infusion'  which would be entered via the cannula.  They spend some time tracking down what they are looking for and also I am later told questioning somebody else as to why I've been waiting in reception when I needed to be on medication.  They seem to have trouble locating whatever they are looking for and seem to be on the phone asking about alternative infusions which could do the job.  After a little while they must have found what they are looking for as I'm given 10ml of it via the cannula as an initial dose.

All throughout this there are of course other things going on in A&E which you try to look at to avoid your situation whilst all the time listening out for any conversation which may include your name which of course there were quite a few.  In this listening out I hear that it looks like I'll be staying for 2 to 5 days, they later tell me this directly.  It's all a bit of a whirlwind at this point but things seem to be happening and I'm told I'm waiting in A&E until they can get a bed on a ward.

Seemingly quickly I am then moved not to a ward but to a side area which seems to be for patients not on A&E any further but kind of in transit elsewhere but requiring high attention.  In here the is some reasonably comical confusion as they are trying to get a machine working which allows unattended admission of IV drugs.  After swapping the machine out and some confusion in how you set it up to deliver the correct amount over the correct time I am all connected and being administered 50ml of my infusion over 60 minutes.

In no time at all we are told a bed is free and we are off to CCU.  At this point I didn't know what CCU you was but in no time at all I learn it's Coronary Care Unit.  I am deposited on a high dependency ward where i am continuously connected to heart monitors, BP monitor and of course my ongoing infusion.  It's now probably about 9pm I think.  On my arrival on the ward I note it's ward of 4 beds with the other 3 being occupied by elderly woman who from time to time screamed out.   I am in the corner still a bit shocked from the days events and not really knowing what's happening.

A nurse comes and gives me water etc and i am laying in bed.  Lisa at this point has gone home as her mum was looking after the little one and needed relieving.

So at the end of today I have learnt I had a dangerously high blood pressure and have gone through something of a roller coaster ride and am now on a high dependency coronary care ward.  Who'd have though that would have happened!