Where I am today.

Now the 11th of December and having been back at work a week or so my blood pressure isn't too bad.  After leaving hospital I booked an appointment with my GP who signed me off work for a further 4 weeks giving me time to relax and hopefully get better, although I never actually felt bad.  Over the next few weeks I check and record my blood pressure in the evening and also take note any other exceptions of which there are none really but just note things like 'return to work tomorrow' etc.

I have received 2 letter over the last few weeks from the hospital both about follow up appointments.  One is for the initial eye problem and that's booked for 27 December and the other was for the MRA they promised me which was booked for 7 December which was last Friday.  My appointment was for 1:45pm but arrive 15 minutes early to do any paperwork etc.

I arrive around 1:15 pm and the paperwork is minimal and I am directed to a waiting area for MRI and CT scans.  People come and go and then I am called in.  I am taken to a lobby area which has some lockers and 2 doors, 1 of which leads to the MRI scanner room and the other the control room.  After some questions and changing out of my jeans I am taken into the scanner room.  I lay down and and asked some questions about asthma and allergies etc as they wil need to inject me halfway through the scan.  They put a cannula in my right arm and prepare me my putting a receiver pad over my kidney area and some other general shielding over my legs and upper chest.  They say we are ready and ask if I'm ok....  They give me some headphones as they need to get me to hold my breath at certain times and also a panic button just in case.   I am then fed into the machine and the procedure starts.

I am not going to beat around the bush here but I was ok until i opened my eyes which was when i realised how close around me the machine was.  I closed my eyes and just followed the instructions given and stayed calm.  I can see however if you really didn't like enclosed spaces then this would be a very difficult thing to have done.  The one thing I can say is keep your eyes closed and relax.  Before long it was done and I was pulled out od the machine.  I actually felt a little light headed getting up but to be honest I just wanted to get on with the day and go home.  I got changed again and made my way out.

As i said above I check my blood pressure pretty much every evening at the moment and it's looking ok, last night it was 124/62 which is good.  I am of course on medication still but am awaiting an outpatients appointment with my consultant who will hopefully say all my tests have been fine and change my drugs around a little.

Hospital visit continued.

Continued from last entry albeit sometime later.

It's some time later now but I've finally got round to writing up my continuation from the last entry.  Anyway I wake up the next day on a drip which wasn't there when i went to sleep, the nurse says my BP came down to quickly so this has brought it back up so it can be brought down slowly.  Whilst she's telling me this she takes blood, this is to be the first of many blood taking exercises.  This ward is a little quieter in the day and the other patients are reasonably friendly.  I spend the whole day on this ward with my blood pressure being taken periodically.  

Early evening comes and I'm told I'm being taken to another area.  Whilst still in the CCU ward this is an area called 'stepdown' .  It seems to be for people who require less monitoring as it has less technology in it.  I'm in a room with 3 men this time, all older than me.  It's a nicer room and the guys are reasonably chatty and pretty funny.  I spend a night and another day on this ward before being told I am being sent to a normal medical ward later in the evening.  Around 3 or 4 pm a man comes to collect me and I assume this is to take me to another ward, however this is for a chest x-ray.  This is done pretty quickly and before long I'm back in my normal ward.  Just before the evening meal some porters arrive to wheel me including the bed to my new position.

I am now on a normal ward with 3 other patients.  One of them requires 24 hour care and has 2 carers there most of the time and the other 2 are pretty elderly men who are here long term.  Whilst being in this room with just 4 beds this Bay is part of a larger ward which as I will learn becomes noisy.  As I have now been transferred I don't get the evening meal I order and have to make do with what's left, I get a very salty shepherds pie.  The evening passes with visitors and before long it's pretty late and time for sleep.

I wake up and am reasonably happy as on this ward they don't seem to take your blood every morning. I am told I am having an ultrasound today on my kidneys and before long I am again whisked away downstairs and parked outside an ultrasound room.  I am called in and the ultrasound goes without any event however the lady performing it doesn't seem very cheerful at all.  I am told she's done and a porter arrives to take me back to the ward.  The rest of the day passes un-eventfully however I get another doctors visit who decides I need an echo-cardiogram and an MRA scan, which is an MRI but on the arteries connected to your Kidneys.

I wake up and it's Friday morning and fingers crossed home time.  I am no longer on any continuous monitoring just occasional BP checks like everyone else in the room really.  I talk to the the doctor again and we have a good chat about things and she seems fairly happy and says if my BP continues its downward trend I can go home oh and the bottom figure needs be under 100.  A lady turns up just after midday with a portable ultrasound machine and does the echo-cardiogram, she is much more chatty and friendly than the other lady who did my kidneys.  She also does my kidneys again while she's there.

So, one last BP check and I'm allowed home.  They do it and it seem to have crept up a little and the nurse says I'll need to stay.  Sometime later the doctor comes in and says actually despite it being up it's probably better for me to be going home and she starts my discharge procedure and collection of drugs. It takes a few hours before I actually leave but as soon as I have my paperwork and medicine I thanks the doctors and nurses and make a dash for it.  This was harder than I thought as the medicine was having some effect on me however determined I may my way to the reception and wait for Lisa who had gone to get the car.

One of my activities whilst at home was continue my urine collection for another 48 hours and return it the following Monday and also take a small tablet the following Sunday at 11 pm and return to the ward at 9 am on the Monday for a blood test and a BP check.  I do this and the doctor is pretty happy with my BP, it's 132/72 which is much better.  She's happy with that and also pretty happy I'm losing some weight too.