Have you ever had "one of those weeks"???

Here is a description of my last medical adventure for anyone that might be interseted, and no there are no photos to go with it breathe easy!!!!

Have you ever had "one of those weeks"???

On Thursday 17th I had a 10am  appointment to book into Nambour General Hospital for prep treatment for a colonoscopy.

For once in my life I decided that today I would get a 6am start and have an organized day, the best laid plans......, Showered, dressed, packed, no breakfast because of the dreaded "Prep" treatment, I had arranged to drop my computer into its second home, the computer repair shop, at 8.30am so all was ready and done by 8.15am I had achieved the impossible... an early start instead of a rushed panic.

The leisurely drive to Nambour was just that, leisurely,  I got to Reed House, an accommodation facility run by the Red Cross where I had arranged to leave my car and then stay overnight on Friday while the effects of my anesthetic wore off, all this was done and I was in the designated area of the hospital by 9.45am!!!!!!  

I was directed to take a seat in chair 10 while they found my records.... this took an hour or so, but who cares I'm early, about an hour later a doctor arrived and I went to an examination room where we chatted for a while, he left to get some information, a little later an orderly came and put me into a wheelchair, we almost got out the door but were stopped by the doctor who said I had to wait in the waiting lounge........

Chair 10 was no longer available, there were only 3 numbered chairs 10, 11, 12, who knows what happened to the first 9 ???? there were some unnumbered chairs at the other end of the room so I took one of them and there I stagnated for another 3 hours, I heard my name mentioned at least a dozen times during this time so this group clearly wanted to get rid of me but were having trouble finding someone who wanted to take me.

Eventually  a stoma nurse, whom I knew and trusted, arrived to explain the day from hell, The plan was to get me into a ward where they would do a "stoma flush" this takes about 2 hours and was the reason for the early start and the overnight stay in hospital..... as it was now about 3.30pm it was too late to start now as all the stoma nurses knocked of at 5.00pm.....

At about 5.00pm an orderly arrived and took me to a 2nd floor ward where I was welcomed and settled in, unpacked my overnight bag and waited for the "Prep" to begin, at 5.30pm an orderly arrived to take me to ward 1b... so I clearly wasn't wanted here either.

Ward 1b was my old stomping ground so I wasn't too upset to be back here, I had been on the go since 6am, sitting around in various uncomfortable chairs all day and hadn't had the treatment I'd come in for... Not Happy Jane!!!

To make matters worse I'd missed out on Dinner by a matter of minutes, mind you "clear fluids" only doesn't get very exciting, finally the "Prep" mixture arrived 2 litres tonight and another litre in the morning, Oh the joy of it all, without getting to far into the details, because I have a stoma with a colostomy bag the output from the "Prep" goes through the bag so they put one with a drain to a large bag below it, this meant I didn't have to get up for the usual dashes to the toilet, this is the first plus in a day of minus'.

Two different nurses tried unsuccessfully 4 times (2 tries each) to get a needle into my hand/arm for a canula to administer the anesthetic, so that's a job for the doctor tomorrow.

There is a male nurse on night duty who wears an LED headlight while making rounds after lights out, in my mind he is Florence Nightingales brother Frank, you know, the guy with the lamp, I was disappointed to learn that his name is Rex oh well you can't win 'em all.

Another litre of "Prep" mixture, with not much result, they could have spared me that joy, my colonoscopy procedure began at 2.00pm with the anesthetist insert the canula needle almost painlessly, about now I drifted off into  noddy land while they did what they had to do.

Later in the recovery room I awakened to find I had no pain or discomfort so I was allowed to leave at about 6.00pm for my overnight stay at Reed House, this proved to be a night best forgotten... I emptied 4 bags full (approx 1 litre) of what appeared to be just blood, lets face it there wasn't anything else left in my insides.

So back to the hospital emergency ward I toddled next morning, as a patient  from yesterday I got good treatment and was sent back to good old ward 1b after a couple of hours.

The blood loss, which was from 5 or 6 polyps that had been removed for analysis during the procedure, had stopped but my blood count was down quite low so I had a blood transfusion to help bolster it up.

After more blood tests and as there was no longer any bleeding I was put back on a light diet for Sunday nights dinner, remember my last meal was on Wednesday night, so that was GOOD news.

I was finally discharged at midday on Monday 21st, so I'm home again and settled back into my routine and feeling good, I got a letter making an interview appointment with my surgeon on November 21st so i'm guessing that everything was clear or there would probably have been a bit quicker response triggered ???? I'll find out more about the stoma reversal then I hope.

If I knew a screen printer I would have a T Shirt printed with...

"WHAT A F#####G WEEK" on it.