That's where we got up to yesterday isn't it? You will have to forgive me if I am a bit vague today I am not feeling very well, on top of being very run down and exhausted from everything this week. To be fair the days have all kind of melded together it's hard keeping track of what day of the week it is at the moment lol.
Sunday night Nan's arm was causing her extreme pain, her fingers had swollen up a lot and were turning a very nasty colour. That was about 10pm, since she wouldn't let me call Lisa because she would be in bed, or anyone else we opted for calling another ambulance. I spoke to the rudest most obnoxious operator on the phone, who then transferred me to a doctor. He was also very unhelpful and said he would send the on-call doctor out to see Nan. When the on-call doctor arrived he took one look at Nan's hand and promptly called an ambulance. He said if the cast didn't come off immediately Nan would be in danger of losing her hand!. So the ambulance arrived, luckily we got 2 amazingly helpful crew members. They made Nan a lot more comfortable and were very concerned about her. They booked her into A&E and then the fun really started. First off a nurse removed the cast, Nan's entire arm was black and blue. They were amazed at how tight the other cast had been applied, it should have been loose enough to allow for the inevitable swelling, instead it was so tight it almost doubled the amount of swelling. Nan was having a lot of trouble with her fingers at this point, they were really cold and numb, she had no feeling at all in her thumb and was causing the doctors to panic a little. The doctor who had treated her the night before sent her for yet more x-rays. I had to wheel her around there myself since no-one bothered to call a porter to take her. We waited around for ages for an x-ray there was no-one around to even hand the form to. Oh the joys of late night hospital visits lol. After more waiting around we were told that the position of the bones had changed and more manipulation would be needed to get it back into the right position to set. Nan was obviously not very happy about the idea of having that done, and being in incredible pain again. The doctor who had done it previously was not happy to attempt it again, so he called for a consultation from a Trauma doctor. Which meant more waiting, eventually I went and asked them if it was possible to get Nan something for the pain just to make her more comfortable. They gave her Ora-Morph (oral morphine) which started off a whole other set of issues, but I don't have time to get into that yet. When they came to manipulate her arm, they gave her gas and air, no anaesthetic this time. She really couldn't get the hang of doing the gas and air properly she was taking very shallow breaths (mainly because she was struggling to catch her breath because she was panicing). There was a very abrupt nurse barking orders at her all the time which didn't help matters. After they manipulated it we had to go for yet more x-rays. This time I had to wheel the bed round to x-ray not the easiest job in the world but admitedly easier than pushing my old twin buggy lol. She had 2 x-rays done and I was just about to take her back to her bay when they called us back saying they needed to take some more. After looking at the x-rays the trauma doctor decided that the position was "acceptable" as long as Nan's arm remained elevated in a 90 degree angle position. She had to be taken to a ward and have a sling (well a makeshift sling made of a pillowcase and some bandages anyway lol) rigged up to a drip stand to help maintain this position. To say Nan was not very happy about the idea of staying overnight is an understatement. They gave her another dose of Ora-Morph and transferred her to a wheelchair to be moved. By that time it was 3:30am, Nan hadn't taken her usual nightly medication and I had taken great lumps out of my arms scratching thanks to the latex allergy. I think I had taken about 12 (dose is supposed to be 1 a day lol) of my allergy tablets by that point usually my latex allergy leaves me unable to breathe I have found that by taking lots of allergy tablets I can reduce the effects from life threatening to annoying lol. I am going to have to leave it there as I have run out of time again, I will try and get back as soon as possible to fill you in on the rest of the week. If I am lucky that might even be later today or tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment