This past week has been a slight setback in my fight against depression, just as I thought everything was going in the right direction, albeit slowly but the right direction nether the less.
We, that’s Anita and I had got back into walking, with the added incentive of saving towards our trip to America with our good friends for mine and my best mates 50th birthdays, 50… 😬 we pay a pound into a savings account for every kilometre we walk, the kitty is looking good, the trouble came when I started to get more and more headaches and then double vision while walking. As you may have gathered from previous blogs that I’m not one for sharing my concerns with anyone, therefore I kept plodding on as you do. When things got too bad I finally went to the doctors, she had a look behind my eyes, went of to see another doctor, came back and said ‘we’ll arrange an emergency referral with the optometrist’, brilliant, that’s the stress and anxiety creeping back in now.
I went on the Wednesday, got a call on Friday and an appointment for the following Thursday, I was also told I must go to A&E if things got any worse, Wednesday they did, the headache was unbearable and I couldn’t focus visually on anything. I took myself into A&E and that’s where I ended up staying for 3 days!!
I had also wrote in previous blogs about the difficulties I was having with the NHS in general, elements were very good, others not so good. I want to take a minute to address the balance, the organisation of Milton Keynes University Hospital was great, I saw the receptionists they were polite and friendly, then within 20 minutes I was seeing the triage nurse, she goes through the standard questions and then sticks the plastic wristband on, I was very impressed with that, all your details and a barcode that gets scanned every time there’s an interaction with a nurse so the information is relayed straight to my notes on the computer! She assessed me and then I was through to another nurse to take some of my blood, luckily we all carry around 8 pints because they seemed to take a fair amount in 3 days!! I was then seen by a doctor that’s when the waiting game started, the anxiety started and all the thoughts that were darkening my mood were kicking in, I called my rock, Anita, who was there in 30 minutes, it was a long day that resulted in a CT scan and then being admitted, I was eventually given a bed, more blood taken, blood pressure taken and swabbed for MRSA (bloody good idea too). I was just getting comfortable when got told I was off to ward 7. Anita and I was in the ward waiting for the room to be made ready when we noticed the signs ward 7 – acute stroke ward, more anxiety and more stress.
The amount of paracetamol I was having was starting to work on my head and I was looking forward to getting some sleep then to see what the doctors thought of the CT scan etc.
I dropped off around 22:30 and was awoken at 00:15 for a nurse to take my blood pressure, seriously, never mind, they’re doing their job. 05:00 I was woken again for another blood pressure check, it was fine until I was startled awake again!!
The CT scan was clear, but it only shows large problems so an MRI was booked to have a closer look, at least my biggest fear of having a tumour was cleared 😮 I had my MRI (bloody noisy) on the Thursday evening so had to stay in again so the doctor could see the results the following morning, when he came in he explained that I hadn’t had a stroke or any recent events but there was evidence of a possible previous event, cleared of any cancer or tumours was a good thing until he said I can’t be discharged until I had seen the mental health team, he obviously wasn’t fooled by the ‘beautiful fake smile’
I eventually saw the mental health team, and was let out 🤭
I know there’s a lot of nurses out there and that most if not all of them probably won’t read this but I’d like to thank every single one of them from the receptionist through to the staff sister that finally gave me the discharge letter for everything they did for me, the radiologists and the porters, every one of them was polite and friendly, one or two were even funny!! Thank you to all of you. The biggest 2 thank you’s go to my wife Anita, who was there for me every possible minute yet again and to Marc my business partner who took up the reins despite all the stress and strains that go with it, so thank you both of you.
I’m feeling a bit more positive now, have a few more tests to go through but fingers crossed I will be back on track soon.
This is a good time to stop as the eyes are going wobbly!
Steve Braim 