Another Recent Hospital Admission

Evening lovelies!

So, I've spent the last few days back in Hospital (since 22nd April) with another suspected internal bleed in my stomach, which has been hellish but I'm surviving. After another lengthy admission to the Children's Ward for a few days I'm finally home and attempting at least to recover before school next week!

So on Friday (22nd April) I was feeling quite poorly and decided to stay home from school while Mum went to work for a few hours over lunchtime which I thought would be fine, until I started to feel a funny sensation every time I coughed. So I decided to go to the bathroom and within two minutes I was covered in dark blood and discovered I had passed a large, liver looking tissue covered in blood, so I shouted down to Mum (praying she hadn't quite left) which she hadn't thank god! So after a few minutes of deliberating and examining, we decided to ring 111 who transferred me over to a clinician who advised us to go to my local Accident and Emergency Department as soon as possible and advised my mum to park in the ambulance bay and grab a wheelchair and bring me straight in and that the department will be expecting me. So we got there in about 25 minutes at which point I was was promptly booked in, taken straight to majors in a chair and seen by an Emergency Room doctor.

So the nurses came straight around and got me to change into a gown, did my observations and vital signs, managed to get me more comfortable with some pain relief before we sat waiting for a doctor for some time.

So I was reviewed almost immediately after by one of the Emergency Department Doctors who examined me before stupidly ringing my local CAMHS team to speak to my Psychiatrist for more information (about a suspected internal bleed - stupid or what?) rather than ringing my Paediatrician, Gastroenterologist, GP or Cardiologist who without doubt would have been more helpful, and she then decided to send me home saying that 'being admitted wouldn't help me and that I would be better off at home'. So knowing I have a history of Melena I argued straight out that I wasn't comfortable going home given my complex history and didn't feel well enough to be discharged, so not long after she went to speak to the Paediatricians who decided they were going to admit me after all. So within about 20 minutes I was taken up to the Children's Ward on a trolley and I was taken straight to the Paediatric Assessment Unit to see a doctor whilst they got a bed ready on the ward.

We had quite a long wait for the doctor which was spent wretching, crying, trying to get more pain relief organised, trying to make me more comfortable by eventually I was seen by Stuart, a doctor I've had before and the senior consultant Rebecca, new doctor who I haven't met before.

So not long after being examined by the senior consultant who decided to run bloods, I started majorly vomiting and brought up pretty much all the little fluids I had all day, so once I had my bloods done she put a cannula in and I was taken straight down to the ward with our senior nurse Emma where I was given IV anti-sickness (Ondansetron) and IV fluids with glucose immediately, along with another IV medication to try and help repair the lining of my stomach. So I managed to sleep not long after as mum went home, thankfully without noticing a number of IV drugs and bag changes overnight luckily as I was so so tired! But I woke up the next morning in time for breakfast and still on IV fluids until late morning when the doctors finally came round and managed to examine my large, liver looking tissue I passed the day before which turned out to be endometrial tissue although I wasn't told this until Sunday afternoon! But it was unfortunately decided I still couldn't go! home just yet!

So after a lengthy conversation they decided to keep me in for another night and try and get some more bloods done to recheck my hemoglobin (which was a challenge due to my cannula-used, dehydrated, sunken & collapsed veins!), but the blood seemed to think it would be a good idea to clot and make me endure the whole thing again in the middle of the night instead!

So I wanted to go home in the evening (23rd April) as I had a family wedding to go to on the Sunday, which encouraged me to try and lie about feeling better in order to get out which wasn't so good as I had a massive crash in the evening prompting the senior consultant to have to come out again with my nurse to discuss how much blood and fluids I'd lost since I stopped telling the nurses. After another long lecture about trying to cover up the affects of my condition, I came clean about the amount of blood I'd lost but they decided I was going to have to use a bed pan from now on so they could monitor exactly how much blood and fluids I was losing to figure out my fluid amounts etc. So I managed to get to sleep not long after before waking up in the morning whilst having my observations done to realize I'd been put back on fluids in the night with Ian, my trusty old Infusion Pump (yes, you do name things when you've been ill in hospital for so long! - I know it's sad haha!).

So I managed to come off fluids later on in the day (24th April) which was a relief as it meant I'd have more chance of being able to go home! But unfortunately the doctors took ages to come on ward rounds, but when they finally arrived in the afternoon we eventually made the decision to send me home with a follow up appointment for a Nasogastric Tube to be inserted and that we could arrange an appointment, hopefully for the next day (25th April) with my Paediatrician who knows more about my condition than the doctor that does rounds.

So that's about all for now, but I'll keep you all updated - hopefully I'll be having an outpatients appointment tomorrow so if I do I may have an update sooner than expected!

I hope you're all doing well! Have an amazing week!

Love, Cat xxx