My Recent Hospital Admission

Evening lovelies!

This is my first post tonight, so it may be useful for those of you who don't know me to read my about page first! So unfortunately last weekend (Saturday 16th April) resulted in another hospital admission for me. I woke up around 12ish feeling a little sick, which I thought was nothing more as I'd been sat with a sick bowl by me all week, but around two hours later I started to experience a severe pain in my right upper quadrant with an intense episode of vertigo (thought to be due to my BPPV) and I started being incredibly sick (vomiting) and I was struggling to see and walk massively.


We called 111 who sent out an Emergency Ambulance to me, which I'm not exactly a stranger to anymore, which arrived within around 15 minutes. Carrie, a paramedic I haven't met before arrived with a student paramedic Shawn, and they straight away got a cannula in and gave me Ondansetron (a Seretonin 5-HT3 Receptor Antagonist) which blocks the action of Serotonin to help stop the nausea and vomiting. They got me into the ambulance and at 14:57 we headed to the hospital, after being loaded with blankets, sick bowls and placed on a Cardiac Monitor due to my Cardiac history. Because I'd already had Paracetamol they decided to give me Gas and Air on route to the hospital in the ambulance which made things bearable for a little while. I was comfortable then until we arrived at the hospital.


We arrived at the Accident and Emergency Department shortly after at around 15:25pm, where I was booked in to majors and my mum who followed in behind the ambulance came in to see me. I was changed into a gown straight away and had Obs done by the nurse. It didn't take long before we saw a doctor who took bloods and examined me, but after a long few hours of decision making I was admitted to the Children's Ward for observation at around 19:15pm when I was taken up with my A&E nurse Caroline and my all time favourite Emergency Department Assistant Wayne!

When we arrived on the Children's Ward I met my nurse for the night (a new Student nurse Bethany who I hadn't met before) as they tried to make me as comfortable as possible. I had to wait for a few hours to see the Paediatrician as he got delayed in NICU but I eventually saw him at around 23:30pm. He wrote me up for Paracetamol, Ondansetron and Tramadol and my usual medications as well as IV fluids and he decided to get me reviewed by the Surgical team. My mum went home for the night at this point and he ordered me an Emergency Chest X-Ray and about 20 minutes later I was taken down to A&E X-Ray in my hospital bed with Beth and John the porter. I had the X-Ray at about midnight and when we got back to the ward I was put straight on to IV fluids through my cannula and  I finally got some sleep until a doctor from the surgical team arrived.


The surgical doctor examined me thoroughly and was quite reassuring that I wouldn't need another operation but wanted me to continue with everything the Paediatrician ordered and confirmed again that I definitely wouldn't be able to go home in the night.

I woke up on Sunday at 9:00am still feeling rough despite having being on IV fluids all night and I was still unable to drink anything at all without feeling that I couldn't keep it down. I was reviewed by the Paediatric doctors in the morning who decided I was going to need another Ultrasound on my Gallbladder and Liver meaning I couldn't have any breakfast until after my scan to avoid my Gallbladder tensing up in the images, so I didn't end up eating until after my scan at 11:00am. I went down to the scan with Craig (our favourite HCA on the ward haha) and my mum just before and waited a relatively long time compared to usual to be scanned. When I went in, after the scan the Radiologist initially said everything looked fine so we headed back to the ward (with a cheeky detour to the cafe as I hadn't eaten all morning!).


So I was kept on fluids all morning until late afternoon as we still didn't know what was going on so I managed to squeeze in my friend visiting, a good chat with mum followed with some more Tramadol and Ondansetron in the mean time. 

A few hours later I had a visit from my nurse Vicky who came to tell me that they were going to do another X-Ray (this time on my abdomen) but they needed to run some more tests so they were going to need specimens etc. which was nothing but an absolute nightmare given my state of dehydration despite continuous IV fluids!!!! So an hour or two later I finally managed, along with my trusty old IV stand who once again accompanied me everywhere!

I was taken down to X-Ray for the second time not long after by my Mum (with yet another cafe detour!!) before returning to the ward, but this time we were visited a lot sooner again by the doctor who came back to re-examine me and tell us that the X-Ray showed a blockage in the bowel, a problem which runs a lot in my Dad's side of the family due to our mystery gastroenterology and bowel issues!! So an hour or so later my nurse came back and moved me into an isolation room to perform yet another unpleasant procedure which only made my pain worse before moving me back to the girls section of the ward. I sat in pain for a while before managing to get to sleep before the doctor came around (again!!) to say they were going to consider a discharge as I had to be out the next morning for 13:00pm for an exam!! 

So after a long, long, long, long, long, long, LONG debate with my duty night nurse and the Paediatric doctors team, I was finally discharged in the early hours of Monday morning (after already deciding it would be best to stay!). They gave me another dose of Tramadol and IV Ondansetron before my nurse came to remove mycannula and finally allow me to go home! So I was eventually sent home with more Tramadol and Ondansetron to take at home due to my normal Anti-Sickness (Prochlorperazine) not working, although yet again we're still not unsure whether the blockage is the entire cause of the pain or not or whether it's been sorted by the treatments but hopefully we'll find out soon enough!


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

Love, Cat xxx