Hospitals, Gallstones and Cardiac Insults!

The last couple of weeks have been insanely stressful and tiring. Keith went to have his gallbladder op on Thursday 13th May and so started my almost daily trips to hospital. 

Keith had his op in Springfield Hospital, Chelmsford. A small hospital in the middle of nowhere. His op went well, although not quite the keyhole surgery that was planned due to complications, namely his gallbladder being embedded in his liver! Still, he now has a lovely zip-shaped scar on his tummy. He went down to theatre at 4pm and Linda and I nipped out to Frankie & Benny's in Chelmsford for dinner. We had a good meal and got back to the hospital by 5.30 as we'd been told Keith would only be in surgery for about two hours and we wanted to make sure we were there when he got back. As it turned out, we needn't have rushed. Keith wasn't wheeled back up to his room until around 8.30pm, by which time I was climbing the walls!

Keith was still very drowsy and not particularly lucid, having been given a lot of anaesthetic so Linda and I decided to stay at the hospital with him overnight. It was a very long night. Keith didn't come round fully until about 3am. At about 4am I went to straighten his bedclothes to find a rather large puddle of blood where his wound and dressings were leaking and running down his side! Fortunately Keith wasn't aware (he is more than a bit squeemish!). After a bit of repackaging by the nurse (who was also called Keith), Linda and I finally managed to squeeze in a couple of hours catnapping in the chairs. 

We had expected Keith to be discharged home but the surgeon decided he should have a second night in their care. After dropping Linda at Keith's, grabbing a quick shower and bite to eat, I came back to the hospital to spend Friday night catnapping in a chair beside Keith's bed.

At 5.45am I got a phone call from Aaron saying that they were calling an ambulance for my mum as her chest infection had got worse and she was having difficulty breathing. Fortunately my sister, Leanne, was able to go with her so I didn't have to tear myself in half to be in both places at once. 

Keith was discharged on Saturday evening and I took him home with the intention of calling my sister and racing back to London if necessary. My body had other plans though and exhaustion took over. I stayed awake long enough to eat then promptly zonked out on the sofa.

Racing back to London happened at 8am on Sunday morning after a call to my sister to find out that my Mum's heart had been affected by her diabetes and she was struggling to breathe. First stop, Mum's house to grab some of her things. Next stop Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich to see Mum. She was switching between a nebuliser and an oxygen tube. She looked very ill and the decision was soon made to transfer her to Kings College Hospital in London as the QE didn't have the dialysis equipment needed. Leanne went with her to Kings to get her settled and I went home for a sleepless night.

Monday I went to work. The joys of being a locum mean if I don't work, I don't get paid. I am lucky that I have a very good manager who agreed for me to go home early to get to the hospital each night. 

Monday evening, Ed drove me to the hospital where Leanne met us before we went into the room. Its not often my sister is visibly upset; she's a nurse and very practical, however she dragged me off to a side room to talk to me before I went in and explained how bad the situation was.

Mum was on haemofiltration, a more gentle form of dialysis which takes 24 hours to complete a cycle. Mum's body is not strong enough to cope with normal dialysis. Mum has pulmonary oedema (fluid on her lungs), pulmonary embolism (blood clots on her lungs) and the diabetes has affected her heart muscle. 

We were stopped by the doctor on our way to see Mum and taken back to the side room to talk. Never a good sign. Anyway, the doctor explained that my Mum had suffered a massive coronary insult (cue inappropriate laughter from me, wondering if her heart had been calling her names - stress does funny things to me!), in short, a massive heart attack. The oxygen in her blood was dangerously low, despite the oxygen mask and the fluid on her lungs was stopping her from being able to breathe properly. 


The doctor advised that they need to do an angiogram to see whether or not they would have to redo her triple heart bypass. Bad news in itself as Mum was not well enough to have it done plus the fact that she has a very low change of surviving an anaesthetic.

Crap all round really.

So after tears followed by pulling ourselves together, Leanne went back to see Mum and left me with the task of phoning people. 


Honestly, we thought that was it. We thought we were going to lose her.

A week later and she is still in Kings. Somewhat improved. They've drained a lot of fluid from her but on Sunday night had to give her a blood transfusion as her haemaglobin levels were so low.

Today they are doing the angiogram. We wait with bated breath for the results.

Watch this space.