Although it was close.
A long time has passed since I last wrote, well anything, especially here. I did want to but burdened down by severe depression, anxiety and now the loss of my sight, it seemed just too hard.
It still is but, I have to do it, just to let you know that the NHS is not entirely populated by brave self sacrificing, paragons of virtue. Yes, there will be some, but I have sadly never met them. My experience has been life threatening, then sight threatening, then life changing and life threatening to she with whom I will end my days, all because of hubris, ineptitude, stupidity and corruption: not forgetting of course, misogyny.
A while before the Pandemic (yes, there was such a time), I related, in 'Something Happened' , how J' had an event that at the time had been labelled as a Trans Ischemic Attack (TIA), and that was as far from the truth as one can get. Why, well because it happened over again, with this time being far more serious, with confusion, 'coffee ground vomit', loss of understanding and coordination.
After a calling in my doctor friend, from next door we determined to call an ambulance as there was little we could do to diagnose and treat her without the intervention of a hospital resources, so off she and I went, with blue lights and sirens to the stroke unit once more, with me convinced it was nothing to do with any sort of stroke.
Despite the fact that J' was unable to make any coherent response to questions and being semi-comatose, I was excluded from the initial assessment, which made me furious and extremely anxious at the same time. But after about thirty minutes I was at last reunited with her and things had not improved.
She was now semi-conscious, and linked to drip and there was a young chinese FY2 who spoke with me about J's condition. I asked if he knew she was a Type 2 Diabetic and he said no but also that he had found that out from testing but further, he had one of the newer test meters that also measured Ketones (3 beta hydroxybutyrate). He advised me that her level was 3.90 (mmol/L), as a normal maximum would be 0.70, I said what I had thought, it was ' DKA' (Diabetic Ketoacidosis). J' was put onto a new forced drip with insulin buffered with dextrose, to avoid bringing her down from extreme hyperglycemia too quickly.
I cannot say I relaxed at that point because DKA is life threatening, and has to be managed very carefully and preferably not on a stroke ward! However, they were reluctant to move her despite the fact of the Diabetic hospital being next door. I then stayed with her as long as possible and I called my daughter and asked for a lift to home as I had no desire to find a taxi. I also had no trust or confidence in anyone at this HospitalTtrust as they had already had three trys at diagnosing J's problem over TEN years and had nearly missed it this time and potentially killed her!
Back home, I checked my Kumar and Clark about DKA and had a stiff drink, and then another. I was sick with worry, scared I would lose her, and mistrustful of the ability of Nottingham University Hospital Trust to get anything right or worse: actually even care that patient safety should be a priority. They certainly thus far, had displayed little adherence to that important tenet.
I called the ward in the morning as early as I dared, to find that J' was sat up in bed, drinking tea and making conversation as if nothing had ever been wrong! I knew that insulin was a wonderful thing but just not how much. It had brought her back from extreme sickness in hours, and I would be eternally grateful to that young doctor whose mind was not constrained by where he was and what he had been presented with. Sadly that same attitude was not matched by that of the Consultant who did not want to discharge J' without an ultrasound of her neck,and an MRI of her brain. Spending NHS funds to try and prove that a stroke unit patient MUST have some brain damage otherwise they would not be on his ward. He really was an arrogant p***k. I did actually say to him, 'which part of DKA do you not understand?, but not until we were on our way out of the door.
She was there for three days and I got her home on the third, with help from her lifelong friend Jill, who drove us. But the blow came on the last day: J' was now and probably be for life, an insulin dependent Diabetic and had to be on a regime of basal/rapid insulin injections three to four times a day and was Ketosis prone. A condition fairly rare in Type 2's, called Ketosis Prone, Insulin Dependent Type 2 Diabetes (Flatbush Diabetes). Once the shock of these events were over (January 2018), we settled down to a different life, but that is for another day and post.
Please be kind about any typo's or errors. I am now officially Severely Sight Impaired/Blind, something caused by that same Trust due to negligence and, perhaps even something more sinister. All will be revealed. You see. I don't f*****g care any more.
