Bob & Betty go British

NHS Holiday

As many of you already know I've just spent a restful, if not painful week, in hospital. It's OK, nothing too serious. Just a flare up of what I thought was digestive issues. Instead it turns out that all those nights of agony over the past few years have been my gall bladder all along.

I ended up in hospital for several reason; the pain was so great I couldn't sleep, I was throwing up, and it was Sunday. So off we went to the emergency department of Charing Cross hospital on the bus. I took a spew bag just in case. I must have looked like I was in agony as they saw to me in about 5 minutes and admitted me straight away. I'd never had a drip in my arm before but it was certainly not as painful as my gall bladder so I survived. As soon as they gave me the anti-nausea drug I got rather sleepy. But then that's not surprising given I hadn't slept all night and I was finally being looked after. My blood results weren't great so they said they were going to keep me in over night.

The first night I managed to sleep and at 8.30 Monday morning I was suddenly woken surrounded by 5 doctors who came to poke and prod me and talk about what was going on. This was to become a rather startling event each morning. I went for a scan that day which showed an inflamed gall bladder but no stones. If you want to know what the gall bladder is then wikipedia is quite helpful :-). I stayed on no food with a drip and antibiotics for a few days.

My friend Sarah kept me company during the afternoons and Robert came to see me at night. I was on the 7th floor of the hospital and had quite a nice view out over north west London. I was in the surgical assessment ward (see, they always wanted to cut me open from the beginning!). The room I was in was called E Bay. The people at work wondered when my auction would end so I could come back to work (ha!). Robert took the rather flattering picture of me you see here complete with my swollen arm (due to drip), pink hospital gown and white circulation socks (standard issue).


The other ladies in the room had all had some sort of stomach surgery and you certainly wouldn't want to be squeamish in there. It was all about poo and wee at the end of the day. The lady next to me was rather old and very deaf. She was constantly whinging about things and asking people to help with everything. I was about ready to smother her with a pillow if I had had to put up with her for much longer.

Finally on Wednesday they said I could start eating again. I was very excited. Unfortunately I ended up in pain again. The doctor was very disappointed given my progress so far and improved blood test from the day before. Unfortunately the doctors mentioned the word surgery for the first time on Thursday morning. At which point I freaked out and managed to convince them that I would starve to death if I stayed in hospital any longer given the lack of 'no fat diet' options on the menu. So they packed me off home with lots of drugs and promised to call me later.

On coming home and doing research on the Internet I've come to the conclusion that the Doctors were right (sorry Doctors) and I do need to have it out. Now I'm out of hospital I've probably fallen to the bottom of their list of priorities and I may get to have it out sometime soon, maybe. Problem is I had no opportunity to discuss what was happening to me or my options and now I don't know what's going to happen or when! So I wait now to hear about an appointment and hope that it doesn't a) ruin my birthday or b) ruin our skiing holiday to Switzerland. I wont be having any cheese or chocolate fondue either way as my gall bladder has a conniption just thinking about it.

Thank you to all who sent their best wishes. Rest assured that I'm feeling much better now and just have to work on feeding myself food that wont cause me pain and will build me up again. Elisabeth cannot live on fruit and steamed vegetables alone. Will keep you posted.

posted by Elisabeth @ 7:59 PM