I apologise now for the long wordy post, however make yourself a cuppa, sit back in a comfy chair, and enjoy the read!
They say that life in hospital is quite boring and that time seems to go by very slowly, but not for me. Looking back, I don’t think I realised just how ill I was as days blurred into one another and I seemed to want to do nothing but sleep. Eating was not high on my priority list and I don’t think I really ate anything much for at least the first four or five days, besides, the food at the hospital is worse than bad, it’s terrible, not what should be fed to very ill people who are in need of nutrient rich food, however, I have been very fortunate for friends and family to come to the rescue with delicious food parcels for me.
Excitement does occur occasionally and that happened on Monday morning when on my return from a bathroom visit, a dodgy looking, scruffy couple came into my room, scouted around the others cubicles ( I’m in a four bed room), so I asked “can I help you, are you looking for someone?” The reply was ” oh no, just looking for a pen”. Hmmm I thought, that doesn’t sound right, as I was trying to get back into my bed the girl asked ” do you need help?” No I do not” I replied, given with one of those stern looks of you’d better get out now before I beat you with one of my crutches looks! “Oh” she said, “oh right, I suppose we should go and put our uniforms on”. With that they left the room and I could see them wandering up and down the corridor. I thought to myself, nope, this doesn’t feel right, so I rang the bell for the nurse and told them what had just occurred. Soon, I hear the nurse came back into our room to tell the other nurse who was with me that there was a code Orange alert and security were on their way. Shortly, we heard that the security cornered this couple, who apparently were going from room to room stealing patients belongings. Police were called and arrived very quickly, they were arrested and removed. All this was done in probably less than 15minutes from my first encounter with them. But how low can you go, stealing from very ill people, on an orthopaedic ward where they probably knew how immobile most patients are. All rather dramatic.
On Tuesday the excitement was to ramp up a little. I mentioned in my last blog about the ungrateful, rude American woman in the next bed to me. Mrs P we shall call her. Mrs P (in her early 80’s, very fit and mentally onto it) had broken her upper femur whilst on a tour of NZ. Well, her daughter (Miss A) arrived from the US on the Sunday morning having independently booked some sort of cycling tour which just so happened to cross over time wise by a few days of Mrs P’s trip. Miss A had been up to the hospital visiting many times, always wearing a mask, and never coming too close to any of the rest of us although I did engage in conversations with her as she seemed a little more amenable than her cantankerous mother. Well, Tuesday evening after Miss A had left, and other visitors had left Mrs P was visited by the charge nurse and was told that with the way things are, Mrs P needed to be removed to a single, isolated room, tested for Covid-19 and Miss A was no longer able to visit the hospital and should go into self isolation. Mrs P was not impressed and threw a hissy fit….her daughter had arrived before the cut off time albeit by a few hours, why wasn’t she Mrs P being removed back to the US now, her insurance company was saying one thing, her son in the US another, the medical team at AKL hospital something else, airlines were all against her…blah blah blah blah. Nothing about putting others at potential risk.
Well, that sent us all into a mild panic, to say the least. I really really felt for one of my other room mates who not only had surgery for fractured bones but is also undergoing chemotherapy so her immunity is seriously compromised. Mrs P was removed from our room without a thank you or good bye from her as she was wheeled out. The stripping and cleaning of the room began….all this was now after midnight.
Meanwhile I was keeping my family up to date with what was going on. Antony had been in to visit that same evening and he was here when Miss A was visiting, and sat in the chair next to my bed on the side which Mrs P was, albeit behind the dividing curtain. Antony immediately rang his boss and put himself into self isolation because as he said he did not want to become “patient 31”. Yes, I know, I didn’t know what that meant either until a quick google search. As a brief explanation “Patient 31‘ upended South Korea’s coronavirus-containment efforts, Patient 31 Caused 80% of Coronavirus Infections in South Korea, showcasing the importance of testing and social distancing.
The remaining three of us were subsequently visited by management, at some ungodly hours of the morning, questions answered as best they could and reassurances, as such, were given. None of us had any contact with Miss A or Mrs P for that matter, Miss A did wear a mask whenever she was in the room, and was never within a metre of any of us, however, that niggling doubt sticks in the back of ones mind, and we wait for Mrs P’s test results to return, before we all panic too much.
But the thing that got me the most was the arrogant selfish attitude of Mrs P, she was not concerned about any one else at all, in fact all she was worried about was herself, and she kept going on about the fact that Miss A had arrived before the isolation cut off time time of midnight Sunday. And yes she did arrive before midnight but by only a few hours before the curfew was invoked and of course subsequently all tourist arriving 14 days prior to the official cut off time have been told now to self isolate. Miss A certainly hadn’t come to NZ to see her mother, no she was booked on an independent trip, which was subsequently cancelled as soon as she got here. The relationship between mother and daughter I would have called platonic at best and was not particularly warm or even amicable.
I really really feel for the amazing nurses that work at Auckland Hospital, they too are all worried as of course they had very close contact with Mrs P.
So we waited, and waited, for the test results to come in. This is when time really did seem to drag, meanwhile Antony was at his home, keeping out of physical contact with work, as he said, the last thing needed at this time was for a whole section of detectives to be taken out of action. We waited and waited. Meanwhile, I start to feel better and better each day. My “numbers” are reducing rapidly which means the antibiotics are working. I must add here, that I have always been of the understanding that I was allergic to penicillin, coming out in a rash, this from childhood, which let’s face it was a few years ago now! I was put on an antibiotic that was on the penicillin spectrum but which between the Infectious Diseases team and the Allergic reaction team agreed I should be able to tolerate. The type of infection that I apparently have responds really really well to a very specific narrow based type of penicillin, Benzylpenicillin, which I was keen to try as I did wonder about my supposed allergy. Again after much to-ing and fro-ing between my surgical team, the Infectious Diseases team and the allergic reaction team, and as I was seemingly tolerating the other drug very well, we decided to give one dose a go. Well, of course nothing happened, no rash, no anaphylactic reaction of any kind, so I’m on the Benzylpenicillin with no side effects at all plus of course it is really targeting the bug causing the infection.
As I need to be on the drug, given intravenously, for 6 weeks, the thought of being in hospital for 6 weeks was horrifying, I was told the best way of administering the drug and to get me out of hospital was if I had a PICC line inserted. Peripherally Inserted Central Cather, PICC, line is inserted into your arm under local anaesthetic, the line runs up the vein inside your arm and ends up in a large vein in your chest. It is often used for administering chemotherapy.
I had this procedure done on Tuesday morning, not without some angst on my part….well, I am a wuss. My dear friend Di came to visit that morning and was waiting for me when I returned from having the procedure done. She was brilliant, as I don’t like all the gory details of what is done, on my return to my room Di went off with the nurse to have explained to her out of my earshot about the line I had put in and how it’s all attached externally etc etc. Di could then relate all of this to Roy, and I don’t really want to know!
Apart from being a little uncomfortable once the local had worn off, it wasn’t too bad, just unpleasant. It now meant I could have the other IV needles removed, and also bloods can be taken from the line as well so no more being a pin cushion.
In hospital I was having the antibiotic administered every 4 hours, but it now meant I could go home and have a 24 hour infusion attached. This infusion method is changed once every 24 hours and can be done from home via a District Nurse visiting, and I can be taught how to do it myself.
Meanwhile, we still wait for test results.
The wonderful OPIVA Nurse (Outpatient Intravenous Antibiotics) came Wednesday afternoon to explain to me how it all works and to give a little demo. This was now getting exciting as it meant that I’m ever closer to being discharged and with the outside world going crazy with Covid-19 news I was looking forward to being at home. Thursday morning and my surgeon visits, he is really happy with the way things are looking, and if everything can be put into place, was I happy to be discharged this afternoon? Really? I’m ecstatic! Behind the scenes teams have been working hard at sorting out the realities of my life because of course we have no fixed address. We use Antony’s address as a nominal address but as we are staying at Shakespear for the duration of my treatment, I was actually causing problems by being under 3 different District Health Boards. With some fabulous team work, I am sorted, I get my OPIVA stuff all done under one DHB and I can continue under the care of my surgeon through another DHB rather than the one covered by Antony’s address which means I get continuity of care.
Thursday morning and I’m given another demo of administering the PICC line, with my first hook up to the system scheduled for 3pm and if Roy could come in at that time he could also become au fait with what is happening and once that is done I could be discharged.
Test results finally come in, Mrs P is negative, phew, we can all relax a little.
So that’s where we are now, I’m at home, back in the van, I am comfortable in changing the infuser full of antibiotics into my PICC line daily although the District Health Nurse will oversee my first changeover today and then I can just go to their hub once a week to get dressings and fittings changed. By administering it myself also means one less thing for stressed and stretched health worker resources to be under. I’m sure as things develop over the next few weeks/months they need as much help as they can get. I get my medication couriered to me once a week, of course it has to be kept refrigerated, but we are comfortable with managing this. I have to have weekly blood tests, visit the Nursing hub once a week, see my surgeon once a week (initially), enough to keep us busy.
I won’t be doing much as I am under strict instructions to rest, rest and rest. Hopefully next week I will be able to have the 35+ staples removed from my knee, and I’ll get into the swing of things generally. Here is where you can say thank you for not putting up the pictures of my knee with the staples in it!!!
As the weather cools, and with world events ever changing, we don’t expect too many campers will be coming in and certainly no more school, scout or guide groups in. So you could say we are self isolating.
The world has certainly changed, for the better? Who knows, but one thing is for sure, I don’t think we realise what is ahead of us. Stay safe with your families friends and neighbours. Look out for each other.
The Vanninis' Manoeuvres 