Bitty Barby Boob RIP part 2

Bitty Barby Boob RIP part 2

Wednesday morning started early for me. I was awakened at 2 a.m. by the in charge doctor coming to see with the results from the scans. The body scan showed  massive hematoma, but the surprise was that the brain scan showed a lesion on the brain - in the cerebellum. That is the area mostly concerned with balance. The doctor tripped over herself to make me think that it doesn’t have to be cancer - there are loads of alternative things, but she sent the scan over to the  Neurology centre at another hospital for them to comment on. When their comments came back, it was decided I was to have an MRI brain scan with contrasts, asap.  She had thought the lesion might have  shown calcium deposits. 

I was on a ward just for people who have been in A and E and need to be found another bed. But as the day wore on, it was clear that the surgery promised that morning was not going to happen. I got a piece of toast about 4. 

The real problem was that this hospital did not want to antagonise the one who had done my surgery - and the breast care specialists were very keen for me to go there so they could find out the problem and sort it out. So they agreed that I could be moved to that hospital as soon as a bed was found and not have any more treatment at this one. 

Just to fill in with a bit of local colour - I was in a 4 bed ward. The closest to the door was a woman called Daphne - not old - maybe in her 50’s but no doubt badly suffering from early onset alzheimers.  She didn’t know who she was, or where she was, or what was expected of her. So she reacted whenever anyone wanted to do temperature in the ear, BP or blood test, with screaming bloody murder.  The nurses were wonderful with her - so patient and caring. I would have not been able to do that. And going without sleep, the rest of us in the ward, so wanted to give her a sleeping tablet . At night, her ravings took the form of nightmares. She had obviously been raped by someone she was familiar with, and she went through the whole conversation - I don’t want to- please don’t make me - I don’t want to do it like that either - NO NO NO  and then screams to wake the dead. She went through that almost word for word every night I was on that ward. 

On Thursday no hospital beds available at the other hospital again, but it didn’t matter too much because I got the chance to get my MRI brain scan done.  If you have never had one, you cannot imagine the noise the machine makes.  I found a way of coping with it by replaying in my head the music from Jesus Christ Superstar - the bangs and blares sounded very crucifixion like. The music is wonderful, and so I felt like I was turning a difficult experience into a meditation.  Although I don’t suppose many people meditate accompanied by heavy rock music. 

Again it was a very late doctor who brought me the results. Not calcium, and about the size of a little finger nail - only one area. They had done a similar test last year and when they checked it, there was nothing there at the time. Because I have had two episodes of cancer so far, they felt that it had to be a reasonable suggestion that it might be a metastasize, and they were going to discuss it at their next group meeting to decide what to do next. 

It doesn’t make very good reading on the internet, although if this is cancer it is being caught very early which should help.  All medalioblastomas are labelled as 3 or 4, which means they are aggressive, and even with the best of treatment, the prognosis is not good.  But I am getting ahead of myself. But do you know there is a 78 week waiting list for being seen at this Neurology hospital?  I have to hope I am one of the lucky ones that gets through. 

Friday things were no farther ahead with trying to get me a bed in the original hospital. The nurse explained to me that bed distribution was in the gift of people who had that as their only job - and because doctors would contact them directly when they wanted to admit a patient, there was hardly ever a spare bed for anybody who wasn’t already in the system. You might think having had been operated on there a few days before might have made me  still part of the system, but no, my record was not active.  And they really didn’t want me to go. They kept saying that they hadn’t been told it was an emergency and that things had changed after I left their care that had nothing to do with them.

My daughter is a very strong woman. She makes a lot of enemies, especially in the medical world when she is fighting for her family -  but she decided she was going to report that hospital for breach of duty. I had been on the waiting this for the next available bed 48 hours before.  The doctor gave her all the numbers to ring and encouraged here, and a few hours  later,  I was told a bed had been found. 

An ambulance run by the 111 service arrived at 8 and I was left for my new ward by 9.  As I was introduced to my new roomates, a felt a slight fear that not everything was going to be smooth sailing here either.