Catch-ups - admissions

So I said in my blog yesterday that I would post my blogs that ive been keeping while in hospital. I wasnt planning to do this until i was out due to no internet access. But as a friend lent me her dongle so I get the internet for now :)

Im just guna do one a day, as i dont want to do one massive blog that takes a year to read!

My first one is the port operation.

Date written:  13^th February 2010

Title: Port Operation

So I finally had my port operation yesterday!!

The whole day was stressful and terrifying! Ill explain why below…

Thursday I was supposed to be admitted into hospital to prepare me for my op the next morning. So I took the day off Uni so that when the hospital rang me to say to head in as my bed was ready I was able to just pick up and go straight there. So I waited, and waited and waited all day! It wasn’t until about 3pmish that admissions rang my mobile and said that they don’t have a bed for me and that they will ring at some point tomorrow and let me know again whether they had one for me or not. I said well what am I supposed to do as im meant to be having my port operation in the morning and I was told I was going to be admitted today. She said that she wasn’t aware of that information and that she would pass it on to the bed manager!

So all I could do was say okay thankyou, and hung up. I then called the CF clinic, where I explained what they had said, and apparently it wasn’t the first problem they had had this week with admissions. I know they aren’t exactly always cheerily happy with them anyway so it must have been a bad week I figured. One of the CF nurses said they would sort it out and they would ring me back. So I waited and waited and waited some more! By this time it was like 5pm so I guessed there was no way I was going to be admitted that day after all! The CF clinic did ring me back tho and they confirmed what I knew about non-admision, and then I was told to ring admissions in the morning between 7.30am and 8am! (Crack of dawn for me!!) So I asked if there was anything I needed to do to prepare for my port operation and she said to do the usual starve thing from midnight and no drinking at all. So I did that. I went to bed early that night thinking I would get myself lots of sleep to prepare for my big day on Friday. How wrong was I!! I didn’t sleep a wink. I dozed but that’s about it. Then when my alarm went off at 7.30am I was instantly wide awake – typical why cant that happen when I have to get up early for a morning lecture!

So I went about beginning the circus that is ringing admissions. I first rang the ward 10 which I knew was where I would be placed as due to having cepacia I cant be on the CF ward as ill infect all the others with CF, as cepacia is very contagious between the CF community. I wasnt about to kill off an entire ward of people with my silly infection!! That wouldnt exactly do wonders for my confidence!

Ward 10 told me to ring back at 8am as they were currently doing the hand over from night to day nurses and information about all the patients from during the night. So I rang back at 8am, they said I needed to ring admissions. I asked for the number and she was half way through reading it out to me and then said “oh hang on I can patch you through to them” before I could say anything I was listening to cheesy classical music and waiting for someone to answer the phone. I eventually got an automated answer and it told me that the line isn’t manned until 10am – 4pm! And that due to the line being very busy I was to ring back at a less busy time. Then it hung up.

So I’m left with the ward not knowing what is happening and an unmanned and apparently busy admissions desk (surely if its always that busy, then there should be someone constantly on the desk!) So I looked in the yellow pages and found the reception number for BRI and rang that and got the admissions number. Rang that number and got the same automated answer machine!!

By this point my housemates were scared to come in the living room for fear of me exploding with rage. I assured them that unless they worked for hospital admissions then they were safe for now, but not to piss me off. They took this as a very good warning, thankfully.

So I rang back ward 10 as that’s all I could do. They said admissions had just rung them and they took my number and said that they would get admissions to ring me. That happened and I got someone who I couldn’t understand a word of what they were saying let alone hear them properly as there was people and phones ringing in the background. Then halfway through him telling me something he started talking to some lady that was I assume from her loud voice and being able to hear every word that she was saying, was stood right next to him! So I’m sat there trying my hardest not to loose it on the phone and then the women comes on the phone and basically tells me she has no idea why I was told to ring them myself and that she would ring a CF nurse and get back to me shortly. This was about 8.30am, the CF nurses don’t start until 9am! At least that was the impression I was under...

My operation was supposed to be about 10/11am!! So im left hanging and not knowing what the hell is happening and severely pissed off and pretty dam anxious. So I just went to get dressed and continued waiting for a phone call.

Finally about 9.30ish the CF nurse rang me and sounded even more pissed than I was, and told me to basically come in asap and they would continue to sort the bed situation out while I was under in theatre!! Eep!!

So I got my things together and me and my housemate Emily got me to the hospital where I had my port operation done about 12pmsomething. Ive written a separate blog about my feelings and how the op went and things as this is quite long already, and ive a lot to write about the op and the before and after things.

So that was what i wrote the day after my port operation about adamissions. I was good to get some anger vented out. I wonder if everyone has the same troubles with their hospital admissions people?

Ill blog again either later or tomorrow about the whole operation before and after bits...