The Community Nurse part II

So there I was sitting in my kitchen, thinking about my phone sitting alone in the dining room, wishing I could think of some excuse to make the community nurse hurry up and leave. That seems a bit unfair, she was a perfectly pleasant lady but it always unsettles me slightly when medical people don't really....'get' it. By 'getting' it, I mean references which I would think would be fairly basic and standard concepts within the medical field. And when my trust in them begins to waver, then I internally begin to panic about whether they are fully able and qualified to do the job they came to do, in this case, change a dressing on a PICC line in my arm. Which runs near my heart. Which must be kept sterile at all times. So the conversation continued...

Nurse: "So the diabetes, that came after a surgery?"
Me: "Yes my tr-"
N: "-And what surgery was that?"
M: "A transpl-"
N: "Oh a transplant, I see it's written here! What type?"
M: "Lungs"
N: "Just the one lung, was it?"
M: "No lungs. Two."
N: "Ohhhh! And what was that for?"
M: "Well I have Cystic Fibrosis"
N: "Ohhhh! Cystic Fibrosis? And was that to cure it, yes?"
M: "Well, no. Like I don't have it in my lungs anymore, but the rest of my body still has it, so I'm not cured."
N: "Ohhhh I see! And how long have you had Cystic Fibrosis then?"
M: "Well, it's genetic. So I was born with it. "
N: "Ohhh! So a long time then, says you!"
M: "Yeah. I was diagnosed when I was six months old."
N: "Ohhh! Six months, so you've had it a LONG time then!"
M: "Well, yeah. I was born with it. "
N: "And when did you get the transplant?"
M: "Four years ago, almost."
N: "Ohhh! And how long were you waiting for it?"
M: "Emm about si-"
N: "For ages I bet!"
M: "Six months?"
N: "Oh that was quick!.... Oh you have a dog! Oh I never even noticed him. Oh isn't she gorgeous?"
M: "Yeah, that's my dog, he's very sweet"
N: "She's like a fox. Or a deer. Or a doe-a-deer! Oh will she bark now?"
M: "Oh no, he never barks, ever really."
N: "Oh I bet she'll bark"
M: "No, don't worry, he doesn't bark"
N: "Oh she'll make strange for me I bet!"
M: "No don't wor-"
N: "- right so I'm here to do a dressing then, so let's see, why do they want me to do that? Where is it now? Oh look at the eyes on her [the dog]..."


And so it continues. Turns out she doesn't have the right supplies, so I agree to go the pharmacy later and buy them. She has what will make do in the mean time. I become very worried that the pulling and prodding will make the line come out, so she agrees to hold it and I remove and dressings. Of course, this is all done through some more bizarre conversation, but seeing as I am studying for exams right now, I haven't the time to blog about it!

Thankfully the IVs are well in the past now, my lung function is back up and beyond where it was (I think about 104%) and I'm feeling much better! : ) I just have to concentrate on passing these silly exams (anyone know anything about statistics, neuropsychology or usability engineering, if you wouldn't mind disguising yourself as me and sitting my exams, it would mean hours more sleep and three less exams for me to do!).

My parents went to the CF conference this weekend, and so when I get a chance I'll blog up all I learned second hand from them.

Part II of the community nurse entertainment will continue shortly (it does get worse). At the point where I left off, I was planning my fake phone call and then realised I left my phone in on the dining room table. Fail.

In the meantime, we had to put down our lickle dog today. He was about 14/15 years old (a rescue dog so I'm not sure exactly). Although he was 'only' a dog, we miss him so, so much. It's amazing the overwhelming noise that silence makes.

The lovely community nurse part I

My lovely community nurse called today to change my dressings. She was actually very nice and friendly, bless her. This is part one of our converstation.

Nurse: "Hi. Ok, just need to run through a few things before we start to change your dressing."
Me: "Ok"
N:"So how long are you a diabetic and how are you finding your sugar [control]?" (reasonable question, because medical people need to know these sorts of things)
M:"Emmm...four years? Yeah, quite good"
N:"Oh four years is it? And how are they giving you insulin" (I began to wonder if she thought I was just diagnosed and I had something *in* me that gave me insulin that she was here to look at)
M:"Through injections, in my stomach like"
N:"Oh, oh, I see. Sub-cut, very good. How long are you doing that?"
M: "Well since...fo-"
N:"-forever, right, ok, yes, forever."
M: "Well...four years"
N:"Oh right. And how do you find that?"
M:"Grand"
N:"And are the sugars managed well?"
M:"Yes, quite well."
N:"And have you always been diabetic?"
M:"No. Just since four years ago"
N:"Oh right, just four years. So are you used to it now? I suppose you are, says you!"
M:"Yeah it's ok"
N:"And how did they find that out? Just by chance?"
N:"Well, I had surgery, and they routinely were checking them and they found out. I was on really high steroids at the time so that caused it"
N:"OHHHHH steroids will do that! And has it gone away now?"
M:"What the diabetes?"
N:"Yes, is it all OK now?"
M:"No. I'm a diabetic"

(begins to to plan fake phonecall!!!)

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. I ate a Crunchie egg. And then I ate another Crunchie egg that someone left up on a shelf in the kitchen. It's generally survivor of the greediest in my house so unless you hide things, they disappear when you leave the room to do anything. I once came into the kitchen looking for microwave popcorn but there was none in the cupboard. I asked my sister was it all gone and she shrugged. I then made a comment about how greedy people in this house were. Then twenty minutes later, I smelled microwave popcorn, so I dropped everything I was doing, dashed back to the kitchen and saw my sister standing beside the microwave. I asked her where she found that bag. She pointed to *another* cupboard, which we *never* use for anything. She moved it a few days earlier so she could save it for herself. So ever since then, I keep a close on the income of food into this house, I'm pretty sure my talents could earn me money as a card counter in Vegas someday! :)

And also, turns out I have a community nurse (never knew that!) who, turns out, is coming tomorrow to change dressings on my arm. I have no idea what time, I'll probably get up early and wait for her to arrive and then pretend I am important and I have somewhere *urgent* to be when/if she arrives. Just to entertain myself really. I might even pretend to take a phone call and be all "Ok, I'll be there as SOON as I can". And hope nobody actually phones me when I'm pretending to be on the phone...*awkward*. Actually I do have work, but it's not that important if I show up or not. And I actually was planning on going to my library to study too. Anyway, I just hope I don't make a twat of myself and faint on her!

Anyway, nothing else new going on. The past week or so I've been on holidays, I have laid out all my books on the dining room table so it looks like I'm studying. Actually, I have discovered Survivor: Heroes vs Villains is on so I've watched every episode to date. And then I spent about two hours watching clips from "The Room" on youtube. Seriously, if you have nothing else to do, watch a trailer for this film. HIGH-larious. "Zis is naaacht ok!"

Plans for easter

I got a new phone. My old phone which had a bad habit of breaking, broke, and so I was entitled to a new phone. It's the Nokia E63 which is like a blackberry but available on pre-pay plans. I feel very pretentious carrying it around; I only wanted a working phone but in my defence all the basic basic models were sold out. Anyway, this thing has wireless Internet on it so it's very useful.

On Tuesday I went to clinic and unfortunately my lung functions had fallen over 8%. I suspected that was the case as I picked up some funny thing in college a couple of weeks ago and had been wheezy since. Having nightmareish veins which may as well be painted on to my arms, they had to put in a PICC line (a bigger line which goes into a large vein and runs toward my heart) for IVs. Administration wise, an appointment is faster dealt with if you're an inpatient, so I went in for "one night" to have the line put in. Except it took them a while to get the vein to put the line in and once they did? I fainted. Passed out. Embarrassing to say the least. Especially when I heard someone shout 'She's fainting!!!' UGH. So that earned me another night. And then yesterday? Same thing happened again. That earned me a heart scan. And another night. To be perfectly honest, I think it's just the pressure of the line or something technical, so nothing seriously wrong. Thankfully my bed was needed today so I got to escape.

My plan for the rest of my holidays include eating, sleeping, drugging, sleeping and studying. Needing IVs is a bum, but it couldn't have come at a better time! The two weeks coincide with my Easter holidays perfectly. Plus I'm just grateful I didn't book last minute to go away anywhere! Phew! The IVs tend to make me really tired so I have plenty of rest and reading time to manage with. Plus it gives me plenty more *geeek* study time too as I have to be up at 7am and stay up until 12am. Yes, *geeek*. It could always be a whole lot worse! And I feel fine apart from the drama.

PS: thanks Sheryl for your msg :)