Sunday, December 19, 2004

5 more nights in hospital, all ahead slow

Whisked to Parkside last Monday. My weight was 63 kilos and I was seriously dehydrated. I spent five days being rehydrated and fed via tube into my stomach nad got back home yesterday.
Back home now with the pump machine and still have the tube in mystomach, which goes in through my nose so is not too attractive. I hook up to the machine for about 15 hours a day to receive all the nutrition I need.

I went to Parkside as there was no room at the Marsden. The hospital was OK however no-one new why I was there. The nutritionist only knew on the fourth day of my stay I was recivering from RT. There was a Dr Stone there who was very good at pain control. I am now on 90Mg morphine patches that I change every three days as a baseline, and then take oramorph 10mg per 5 m/l as and when required. Also, diclofenic at night.

It is good to be home however daunting. Everyone here is dispirited about the slow recovery as we move into the festive season. The pump I have been given is not portable so once I am connected it is very awkward to move around. It should be replaced this week with a portable model.

There is a regional nurse support service who is supposed to visit everyday (from the GP office). The first visit was due yesterday between 2 and 4, but of course, no-one turned up and no-one called.

No surprise, it is typical of the broken communication lines and lack of respect for the patient I keep experiencing regarding my care. There is more interest in my disease than in me.

Can you believe the Royal Marsden has a speech recognition system on their phones? (you cannot use numbers to navigate). On Monday I spent about 45 minutes in agony trying to get the system to understand my painfully articulated requests. I wonder how other patients cope who can no longer speak at all - what a mindless, selfish ignorant purchasing decision.

I am also angry that I was only hospitalised when I said I needed to be, only to be told I was dangerously dehydrated in hospital, 63kilos and why wasn't anything done sooner - what is my care team at the Marsden for then ?

I have no idea when I will be able to eat.