Today I hung out with my beloved in the Stroke Ward of Addenbrooks Hospital.
He was admitted by ambulance yesterday with lack of balance, visual disturbances,tingling down his left hand side which then lost feeling and dizziness. He had been experiencing that for a few days. Of course we all feared a stroke or even a series TIA's. (A transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a brief episode of neurological dysfunction caused by loss of blood flow (ischemia) in the brain, spinal cord, or retina, without tissue death (infarction). TIAs have the same underlying mechanism as ischemic strokes.)
The staff at Addenbrookes were unfailingly kind and courteous. The two other men in his ward were old and not very responsive. It reminded us both of my father in law's time in such a ward, hit by vascular dementia and eventually bumped off by pneumonia and possibly the Stepping Hill murderer. That was a difficult time. My dear husband looked slightly embarassed to be there but was unfailingly polite and courteous to all the staff, remembering each one by name whilst delivering small discourses on imaging and brain problems.
They gave him CT scans, MRI scans, X rays, blood tests, scans on his brain, his spine, his neck, and we were all flummoxed. As Bill is a mathematician who works on imaging, all these scans were like gifts to be examined and discussed and critiqued. We even found a notice pointing to a scan we didn't know about, a DEXA scan which stands for dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Ooooo, fascinating. It is used to scan bones so we had to pass on that one. Shame - it looked fun.
USA friends on Facebook commented that 24 hrs of intense investigation in A and E and consultant appointments would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the US. We proudly pointed out that our wonderful NHS is free at the point of entry.
The only things we had to pay for was some vegan food as the hospital menu didn't have a vegan box to tick. Fortunately there was a food court in the depths of the hospital and I stocked up with healthy treats and I resisted buying Bill a cuddly toy with large eyes and a cute friendly expression.
After dishing out £16 for vegan food, Bill was discharged with lots of rather nasty things ruled out: no stroke, no blocks or brain shadows or visible vascular problems, no TIA's. Maybe a strange sort of migraine?
Bill is still having symptoms. We ate in Churchill College tonight, too tired to cook for ourselves and rather astonished that the Tories haven't managed to charge us anything for our healthcare - yet.
He was admitted by ambulance yesterday with lack of balance, visual disturbances,tingling down his left hand side which then lost feeling and dizziness. He had been experiencing that for a few days. Of course we all feared a stroke or even a series TIA's. (A transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a brief episode of neurological dysfunction caused by loss of blood flow (ischemia) in the brain, spinal cord, or retina, without tissue death (infarction). TIAs have the same underlying mechanism as ischemic strokes.)
The staff at Addenbrookes were unfailingly kind and courteous. The two other men in his ward were old and not very responsive. It reminded us both of my father in law's time in such a ward, hit by vascular dementia and eventually bumped off by pneumonia and possibly the Stepping Hill murderer. That was a difficult time. My dear husband looked slightly embarassed to be there but was unfailingly polite and courteous to all the staff, remembering each one by name whilst delivering small discourses on imaging and brain problems.
They gave him CT scans, MRI scans, X rays, blood tests, scans on his brain, his spine, his neck, and we were all flummoxed. As Bill is a mathematician who works on imaging, all these scans were like gifts to be examined and discussed and critiqued. We even found a notice pointing to a scan we didn't know about, a DEXA scan which stands for dual energy x-ray absorptiometry. Ooooo, fascinating. It is used to scan bones so we had to pass on that one. Shame - it looked fun.
USA friends on Facebook commented that 24 hrs of intense investigation in A and E and consultant appointments would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the US. We proudly pointed out that our wonderful NHS is free at the point of entry.
The only things we had to pay for was some vegan food as the hospital menu didn't have a vegan box to tick. Fortunately there was a food court in the depths of the hospital and I stocked up with healthy treats and I resisted buying Bill a cuddly toy with large eyes and a cute friendly expression.
After dishing out £16 for vegan food, Bill was discharged with lots of rather nasty things ruled out: no stroke, no blocks or brain shadows or visible vascular problems, no TIA's. Maybe a strange sort of migraine?
Bill is still having symptoms. We ate in Churchill College tonight, too tired to cook for ourselves and rather astonished that the Tories haven't managed to charge us anything for our healthcare - yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment