Cath Ellis

Last night because ‘mean nurse’ had been so loud I hardly got any sleep, so I was awake from about 6am waiting for the Doctor to come round and tell me I could go.

Ruth dropped in on her way home from work and finally the Doctor came by to tell me all was good and they were happy for me to go home.

I waited until about 2pm for my meds and then a friend came to collect me to take me home.

I dropped by work to give them my medical certificate and then headed home to relax. Kim came over later in the evening and we watched movies…was like the good old Doha days

My nurse this morning was Richard, the same guy who took care of me the last time when I was in Emergency. It was really good to see a familiar face and we had a great chat, he also made me feel a lot better assuring me I wasn’t wasting anyones time. I was feeling bad because nothing had come up in my blood work but I did feel better that I had everything checked out.

I was moved back up to the Cardiac ward and had really great nurses, Ruth & Nathan who spent lots of time talking to me and answering my questions.

Janey dropped by to see me, which was great…she just got engaged.

My nurse during the night obviously was having a very bad night…she was a nightmare!

I had a restless night last night, feeling a discomfort in my arm again. I had a few phone calls which got me up and I called the Alfred to ask for advice on how to control the feelings I was having.

They asked me if I still had the same discomfort, which I did and told me to call an Ambulance to bring me down.

I really felt embarrased calling it, but they assured me I did the right thing and they took me straight through to Emergency.

I had a guy called Peter looking after me, they did tests and the Doctor told me all the tests were negative but they would continue to monitor me. He said he wasn’t surprised to see me again as I was unsure the last time I left of how I felt.

Ruth, Lou & Brydie came to visit me, I was moved to the short stay unit and then Dawn dropped by.

I actually had a really good rest.

My nurse Sarah let me sleep quite late this morning, which was very nice. I must be getting used to the sound of the Ukranian lady coughing up a lung.

Since I had no IV anymore I was able to just potter around and get myself ready to be showered. I worked out Sarah is the only nurse who knows where the shampoo is…she probably has a secret stash for her patients.

When the Doctor came round he asked me how I felt and if I would like to stay another day or if I wanted to go. As much as I felt nervous about not having people around me all the time I knew if I put it off I would feel more scared in the long run.

The Doctors answered all my questions and while I was waiting for my medications to be put together I hung out with Brydie who came in like clockwork, giving me all her updates.

Ruth came down for her lunch and I spent a while going over my medicines with the pharmacist (if you shake me, I may rattle).

When I was done I was ready to leave and I had this overwhelmed feeling come over me, all I could do was get upset. Lou was there and Sarah had lots of kind words to say (with the Ukranian woman coughing up her last lung which made us all to laugh…I think she always has the last word…or cough in her case). I told her that sound was going to be my new ringtone. We grabbed my stuff, I thanked everyone and Lou took me home.

It was a wierd but great feeling to be going home.

I slept forever today, it was great. I was given my meds and marching orders back to my room to see the Doctor. There were a lot more today, probably as it wasn’t a public holiday and they told me they were going to have me do a stress test and also a Echocardiography which is an ultrasound of the heart. This way they could see if the medicine was working.

I had numerous visitors come in and see me before the tests and then my nurse Claire got me ready to go for the stress test. They put me on an exercise bike and got me to get hy heart rate up. I was on a ECG machine and when it hit it’s highest they injected me with Thallium.

Thallium is taken up by the muscle cells and is recorded by a special scanning devise. Areas of the heart not receiving sufficient oxygen show up as ‘cold spots’ due to the limited uptake of thallium by the heart muscle cells.

I went from that test immediately to my Echo, which is a test that provides images of the moving heart, valves and blood flow inside the heart by ultrasound. The guy who was doing this test was called Mark and he was amazing, showing me what all the pictures meant and taking lots of time to show me how valves open and close etc, totally amazing what these people do, he said that reading the ultrasound was about as normal to him as looking outside a window.

Again, I went from this test back to the room where I had the stress test, where this time I was just injected with the Thallium and scanned, without any excercise. Apparently these tests pretty much induce a heart attack. A patient who came in later in my room was telling me all about his heart history, he seemed like he had been through a lot and was dreading the tests, but I found them easy.

I had more visitors, spent a bit of time by myself, asked my nurse Lucie lots of quiestions and then before I went to bed I got to talk to one of the Doctor’s I met on the first day called Roxanna who said she had been thinking about me all Christmas and was just so shocked seeing such a young woman. She answered lots of questions for me and gave me advice on what I should do if anything else happened in the future. It really made me feel much better.

I had another bad night’s sleep. I actually don’t feel like I have anything wrong with me compared to the other people in my ward.

The woman next to me snores (that is the only fault I can find with her), the woman on the other side of the room to me is Ukranian and seems to get herself told off every other minute and the poor guy opposite me can’t even remember what day it is, so he is causing himself a ton of trouble.

Again, I had tons of visitors making me feel very special, bringing in lovely gifts and making me smile. My nurses Nicole, Lucie and Kate were just brilliant. My IV was taken out in the afternoon, so I was dissapearing into the patients lounge with my friends so we wouldn’t be so loud.

The nurse who was looking after me overnight, Kate, moved me to another room on my own as mine was pretty noisy (they were having dramas with a patient) so that was great

I slept pretty badly, so waking up on Christmas morning so tired was pretty grim.

It wasn’t so bad though, I had loads of visitors, delicious hot pot, phone calls, gifts and all day my nurses Sarah, Lucie & Kate kept my spirits high.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5gxPHZrbOM]

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Today felt like doomsday…the day I would have to find out what the fuck was happening to me and the day I would have to tell my parents I had had a heart attack. It was just a mess. The first person I saw was Ruth, who was starting work early, I was given meds and I waited to see the Doctors. My nurse Lucie was amazing, taking so much time to make me feel comfortable and answer my questions.

The Doctors came round, again shocked to see someone so young but told me they would do an Angiogram to see what was going on and asked me general questions to get an understanding why this would have happened.

They prepped me and took me along to the department for the procedure, everyone was very friendly. They have all been really careful with needles and I didn’t feel any discomfort. I was expecting it to be very uncomfortable. They showed me all of the screens and explained where the blockage was but explained they didn’t need to do any further procedures and that medication should do what they need.

The girl who looked after me called Anna was brilliant, and once she had clamped me for the time required, I went back down to the ward.  My Nurse Nicole kept my spirits high all evening and friends came through none stop making me indeed feel very special, bringing gifts and kept me smiling all day long.

Late Evening I called home to let them know what had happened but that I was feeling ok and would be on the mend soon. They were of course a mess but I think felt comfortable knowing I wasn’t alone.

I wolk up this morning feeling like a train wreck. I had to ride my bike to the Espy to collect my car, then go home, shower and go to work.

On the way into work I dropped into the chemist to get something as I still had really bad indigestion and my arm was feeling very heavy, like I had slept on it wrong. The chemist started working me up a little saying those symptoms were a bad combination so by the time I got into work I was a bit of a wreck.

Once all the staff were in and sessions had been started I called a girl I work with to see if she could come in early so I could go and see a doctor, I felt something was very wrong and I was very uncomfortable, as the medication I got from the chemist hadn’t worked. I was texting Lou back and forth, she was feeling rough too and I told her about how I felt.

I took things quite easy and when Sarah came in I went to see a doctor…feeling a little silly, but I wanted it checked out as the indigestion has been a problem for months. He took me seriously, did a Electrocardiogram (ECG) then some bloods, reviewed everything and told me he would get back to me with my blood tests.

When I left I crashed in front of the TV and was wolken up by the Doctor’s office telling me they got the results of my blood work and they wanted me to go to the Hospital to have things checked out. Lou came and got me straight away and we dropped by the Doctor’s office to get a paper with my results and she drove me to the Alfred.

When I walked in I saw a huge room full of people waiting at A&E, the woman at the counter was quite shocked with what she read from my results and called someone immediately saying that I had walked in and was in no pain. They admitted me immediately, did another ECG, took more blood, put me on a drip, gave me tablets and the doctor told me I had had a little heart attack. Little did I know that Lou knew this already, she had called a friend who had told her what the results meant and she had kept me so calm all this time.

At first I laughed at the Doctor, then I cried, but the nurses and everyone were excellent and keeping me informed and telling me what was happening. Ruth came down to see me, Lou went off to work and Brydie came down just before I was taken to my ward.

All night I was monitored by a sweet guy called Mick, I was scared but felt very safe.