Ambulance Time Once Again!

On August tenth we had to call an ambulance yet again!
I had been in bed for weeks at that stage nursing a savage pain on the right side of my abdomen. This wasn’t the first time it has happened, and probably wont be the last! It got to a stage where I was trying to manage the pain myself at home, trying to avoid going into hospital, but I had to face facts and call it as it got too bad to manage on our own this time.

The Ambulance arrived promptly and began to tend to me. They were a crew of two, Male and female, and were excellent. Friendly, Professional, funny easing the mood when needed and seemed to take a genuine interest in what both Keith and I had to say and contribute.

Unlike the last few ambulance calls, this visit from them wasn’t rushed. It was calm, sedate and gave us time to properly prepare to go into A&E. While they took their time trying to locate a vein on my foot, Keith ran upstairs to the computer, got ready and printed off an A4 sheet with simple information on it about me and my condition, highlighting the main issues I present with, medication I am on and what would be needed when first admitted like fluids, Pain control and Catheterisation, etc.

The reason for this sheet was because through previous experience we have found to be constantly repeating ourselves while giving out my information to different people and yet only parts of the overall story get heard by all different people and nobody has the full story! This time we  said we would try getting this sheet in as a common denominator of information in my files so that everyone will be literally be on the same page regarding my care and see what happens. It was worth a try at least.

After getting a vein in my foot and administering some morphine for pain relief, we were eventually ready to go to the hospital and the ambulance crew were brilliant with everything as well as taking on the information sheet, which they said they thought it was a fantastic idea and wished more people were that organised!

We quickly made it to the hospital, after getting more Morphine on the Ambulance, I was brought straight into the A&E main area, Thankfully I wasn’t rushed into Resus at any stage this time, it was calm and sedate and a far better visit this time round.

I was delighted to hear back from the Female paramedic that she passed on the sheet Keith had given her, to the triage nurse and that the nurse also commented on what a good idea it was to have all the main things highlighted on one page where everyone can see it. She said she would put it in my file so that all the doctors would see it too. So far so good for our little A4 sheet!

While waiting around for a short while, waiting on the triage nurse to find a place to put me as it was busy in A&E that day, The Paramedics were chatting to me and told me they knew some student and new paramedics who were doing papers based on me for some exam that was due the next week! Morto! I found it funny that they would pick me based on my rare or under diagnosed EDS condition or as I like to call it, ‘my awkwardness!’ :p

I once again had terrible trouble getting veins in me, doctor after nurse after doctor tried and failed and it started getting really sore. The vein the Ambulance crew had gotten was already failing just a few hours after it was put in, my foot swelled up  and they were worried as they really wanted to administer fluids and iv meds so they wanted a vein soon. Throughout the following week while in the hospital, this continued. a vein would be gotten and it would fail almost immediately until in the end the anaesthetics team had to be called and they had no trouble getting a vein and thankfully now a note has been put in my file to say that only anaesthetics are to place a cannula on me and no one else, so hopefully all the prodding and poking will come to an end now.

After spending no more 24hours in A&E this time around, I was admitted to the surgical ward. While in the A&E I had all the usual tests, xrays, scopes, exams, the usual trouble of about 50 different doctors trying to get a vein after a brief moment of being cocky and saying something like, “Oh I’m good at this, don’t you worry”, or,”Oh really? Bad veins, huh? well, I like a challenge!” and then just end up being unsuccessful anyway! That always provides me with a giggle especially towards the cocky ones who think I wont post a problem, cha! Say that to me after 20 mins of trying hopelessly! :p Being admitted after 24hours was quick though, considering that I have often had to wait over 46hours before.

I always like being admitted to the surgical ward. Not only does everything seem to be more up to date and cleaner, but Compared to the medical wards, The mood on the ward is generally brighter both from the staff and the patients. The Nurses seem to genuinely care, are not as dismissive as others I have encountered on the medical wards. They get upset when you get upset, they don’t like to see you in pain or discomfort and as much as they are able, they won’t keep you in pain for long and will treat you asap when they are asked to, a lot of the time, they don’t even need to be asked, they will notice themselves and will get you what you need to help ease your discomfort. Also, the electric beds are well cool! :p

I saw My Surgical team the next morning bright and early and they took the situation serious when they saw I had lost over 3.5 stone with the nausea, vomiting and general pain and discomfort I have been having with my gut issues.

As well  as my pain team to cover my Occipital and Sacroilliac joint Nerve Blocks which were due once again, They called in a dietician, a tissue viability nurse to talk about any difficulties I may be having with the chair, thankfully theres nothing serious going on there but she wanted to refer me to a Dermatologist for a small bit of irritation caused by the chair that was easily sorted with some long term antibiotics (starting with an 8 week course and if it needs to continue after that it could go up to 16 weeks), will just have to wait and see how it works. Then they wanted to get a serious OT assessment for me as my own local OT never properly assessed me for manual chair or a bed, given my situation, these are the two basic things my surgical team wanted to be covered while I was admitted.

The Dietician was concerned for my weight loss compared to my height and prescribed a high fiber, high calorie diet as well as Fortisip Calorie drinks to take twice a day along with my usual daily food intake to help at least maintain my current weight if not try to increase it. Sshe also prescribed a new tummy med to take with the other ones I am on to try and help with the nausea and vomiting as well as to try and increase appetite. So I have now started these and I was thinking of doing quick video reviews of the different drink flavours on offer, if you are interested that is! Let me know and I will do it if you like 🙂

Throughout there was non stop testing to find out what was causing the pain in the right side. Xrays, Ultrasounds, CAT and MRI scans, Scopes, blood tests, you name it, it was done.

In the Ultrasound Room!

One outcome is that they have ruled out any Gallbladder issues. There definitely seems to be Sphincter of Oddi, Severe Gut Dysmotility and Neurogenic Bladder Dysfunction problems, as well as a large and painful Lymph node on the inside of my right hip which is causing a lot of pain too and is currently under investigation, all these are contributing to the pain as well as the Ehlers Danlos Pain itself, but they have ruled out Gallbladder and Appendix issues, which is good!

I had 2 major cardiac events while I was in, though I had been battling low Bp all week, these events were the opposite, they came out of nowhere in the middle of the night, they were raging high bp and very fast heartrate, the ecg showed some abnormalities but thankfully they didn’t stay long (about 2 or 3 hours) and after they administered some medication to lower my bp and hr, I seemed to return to my regular low bp self, they were scary though as the pain in my chest when it happened was frightening and I was soaked through with a tempreture. The nurses seemed concerned as Long story  events came out of nowhere. Thankfully though after a few hours I returned to normal and could get some sleep.

Long story short, I got to see everyone that was called for me except OT. The final team was the pain team with the good professor who loves to give injections and this time was no different! He administered my usual Occipital and Sacroiliac joint nerve blocks under ultrasound which he did at my ward bed, he had a little portable ultrasound machine or at least that’s what it looked like and he went for it there and then. The pain team in conjunction with the anestetic team said that I may have chronic piritonitis ( information or even tearing of the abdominal lining that holds your organs) this is still being investigated and will continue as an outpatient appointment along with all the other teams I had to meet while I was in.

The surgical team try everything they can and they are so good to want to learn but they still are not sure exactly what is causing the severe pain and weight loss. I had mentioned to them about a Gastroenterologist specialist in Cork university hospital who is very well up on EDS and speaks regularly as well as trained under Prof Aziz over in London whom I hope to see as soon as i am able to travel. They said go to see him, just to see if he can help and my surgical team said they would be delighted to consult with both him and Aziz going forward as they are of the mind that more on the overall team to help me then the better!

In the meantime my team wanted to bring my case up at an EGM (emergency general meeting) where the head consultants and specialists of a department get together and discus special cases at a count table meeting so that other people’s views and suggestions can be taken on board, then once they have news they  will call me for a new outpatient appointment or send me for further tests if required.

 Unfortunately the OT never turned up and there were questions as to wether she would turn up anyway as she usually only sees Stroke and Neurology patients so my surgical team along with the head nurse on the ward rang her boss as well as had to write a letter in order to argue the case as to why they felt I was a special enough case for her to make an exception and come and see me, alas I was left waiting all over the weekend just to see her and she never turned up so my team decided to send me home at this stage with some new meds and a ton of outpatient appointments and they would follow up with her to get me a much needed appointment as my local OT isn’t really doing what she is supposed to do. 

In the meantime I have made a new appointment to see that Gastro specialist in Cork, his name is Akbar and I have heard great things so I really hope he can help. That appointment is on the 20th of this month (September) and of course I’ll fill you in on how that and any subsequent appointments go.

For now, I’ll just chill and try to recover 🙂

Thank you as always for taking the time to read.

Lette ( the fainting goat!)

The Blog Awards Ireland 2016 – Nominations Now Open

Hi all,

I am delighted to say that Irish Dysautonomia Awareness has been entered into this years “Health & Well Being” – Personal Blog – Category in the blog awards nominations and hopefully will make the long list at least, that’s where it got last year so to make that again would be really nice! 🙂

If YOU would (Please) like to Nominate this blog Please click HERE (Give it a minute to load, it can be slow!) or click the image below and follow the instructions. I would greatly appreciate your input, THANK YOU! You need to register with the site but you can do so quickly and easily  by signing in with your Facebook and you can control what information you give them.

Please enter The Title of the blog: Irish Dysautonomia Awareness,
Also pop in the URL of this Blog which is: https://irishdysautonomia.wordpress.com
also please be sure to enter it into the ‘Health & Well Being’ – Personal Blog – Category.
Thank you ever so much!

Please click here and enter the info to Nominate this blog! – THANK YOU!

This year there is also an entry to nominate your favorite Blog Post from the blog here. In the last number of months the post that has raised most interest seems to be this one:
‘The Good, The Bad & The Emergency – Part 1’

I would also greatly appreciate if you have the time, to maybe nominate that blog post Please and thank you most kindly! as far as I can figure, there’s no harm in trying! 🙂

It is the same process as the first, please click Here:
Hit ‘Nominate a Blog’ – Enter the ‘Blog Post’ Title as: The Good, The Bad & The Emergency – Part 1

The Blog Post link is : https://irishdysautonomia.wordpress.com/2016/04/05/the-good-the-bad-and-the-emergency-part-1/

The Category is ‘Best Blog Post’ – Personal Blog

Please Click Here and Enter ‘Blog Post’ Details (As I have laid out above) for Nomination – Thank You

Thank you so very much for you time in doing this each and every year, I may be back to you for more support if we make it to the ‘public vote’ part but even if it doesn’t get anywhere, a few more people will view the blog as a result of just entering and further our much needed awareness, even just a teeny bit.

Thank you once again,

Lette – Fainting Goat!

This time I ended up in the ICU!

It has been a crazy month, to say the least! A lot has happened, so this is going to be a long one, bear with me, I do these posts to refresh my own memory of everything that goes on too. There is a ‘too long didnt read” at the bottom of this for those of you who don’t want the nitty gritty, This post will include pictures and a short video clip of one of my seizures, so lets go…

Just after I woke up in resus!!

Once again, on the 15th of July, I ended up having a Nurocardiogenic syncope at home followed by a prolonged seizure that required me to be sedated, intubated and rushed to Accident and Emergency via ambulance.

I was in resus until my breathing and everything was stable enough for me to be admitted, where then I waited on a trolly in A&E for 34 hours before being given a bed on a ward. 36 hours is the cut off point where a patient HAS to be given a bed, where I presume legal action can be pursued after this point, I don’t know to be honest.

After being admitted into the ER, waiting for a ward bed.

It was 3am in the morning, I had been waiting around drunkards and violent drugged up assholes who had nothing better to be doing than shouting abuse and pulling off their bloody bandages where I could see where they had split their own heads open by falling backwards onto a kerb, probably falling only over their own feet or after starting some fight over something trivial. Either way I was finally given a bed on a ward, in a single room for the night where I really needed to catch up on some much needed sleep!

My medical chart is HUGE!!

very sexy!

This kinda hurt, in fairness!

This? not so much!

Trying to keep the bright side out!

The following morning I was moved into a 4 bed ward nextdoor where it was quiet, lovely and peaceful, unlike the usual geriatric ward I normally end up on when I go into hospital. Here I caught up on sleep got a little better over a few days, then had another few seizures. Everytime I got medicated for the seizures they seemed to get worse, to the point where one day I had a seizure that made me end up in the HDU (High Dependency Unit)

 

Epileptic Seizures are usually treated with drugs called Benzodiazepine’s or Benzos for short. Given in high doses they can cause respiratory depression and can stop breathing to a point where you may need to be ventilated. This happened to me and that’s why I ended up in the HDU so that I could be watched closely by nurses more ready and able to treat me faster than those on the ward. I was only there for a few days until a bed became available on another ward. The geriatric ward I hated so much!

So, down I went, into the geriatric ward. I was so out of my mind on all sorts of sedative drugs, I don’t know how long I was on that ward before I had another seizure, this time a really serious one. Luckily as it happened, the head Neurologist happened to be in the ward at the time speaking with another patient so he came over and saw the whole thing happen. Over the course of 2 hours and 40 minutes I continued to seize and as usual they treated me with a huge amount of Benzos to try and stop it, but as usual, I seemed to resist, things became worse and I had to have my airway ventilated to the point where they decided to move me to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) as the seizure was so severe and I wasn’t coming around from it and they thought I may need to be ventilated for a further period of time or may need to be given even more serious drugs to help me wake up.

My Husband had been called in as this had obviously gotten serious, he had been called in a few times at this point because of prolonged seizures but even he was surprised to hear about me going to ICU. Keith has been amazingly supportive throughout and is always by my side for everything, I can never thank him enough for his love and support. He called my mum and they both rushed in to be with me.

Thankfully though, I did eventually come around on my own, stoned and confused, I thought I had woken on the Starship Enterprise or something, ICU, I have to say, from a Techy point of view, looked totally cool!!

I hadn’t a clue where I was, I tried to lift my head to get a better view of my surroundings but the room spun, all I could see was, there was glass everywhere, amazing looking machines and monitors, all connected to the ceiling, giant robotic looking arms and tables with instruments beeping and clicking, where the hell was I? I almost immediately fell back into a sleep of utter stupor from the drugs they had filled me with until I heard a ladies voice…

“Hey you, welcome back to us, we got worried about you there for a while… You are in the ICU, my name is Dr. …”

The ICU?!! being told that even in a drugged up state was quite a bit to take in, she explained what had happened and that they were going to keep me there until they were confident that I was safe enough to be returned to the HDU (High Dependency Unit)

Keith and mum arrived in and it was nice to be awake for them, even if I was still stoned out of my noggin, I slowly came around properly and thankfully there was nothing cognitively impaired from what we could all tell. My heart rate dropped so low at times it set the monitors off a few times but my stats got eventually better, I was allowed to eat a little and have a wash before being returned to the HDU.

In the HDU, I didn’t recover very quickly, I was feeling terrible, slept a lot and refused to eat for a few days as I was so nauseous which in turn made my symptoms worse, my blood sugar dropped very low to the point where my nurse begged me to eat and drink something. I tried and things slowly improved.

While in the HDU I had to endure feeling sad about having to miss the benefit gig, but I got a massive surprise one day when Keith arrived into me at visiting hours and said, “Someone is here to see you” … when they popped their head around the curtain it took me a minute to register as it was such a surprise, a dear friend came to visit me, all the way from America, just for one night to be at the benefit gig, she is a pilot so she has the freedom to jump a plane where she can and hitch a ride wherever, I couldn’t believe it, we embraced eachother, it was so cool, what an incredible gesture, one I don’t even know where to begin on how to thank her!!

I was in the HDU for 5 days and because the Neurologist on the ward originally saw the bad seizure, he fast tracked a bed for me in Beaumont Hospitals, EMU (Epilepsy Monitoring Unit) in Dublin, for an investigative Video EEG to find out are these seizures Epileptic with electrical activity in the brain or not and caused by something else.

I was transferred to Beaumont via ambulance where I stayed for 3 days under constant monitoring, 2 cameras, a ton of electrodes glued to my head and 2 seizures later I was seen by their Neurologist.

The seizures showed no sign of electrical activity in the brain at all so I was delighted to hear that he was confident enough to say I didn’t have Epilepsy, excellent, so, what was causing my seizures?

He said it was one of 3 things, 1 or 3 being the most likely:

1: They could be a symptom of the POTS or EDS, like Dysautonomic Seizures, but as that was not his field, he was unqualified to say and it would be best to speak to Prof. Grahame, whom I will be meeting in 10 days time in London.

2: It was purely psychological, which he wasn’t willing to believe as the seizures were very real and I was most certainly unresponsive with erratic stats during those episodes and have no evidence of past traumas or psychological problems.

3: Which he said was the most likely cause, was that the first seizure I had back in May that started all this may have been a complete once off and that the drugs and Benzos they treated me with and prescribed me with actually exacerbated all my symptoms, didn’t suit me at all and made everything far worse, so he was immediately going to cease all antiepileptics I was on. Which was outstanding news because since May all I have been doing on the new drugs was sleeping and not progressing at all.

Once that was settled, he wrote up his observations for my team of Limerick doctors and on the 3rd day I was returned back down to Limerick via ambulance and was put back into the geriatric ward where it was quite literally like a crazy house in comparison to Beaumont where everything seemed to run so smoothly by comparison!

A night goes by on the ward, old people moaning, crying out, the smell of poop and vomit… I needed out and fast, but I did notice one thing. Other than tremoring a little from coming down off the amount of Benzos they gave me, I hadn’t had a single seizure since they took me off the antiepileptics!! That was 3 days seizure free! I was feeling a little brighter and not a sniff of a seizure type headache, I was delighted and as it was the Friday prior to the long August weekend, I felt I didn’t need to be sitting, wasting a bed on the ward until the following Tuesday and I was eager to get home to Keith and the pup, it had been nearly 3 weeks in at this stage.

My medical team came to see me, asked me about how Dublin went, go through my charts, recognize that I am to be removed completely from all antiepileptics and if I am to have another seizure I am not to be given Benzos as they simply make matters worse. They will monitor my progress off the drugs until they see me next time and see how I do.

As part of their diagnostics and to rule absolutely everything out they want me to speak to a Neuropsych anyway just cover all angles, which I have no problem doing, we are all pretty confident I am sound, it is just another diagnostic. They completely recognize the fact that it could have been a once off dysautonomic seizure that was treated with medication that didn’t suit me.

Considering I have been out of hospital 15 days now and not a single seizure in sight, I am pretty delighted that is most likely the case. I am brighter, healthier, need less naps and have less symptoms in general since coming off the antiepileptics, that in itself is a wonderful outcome.

All that is left to do now is meet Prof. Grahame in 10 days time in London and hopefully he may be able to shed even more light on my prognosis.

Too Long Didn’t Read?
Had severe seizures, ended up back in hospital, longest seizure 2 hours 40mins which landed me in the ICU, was transferred to Dublin for tests which confirmed I didn’t have Epilepsy, turns out the first seizure may have been a once off dysautonomic seizure and it was the antiepileptic drugs they had me on that made matters worse, off them now and not a seizure since, WOO!!! 10 days till my trip to London to see Prof. Rodney Grahame.

This time in Hospital, Seizures!

It was Friday morning and all through the house, not a creature was stirring… except for my husband, Keith and my sister, Jessica frantically calling out my name trying to wake me out of a syncope that had just happened after I got onto the floor to play with our pup Boo who now found herself up on my chest trying to worriedly figure out what the hell was happening to her mom.

There is a video, but I wont traumatise you… unless you want to that is, if so, let me know and I will share the video of my husband giving me rescue breaths while I fail to breath while out cold. It’s not a pretty site, I assure you.

I hadn’t come too, Keith called an ambulance and continued to give me rescue breaths for a further 17 minutes until they arrived.

All hell broke loose on the landing of the stairs while they proded and poked me with IV lines, Blood Pressure monitors, temperature readings and heart rate monitors and as I wasn’t breathing very well they decided to intubate me into my nose which immediately sent me into a full blown seizure, just to add to the mix for good measure!

This is what I am told of the day, as of the moment I passed out on the landing while petting Boo, I don’t recall a single sausage!

I was rushed to hospital in a state of Status Epilepticus while they tried to stabilise me and filled me full of every sedative probably known to man while I promptly and apparently completely ignored them and kept up the shake and vac, just to spite them!

Keith bagged up everything I needed, along with Jessica and Boo into the car, dropped them at my parents house and rushed into the hospital to be with me where I was in re-suss continuing to seize, even while doped up to the eyeballs and completely out of it.

A CT and full set of bloods was ordered and subsequently came back clear, yet I was still seizing and in and out of consciousness and while conscious, I apparantly kept looking around myself in utter awe and repeatedly asked, “Where is this place?!”… What an idiot, LOL! but in my own defense I was completely wrecked at the time and on all manner of wonderful drugs!

I was in the hospital for roughly 13hours before I started to make any manner of mental sense. This had them worried in that all day I was acting completely confused and not at all myself. They hadn’t been sure up to this point whether it was the drugs or if I had very seriously suffered some sort of oxygen deprivation to the brain.

Eventually I started to come round, still a little confused but as Keith explained everything that had happened, it was like all emotion suddenly connected with his words and I started to cry, a little in confusion and a little in the guilt I felt in all the bother I had caused everyone, especially Keith and my family. A completely irrational feeling but I couldn’t help it.

They admitted me and Keith decided to head home for a rest. The next day, Saturday, I don’t remember much of either as I mostly slept and puked and had a few more seizures, just to keep them on their toes!

Sunday is the first day I truly remember and I felt absolutely dreadful. My muscles were stiff and sore from seizing and I kept getting ill because of all the medication in my system and I had one hell of a headache and very low blood pressure.

I was in hospital after this for 2 weeks where I recieved just one more diagnostic test in all that time, an EEG. They were testing me for Epilepsy.

The EEG came back clear also but the Neurologist (now my newest addition to my team of doctors) informed me that he had seen people with epilepsy going through years of EEG’s before being able to catch the electrical activity in the brain so that they were going to start treating me for it anyway, and would continue testing as an outpatient, as I was continuing to have seizures and signs of the condition, like waking up with bites on the inside of my cheek and blood on my pillow. He said I had all the hallmark signs of it and so he started me on the new drug Keppra and sent me home on exactly the 14th day of my stay in hospital. I was delighted to be going home.

He told me to prepare for tiredness but boy, that was an understatement! The addition of this drug to the rest of my medications make my total daily tablet intake number 22 and has completely knocked me for six. The quality of my life is currently down due to the amount I need to rest and how ill I feel, especially after a seizure but hopefully once I get used to the new med in my system, I will be back on the right direction again.

The Keppra seems to be working also, any seizures I have had since coming home have been very mild and nowhere near as intense as they had been while I was in the hospital which is surely a good thing.

So now as well as Dysautonomia, Pots and EDS, I am now being treated for Epilepsy too.

I tell you one thing, I have an extreme new found respect for anyone who has lifelong Epilepsy, seizures really knock the crap out of you!

So where I stand am, now is that I have a lot of tests left to do, as an outpatient. Why they couldn’t do these as an inpatient ever yet boggles the mind, but there you have it. My hormones are so out of whack I may infact have a pituitary gland adenoma but no MRI was requested… this will be done as an out patient, if needed.

I have to have more EEG’s done as well as some Video EEG’s but they dont do them in Limerick, instead I will have to wait to be called to Cork or Galway, again as an outpatient.
Bloods, as an outpatient,

Urine, as an outpatient,

Life, The Universe, Everything, Outpatient!

Deboned, grated and put on a pizza, Outpatient!

Le sigh… but at least I am home and on the mend.

Also, because of these ongoing delays in my treatment (and in some cases the complete lack thereof) I have decided to set up a medical fund to help me get to London to Prof. Rodney Grahame and Prof. Mathias’ clinic who are specialists in Dysautonomia and it’s related conditions.

The treatment fund has been going amazingly well and the support has been amazing, I cant thank everyone enough for their contributions so far, once I reach the €5000 mark, I should be able to make my first trip over to get the ball in motion with my treatment.

That is all the news I have for now, I just wanted to update all that had happened while I was in hospital and there you have it! Hope you are all well 🙂 🙂 – The Fainting Goat 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Back In Hospital, Yet Again!

Hey all,

just to let you know things are going slow on the blog and the related forums at the moment as I was rushed to hospital on Friday, with severe seizures.

I won’t fill you in on the finer details just yet but, I will do a full post about it when I am out of here! 🙂

I am currently having neurological assessments and will know more soon, in the meantime bear with me and as soon as I’m near a computer, I’ll spill all!

Lets just say, I have a completely new found, ultimate respect for people who have Epileptic or related seizures, I never realised just how rough they can be on the ould body, but sure, we will keep fighting!

updates soon, Fainting Goat 🙂