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!

The HSE are Gone to the Dogs!

It’s such an Irish-ism but honestly, If my pup gets sick or hurt, I can choose to take her to any number of vets for prompt and reliable care. Think your dog can take their human to any hospital to get reliable treatment and care if they happen to get sick or hurt? Hell no!

I am sick of the HSE (Health Service Executive, for my non Irish readers) I am sick of their wasting of money, wasting of patients time, Their complete lack of communication within its departments and a complete lack of overall proper treatment for the, mostly public patients of Ireland. Private patients have their fair share of stories to tell too, I am sure, but as I am going through the public system, I will speak only from my own experiences.

This morning a letter arrived in the post. I opened it, only to find 2 shiny new medical cards, one for himself, one for me, valid for how long? …2 months!
WE ALREADY HAVE CARDS which are valid until Jan 2014! why are they printing and sending these out to us? I know this may be trivial but that is an utter waste of money, printing the cards, and sending them to people who have no need of new ones because we already have them! Especially when there are people out there who also deserve them and cant get them or those who have them, need them and are having them removed for no apparent reason!

You can read such stories, all published within the last few months, here;

Mum ‘incensed’ as medical card taken off Down Syndrome child

Hospital vigil held in protest at removal of medical cards

Chronically ill girl has medical card taken from her

HSE denies medical card cull

it is maddening!

The day before yesterday, The hubby recieved a letter from the HSE stating that he had been on a Vascular waiting list for so long at this stage that they wanted to know if he still wanted an appointment. He was never and has no need of ever being put on a vascular waiting list, what is this?!

About 2 months ago I recieved the same, stating that I had been on a Urology waiting list, again, I hadnt been, so why are these being sent out when people are waiting for genuine appointments and they are sending letters for phantom appointments that were never made?!

These are only tiny things. From my own experience, and from what I hear from others in the same situation, The HSE has broken down as a whole!

Yes there are success stories within the system, but it’s the minority that rarely get heard and treatment in this country for certain conditions, including most aspects of Dysautonomia, are simply non existant.

For example when I was in hospital, more than once, have I come up against a ‘so called’ specialist or Rheumatologist that said, “You dont have EDS, you have Hypermobility syndrome”

…?

I have said it before and I will say it again, that is like saying, “I am sorry, you dont have cancer, but, I am afraid you have… Cancer!”

IT’S THE SAME THING, MORON, with just a few risky extras, which I just happen to have! do some up to date research and stop living in the past!

In my opinion, and I doubt that I am far wrong, the only reason they argue or say this is simply, that if they admit to a condition, within the public service, which was diagnosed originally by a private specialist, then they, by law, have to provide public service care for that condition under the health system. There is no proper treatment available here for EDS, so you know, go figure…!

There are no specialists in Ireland who are qualified to deal with EDS or Dysautonomia. As patients we are palmed off on the cardiologist/geriatricians for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome because they cover some aspects of the condition, but certainly not all.

You are given over to the Rheumatologist/musculoskeletal specialists for EDS, because again, they know so much but not all about the condition.

By right, we should have a team of different specialists to cover our broad condition which would include: Rheumatologists, Neurologists, Cardiologists, Vascular specialists, Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, Pain management, Gastroenterologists and nutritionists, just to name but a small few, to cover every aspect of the condition intensively so that it can be properly managed.

That just does not happen here in Ireland.

If you require treatment like this, you have to pursue every medical angle separately, either privately yourself or through the HSE publicly, which takes years and there is very little, if any, communication within these departments, so that, files, information, xrays, appointments, you name it, either go missing or are never passed on to where they need to go.

It is frustrating, upsetting and makes our healing process go backwards, because, we get diagnosed, then do not get the immediate follow up treatment we need to progress in the right direction, instead you get ‘looked after’ over a very long period of time making your condition get worse while you wait!

The nearest Autonomic specialist is in London, his name is Dr. Rodney Grahame and he is known world wide for his contributions to research and development in this area. He is currently training a specialist to come over to Ireland to provide proper treatment over here, but it could take up to two years or more for that to be ready.

Getting to london without your own money for an appointment is impossible though unless some sort of fundraising is done. Either that or you can apply to the HSE Travel Abroad Scheme, which the majority of people get refused even though you may be perfectly entitled to it.

One irish patient with EDS, Jamie O’Brien had approval for his Travel Abroad application, went about making all of the necessary arrangements and just 3 days prior to leaving to go to England, the HSE retracted the approval. Meaning he couldn’t get the treatment he needed. You can read Jamies story here.

This has happened so many times, here is Aimee Foley’s Story and Sarah’s story Here. There are many, many more.

This has to stop. The time wasting, the money wasting, the lack of care, compassion or proper treatment. The lack of education of certain conditions within the HSE, the lack of communication or any organisation.

The health system is a disgrace and it’s time to fight.

Thankfully, there are a few very strong people within this little community of ours who are willing to make a difference and to fight for change. The EDS Awareness Ireland group have a few admin and members who have already spoken to those in The Irish Patience Association, Meeting up and pushing the issue with their own local TD’s, Writing letters direct to the current health minister and direct to media. There have been quite a few interviews on Irish TV and stories in the papers. Medical cards and a Rare Disease plan are now being considered for those with EDS, where it wasnt before. Changes are slowly but surely beginning to happen but still a little too slow.

We will keep pushing and fighting, it is all we can do for now! 🙂

New Wheels for Wonky Joints!

A little update for you.

This morning I had an early appointment to go visit my GP. My walking and pain have gotten worse, well the pain and discomfort has, the walking hasn’t really been there for a couple of weeks now anyway so, I have been trying to figure out what to do as I have been waiting for nearly 3 years now for a public Rheumatologist appointment in the Limerick Regional. I have been making lots of phone calls to see where I am in the ‘so called’ health system.

When I rang during the week to tell my GP the story with my legs, he said to ring the hospital and see what was going on with that appointment and to explain the urgency for it. Though I had done this numerous of times already throughout the last year, I decided to follow orders and do some more ringing.

It turns out, when I rang the public Rheumatologists secretary. That she did have my name on the waiting list and that they have received at least one letter from my cardio specialist (meant to be 3 letters in total at this stage, since april 2011!) but that I was viewed as a routine patient and not urgent therefore they can not give me a date as to when I might be called.

So as per doctors instructions, I explained my current situation.

“Look, ah, I cant walk… am, im currently being wheeled from room to room on an office chair…”

I actually am, its been my saviour the last too weeks, well, that and my poor hubby having to push and pull me everywhere in it, and jumps to my every whim. I seriously am blessed with this man!

Secretary – “oh, well, am, there’s nothing I can do now, unless you get an updated letter from your GP stating the urgency and that it is an emergency case…”

So after some questioning about certain letters, that look as though they may never have been sent for me to get an appointment in the first place, I return to my own GP on a last minute, early appointment so that I wouldn’t miss work this morning.

We arrive at the doctors house, Keith runs in to say we are here and he invites us in. Keith runs hack out to the car to help life me in.

…all manor of uncomfortable noises, grunts, stumbles and various levels of retardation on my part and I am finally on the doctors exam bed, thingy!

In walks the doctor and what starts to be nearly an hour where we discuss my options going forward for treatment and how the HSE has failed patients like us and doctors like my GP.

Our closest place for treatment, like proper, recognised treatment for dysautonomia and EDS especially, is over in London. There are no specialists of the condition currently anywhere in Ireland. There are a few doctors, specialists, physios and orthos over here who have a general interest in it, but no specialist qualification for treatment over here at all. This is an ongoing battle, we as patients are struggling through just to get the treatment we need.

He mentioned to me after a range of motion test on my legs, that a wheelchair may be in order to help with my loss of mobility. This condition can be progressive, especially without proper treatment and I have been on and off crutches for the past few years now due to increasing joint strains and pain in my legs.

and this is where we are!

I have done my research in trying to understand the procedure to get a wheelchair via the medical card or medical insurance, seriously long winded! I have sent a ton of emails for information on chairs so all I have to do now is wait to be assessed for the chair, and sure, I dunno how long more I could be waiting for that for! I’ll just have to wait and hope for the best.

I wouldn’t have used a wheelchair for long term use before, only for short term use, I am not sure how I feel about it yet to be honest, right now I just want some mobility back! Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated in that department. Thank you and i’ll keep you posted on what is happening. 🙂

Thank you for continuing to read if you are still doing so. Please note I always welcome guest posts, etc. so if you have anything you would like to post, blog, or even share over on our Facebook or Twitter, please feel free 🙂