Op attempt #2
On Monday I heard from the hospital that they’ve got a new date for me – in on 23rd October (next Thursday) for the op on 24th October (Friday). That was the plan anyhow.
I’ve been for the pre-op assessment today though, as usual a very long-winded and tiring affair. Apart from the usual blood pressure, pulse, blood tests and stuff, along with an ECG this time as well which I apparently needed having had a PE, most of the time seemed to be taken up hitting me with hammers and prodding me with sharp pointy objects and checking out and documenting the left sided weakness and pins and needles/numbness I’ve got. After they’ve been messing around inside your head and start doing neurological observations after the op, if they suddenly think you’ve developed a weakness that wasn’t there before, the staff start to panic a bit, so I guess they need to check out thoroughly what symptoms I’ve already got. It only occurred to me though after I got home today that no-one actually asked me if I’d got any questions about the actual operation (which I don’t think I have), but all the same it would have been nice to be asked. I guess what with everything else, and the fact I’ve had a similar op before they just assumed I knew what it entailed etc.
Now they’re saying though that they’ll have to speak to the anaesthetist who may want to bring in haematology, in which case I might very well end up on a damned heparin infusion again and have to go in before Thursday.
This does not please me at all, because quite apart from blood tests every 6 hours day and night, it means I’m more or less confined to bed, as unless they do what they eventually did last time and clamp the infusion machine to the handle on my wheeled walker, I have to be escorted even to the loo (despite the fact that I’m quite capable of managing the walker and IV stand, as I demonstrated last time). It also means I’m not allowed off the ward without an escort, and quite apart from getting outside every so often for a quick smoke (very quick, especially if it’s blowing a gale like it was last December when I was in!), simply getting off the ward every so often to do something vaguely normal like go and have a coffee, or go to the newsagent’s shop in the entrance, or just see normal people doing everyday things is essential for my sanity.
As usual, what’s happening about my warfarin is the subject of much debate and confusion. The first time I was supposed to be going in a couple of weeks ago I was supposed to stop the warfarin, but check with my GP about what he thought. Today’s instruction from the doc at the pre-assessment clinic was stay on the warfarin but keep the INR below 2.5, and despite the fact my INR was 2.6 yesterday, my GP’s saying keep on the current dosage (10mg Friday and Saturday, and 9mg for the rest of the week) which is liable either to push it up more or keep it the same. Meanwhile I have to wait to hear if there’s any news on whether haematology want to get involved… *sigh*
My plan ‘B’ is to test it again myself on Monday and then ring the ward and speak to someone there for advice, because if it’s too high they won’t do the op on Friday, which’ll mean keeping me in even longer (and increasing the chances that haematology will get their claws in and stick me on heparin), and while I am a frequent visitor to that place, it doesn’t mean I have to like staying there. Of course the danger with contacting the ward is that it might remind them they’re thinking of dragging me in earlier, but I’m hoping that the combination of the fact I can test my own INR and the ever present shortage of beds might keep me from their clutches. I’m not a very patient patient, and when tethered to an IV 24/7 and woken up in the middle of the night repeatedly I tend to get very grumpy.
I’m hoping that Jack, my Eee PC, will be going with me (if I can get their electricians to PAT test him, I should be okay to use him), and in preparation a couple of months back bought one of those security cables for using with the Kensington lock slot on laptops, for tethering him to a solid object, but even taking Jack and having the ability to get online, and the pile of reading matter I’m planning on taking with me aren’t going to distract me for too long if they decide to tether me to an IV.
Hospitals are wonderful places and they do some amazing stuff, but where they fall down is actually treating people who are in full possession of their faculties and not desperately ill, as real people with more than medical needs. Last time I was in hospital I was in a bay with a lady who was a regular visitor to the ward and though obviously needed some medical care, was otherwise healthy and compos-mentis and capable of rational thought. She was also very independent and had an agreement with her consultant that the only way she was staying in was if she was allowed to wander. She’d always be around for the meal and drug round times and when the docs were doing their ward rounds, but in between she’d go off for a walk around the hospital or the grounds, or on a couple of occasions to a coffee shop down the road. She’d always tell the staff she was going and roughly how long she’d be, but getting off the ward and just being with “normal” people was good for her psychologically, and allowed her rights as a person, and not just a hospital number with a set of medical notes, to be respected.
Meanwhile I was more or less confined to the ward. Admittedly when you’re hooked up to a machine with a battery that only lasts 45-60 minutes tops when it’s unplugged, you’re somewhat limited to where you can go and how long you can be away (especially in a hospital where it can take 10 minutes either way to negotiate the lifts due to there being 19 floors and only 4 public lifts) when you’re going to need recharging sooner or later, but quite what I was going to do at the settings on the infusion if I was let out without an escort I don’t know!
Keep everything crossed I don’t end up on a heparin infusion, because if that happens, I shall be very grumpy indeed, and believe me, when I get in a strop, it’s not a pretty sight! 
For now though I need to tidy up so I can get to the wardrobe where my travel bag is, and it’ll take me a good couple of days to make sure I’ve got all my required gadgets I need to take to amuse me and allow me to contact people (that’s another reason I need to be able to escape the confines of the ward, to use my mobile), and make sure I’ve got all the required cables and chargers etc., and this vital step cannot be rushed! 
