Hi mo-jas,
When you been in hospitals as many times as I have the word "dignity" just goes out of the window, it makes life in the streets and showing your bum off nothing. lol
STORY No: 1. I was once naive, believe it or not and new to hospitals, and what was wrong with me was undiagnosed, hence I was placed in a private room waiting for a doctor. But the nurse that told me to get ready to see the doctor said just take off your clothes and lie on the examination bed. I thought fair enough, I cannot do anything wrong doing that, I was only around my early 20's. Anyway, about 30 minutes passed by and the doctor came in the room, of course I was expecting a male doctor, how wrong was I? LOL It was a short blonde haired young female doctor, and the first thing she said to me was "Mr. xxxxxx, I do not need to examine that between your legs!! LOL - Was I embarrassed and red-faced... anyway, she done many tests on me, before saying I will get our main Consultant Neurologist to see you in the morning, so I had to stay in hospital as well.
There are many, but I will give you a few I been involved in...
STORY No: 2. This happened in my local hospital. After having 2 major operations within 2 days of each other, I felt so much pain it was unreal. I was on an Epidural (yes, the pain relief women have for pregnancies, when giving birth!), Morphine and Oralmorph, and paracetamol. A slight cough and you had to hold a pillow on your chest to prevent moving your stomach, where I had the operation. I spent 3 weeks in hospital and 10 months to fully recover, not something I would wish on anyone. Anyway, during my time staying there I had my first bed bath, I was asked if I would like one, and after having drainage pipes and a urinary catheter, you feel dirty anyway. So I said "Yes, please", I assumed the standard nurses do the bed baths, but how wrong could I be!! Lying in bed waiting, mind you I couldn't move because of all the tubes and needles in my arms, I did try pulling myself up the bed but that failed.
Anyway, the next thing I see is 2 girls pull the curtains around me, saying they had come to give me a bed bath - I am one of these people that is inquisitive, so I asked them were they actual nurses, they both looked at me strangely and said no we are studying to be nurses - I said oh, you both seem quite young, they said well we are, we are studying nursing level 1 at the local collage and were only 16!! I thought OMG... there's me stuck on a bed, and 2 16 year old girls washing everywhere, and I mean everywhere, moving tubes as they moved down my body. Maybe, if I was younger I wouldn't of minded, but I was nearly 50 at the time! lol
One day the urinary catheter, was blocked and do you think I could get a nurse to check it, nope it was impossible, in the end I had to ask the sister to check and she said you need a new one fitted, and she went and got one, what a relief that was.
Having Testicular Cancer was a game and a half, 6 weeks my own doctor gave me anti-biotics. Then at one appointment I said to her, if this was an infection then it would have been on the mend within 5 days of taking the anti-biotics you put me on. So, I asked her considering the dull ache I had, which had not changed at all within the past 6 weeks was no better could she refer me to see a urologist, she gave me a slip to take to A&E and to be seen by a Urologist. Well, within an hour I was seen by a Urologist and an Oncologist, whom sent me down for a Ultrasound scan and blood tests. 2 days later I had a phonecall from the Oncologist saying I had Testicular Cancer, which I told my own doctor a month before, and I had even told my wife it wasn't an infection - I knew the difference because I have had infections before and they give a totally different pain. Well, I was in hospital for 2 days, had the operation and went home. I was in remission for cancer until March this year, before I got the all clear.
I know what I'm looking in most cases with my body, have had so many tests done over the years, some in London because they only had the equipment there and nowhere else in the country.
My doctor now asks me what I think is wrong with me, not the other way around. Most times I am correct and even see the correct scans being done. Just last Christmas I had all the symptoms of the start of Prostate Cancer, apart from one issue that was puzzling me. I told my doctor, she sent me for all tests to be done, but was unsure of the prostate ultrasound scan which was showing a benign testis tumor epidermoid testicular cyst, and because it is small it was not worth bothering with, I was happy.
Yes, my doctor is a female, used to be a male - but once you have both male and female doctors looking at any part of your body, you get used to it.
Having seizures in our hospital of the Outpatients Department must of been embarressing for my wife, because it has 8 departments and is all open-plan.
Having Epilepsy is a nuisance I agree, but where they happen can be very annoying not just to yourself, but if people around you. My worst one was in the passenger seat of our car, while my wife was driving. The car seat belts are not designed for Epileptic attacks - so imagine that happening when we were about one and half miles from home. I got lodged between the front and back seats, my daughter was holding my head so my wife told me.
Its been difficult, my wife tried as much as possible to hide my disorders from them when they were younger, she did a good job. All our children are grown up now, and they all help out with my problems, which are not easy.
Anyway, there's a few laugh's you can have on me! There is more, many people will have many stories regarding their health, I have many but I have a lot of adaptions on th property to try and lead a normalish life but it's still hard. I have an Electric Hospital Bed, a Clos-o-mat(Bidet/Toilet) and even an Electric Bath Seat lift - and even with all these additional extras life is still difficult. We still have review meetings wiith the District Nurses and Occupational Therapists.
Been typing this for a good few hours now, so I'll bring it to a close.
Allen, I wish you all the best, with which ever medications that eventually works for you. I will give you one note though, if you have the flu jab, be careful - it can cause problems with neurology matters.
Regards,
Les.
..or another time when i'd just stepped away from a cashpoint. whoever it was that time didn't pick me up but they sure helped the cash in my hand to get up and hobble away.. as you say, good to have someone you know around but even with the odd bad experience, happily i've generally been overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers when i've been helpless.