It Ain't Half Hot Mum!

Not just the name of a sit-com shown on the BBC between 1974 and 1981, but a good way to describe the weather we are having here in the UK at the moment.

 

Yesterday was the 19th consecutive day that somewhere in the UK had recorded a temperature in excess of 29 degrees Celsius, which is very unusual.  On Monday the temperature reached 33.4 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature this year and the highest recorded for 7 years in the UK.

 

I realise that some of you will be laughing that we think that this is hot, but, being a weather obsessed nation, we simply aren't used to it being this hot, for so long.

 

Personally, I hate this very hot weather.  I can't go out in the sun without burning and it making me feel ill.  The heat, simply exhausts me.  Everything I do normally, just seems that much harder to do and it makes breathing very hard, as if the air was some how heavier and more difficult to breath in and out.  On Monday, I was talking on the phone to a friend, and had to say I'd call them back later in the week, as I was finding it so difficult to just talk to them, with the difficult breathing.

 

At night, using my BiPap machine helps me to breath easier, but it is still very hot, and this doesn't help me sleep, especially as once I'm in bed I can't move, and so am stuck lying on my back all night.

 

Fortunately, for the last week or so, Margaret, my carer, has been taking the mornings off, as this hot weather has been exhausting her, and a new girl, Augusta, has been coming at about 6.00 am to get me up.  I love getting up this early, especially now, as it means I'm not stuck in bed so long, and its cooler to get up, showered and dressed, so less exhausting.  It also gives me two extra hours in the day.

 

It always amuses me that Margaret comes from Nigeria, and some of the other girls who occasionally come, are from Africa or Jamaica, but they always complain that its too hot here.

 

Monday, morning I should have had my physio come, but she phoned to say one of her son's was sick and so she needed to stay home with him.  In all honesty, it was a relief as its too hot to have her pulling me about in this heat.

 

Tuesday, I should have gone to the Douglas Brunton Centre, where I volunteer one morning a week teaching the old people how to use computers, but the thought of sitting in a room with all the processing boxes, servers and the mainframe box blowing out warm air, just isn't appealing, so I cancel this as well.

 

Wednesday morning starts at 6.00 am, as Augusta comes and gets me up and ready for the day.  I have just finished my breakfast, and the transport ambulance arrives to take me for my regular 6 weekly appointment at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, North London.  Dave, the driver, gets me strapped in and we are on our way by 6.45 am.

 

Its an uneventful trip from home, bypassing Croydon, and then up through Streatham, Brixton, and across the river on Waterloo Bridge.  We make use of the Strand Under Pass, and then up through Camden and Belsize Park, and arrive at the front of the hospital at about 8.15 am.  A good journey, with very little traffic hold ups.

 

Once unloaded, I find a working disabled toilet - why is it always the disabled toilets that are out of order? - before making my way to the ward.

 

Today was to be a day of meeting old friends.  The nurse looking after me, Ruth, has looked after me, on and off, for about the last 10 years.  Last time I saw her she had just returned from maternity leave having had her first child.  I was shocked to find that her little boy is now 3 years old.  We had a nice chat as she got me booked in and checked my blood pressure, pulse, oxygen stats and temperature - which were all OK.

 

I then went off to get my cannula put in.  There was already two people ahead of me in the queue, but I didn't have to wait very long, before I was called in.  The phlebotomist this morning was a girl called, Jacqui.  She has been sticking needles in me for years, but has a strange habit of calling me Anthony.  Even stranger is the fact that I now expect her to call me Anthony and probably wouldn't respond if she called me Dave. 

 

We always have a good laugh and it is nice to see her again.  She prides herself in always being able to get a needle in my very awkward veins first time.  She identifies a vein, she thinks will be easy, which makes me laugh, and as soon as she puts the needle in, the vein collapses.  It doesn't even bleed when she takes the needle out.  I accuse her of having lost her touch, but she blames me for laughing when she said she had found a good vein.

 

Second time lucky, she finds a vein in my hand and gets the needle in.

 

I go back to the ward, and whilst I'm waiting for Ruth to prepare me drugs, I call my respiratory physio, Christine, to let her know I am at the hospital.  I have a good arrangement with Christine, where I email before I am going in to hospital, and she makes a note in her diary, and when I get there I call her to let her know I have arrived and she comes to see me as quickly as she can.  If she is busy, it isn't usually urgent that I see her, so we then arrange to see each other the next time I'm in.

 

Ruth, brings the drugs and gets me hooked up, and then very kindly offers to go and make me a cup of tea.  This is one of the advantages of knowing the nurses so well.  Although they are very busy, they will do little things like make me a cup of tea and have a little chat.

 

I am having a 250mg bag of Methylprednisolone, which I have every 6 weeks, and in conjunction with my normal daily and weekly drugs, is part of the regime that is currently keeping me stable. 

 

I start reading my book, as I wait for Christine.  I'm currently reading "Boys Life" by Robert R McCammon.  I wasn't sure, when I first started reading it, whether I was going to enjoy it, but the more I read the better it seems to be getting.  Its about a small boy growing up in a small town, Zephyr, in America, and the events that effect him and his family, especially his father, and how they change his view of life and the town, over the course of a year.

 

Christine arrives and we have a good chat about how things are going.  As we chat she checks my blood oxygen levels, and is glad to see that these are good, in fact better that hers. 

 

My mask for the BiPap machine has been rubbing my nose a bit in the hot weather and Christine advises that she has another mask in mind for me.  She often tries various masks on me, as I don't mind trying different things.  I also have a very small nose - or cute as I like to call it - which sometimes makes it difficult to find the right mask to fit. 

 

The current mask I have, has little "pillows" which fit up each nostril, so the air is blown directly into each nostril.  I find it very effective and easy to fit to my face, but this problem with rubbing and making my nostrils sore has only arisen during the hot weather.  The part which has the "pillows" on is extra small in size and is usually used on babies, so that gives you some idea of the size of my "cute" nose.

 

Christine advises that they may have stopped making my existing mask but she will order a different one which she wants me to test, and post it to me.

 

We talk a bit about the difficulties with the hot weather and how this is impacting on my breathing.  She suggesting using the BiPap machine during a day for an hour, if I need to, as this might help.  Also she suggested that a small fan blowing air directly onto my face might help the air flow and make breathing easier.

 

We arrange that I need to have Lung Function Tests and to have my blood gases checked, and I will email her with my next appointment date, and she will try to arrange these next time I'm in.

 

All that done, Christine leaves just as my drip finishes.  Ruth, comes and puts a bag of saline on to make sure that all the drugs are flushed through the line, and into my arm.  That has only taken an hour for the drugs and 10 minutes for the saline flush, and once that is all finished and the cannula taken out, I go to the toilet to do the MRSA screening swabs which are routinely done every time I go in.

 

There is no sign of my consultant on the ward, and as I have nothing to discuss with him, I decide to leave early.   As I'm making my appointment for my next treatment, in walks my consultant, and we have a brief chat.  He seems very happy with my progress.

 

I then make my way down to the transport lounge and wait for a driver to be allocated to take me home.  Whilst I am there a porter brings in a patient in a wheelchair.  I don't know his name but he has often pushed me round the hospital, in beds or chairs, in the past, and he always stops and has a chat if he sees me.  We have a quick catch up before he has to rush off to push another patient round the hospital.

 

I often wonder if the fact that so many people stop and talk to me is a sign of how friendly everyone is, or of the fact that I go to the hospital too often.

 

After about an hours wait, Dave, comes in and says he'll be taking me home but has two other patients to drop off on the way.  We get loaded up and are on our way about 12.15 pm.  I ring Mum to warn her I'm on my way.

 

The first guy is dropped off a couple of miles down the road from the hospital, but the other lady is going most of the way with me as she lives in South Croydon.  She is very chatty, which is nice and this makes the journey pass quickly.

 

After dropping her off, we make for home.  Going up the hill about a mile from home, I can see a woman walking down the pavement talking on her mobile phone.  About 10 feet in front of her is a small boy, probably no older that 3, on a scooter, racing along the pavement.  As he reached the drop kerb, he suddenly veered into the road, in front of the ambulance.  We weren't going very fast - its a 30 mph speed limit, and we were easily inside this - but we were so close to him, I couldn't see how we would avoid hitting him.  To be honest I just shut my eyes, as I didn't want to see the impact.  Some how the Dave, avoided him, but if there had been traffic coming the other way, he would have had to make a choice of hitting the oncoming traffic or hitting the boy.

 

Amazingly, the woman didn't shout out at the boy, but shouted at the driver, to be more careful!

 

Anyway, Dave got me home, unstrapped and out of the ambulance, and after thanking him, I was indoors about 2.20 pm.  After a quick sandwich and a drink, I moved into my armchair and promptly fell asleep for the nest couple of hours.  I was exhausted.

 

So that was my day.  Hopefully, it will be a bit cooler for a couple of day, and I can recover some energy.