Back in Emergency

Yes.  It happened again.  I ended up back in Emergency.  However, this time it wasn't me!  Yes, with all the CIDP, kidney stones and an immune system that copped the hugest pounding since I was born you would have thought that I would be the one fronting up for some urgent medical attention, but it wasn't.

So who was it that stole my Sunday from me and made me sit in the hospital for the best part of five hours?  Well it's probably best to start at beginning of Sunday morning when it was me that woke up feeling a little under the weather.  Not with kidney stones or anything but with that age old and much more common problem, the hangover.

Yes the night before I had tickets to the rugby international between the Wallabies and the Lions and after a resounding one point victory some celebrating was in order.  And I probably nudged the bar a little too far.

But since my pain was totally self inflicted I decided that I couldn't stay in bed all morning and got up to take my son to his football game (AFL this time).  As I had had a large night I decided it best not to drive and got my wife to drive us to the game.  She diligently dropped us off and went on to the shops.

And about five minutes into the game it happened.  My son took a tumble and broke his arm.  At that time there was not much I could do.  The football club were great and patched him up as good as any self respecting first aider would.  I called the wife to come back and drive us into the hospital and off we went.

Now I have visited many hospitals around Victoria (mainly as a patient) but this was a new one for me. The Royal Childrens Hospital.  And was was a lovely big shiny thing that Melbournians should be proud of.  There were little toy stations everywhere and the biggest fish tank I had ever seen outside of an aquarium.

We did not have to wait long before we were triaged and this was probably the only difference I saw in the actual patient treatment.  For an adult, they triage you, and then make you wait it out.  Here they game my son some pain relief straight away which I thought was great.  The amount of time I have spent in Emergency Rooms to see a doctor to write me up for some pain relief after being triaged is nasty.  But we still had to wait after that.  We finally got an X-ray and then the doctor could patch him up.

I wasn't actually present when the doctor manipulated his arm back into place.  We had our daughter with us and we didn't think it wise to expose her to the procedure so her and I explored the hospital whilst my wife tended to our son.  FYI, the children's hospital is way more fun than an adult hospital.

Anyway the procedure went well.  They loaded him up with laughing gas (nitrous oxide) and fentanyl and although he showed signs of being alert and somewhat uncomfortable during the procedure he said afterwards he must have been asleep because he can't remember a thing.  Thank goodness for the amnesiatic effects of the drugs.

Finally after another x-ray we got to take him home.  He looked pretty rotten after his ordeal and somewhat uncomfortable but at least he had been properly patched up.  We had a follow up on Friday and all was well.  They redid the cast and ordered him to wear it for another five weeks.  Hopefully it still recovers well.

Till next time, stay well:)  

More funny!

Who says sick people don't have a sense of humour.  The humour here is rather dark but funny none the less.  Chronic kidney stone sufferers are often labeled as drug seekers even though they are simply in pain. Some for months at a time.  I guess this cartoon (which I took of a cystinuria forum) parodies that.

When I lived in Sydney I had a really bad stone that landed me in emergency.  I was at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, which is right next door to Kings Cross, the drug capitol of Australia.  As you could imagine, they have their fair share of bona fide drug seekers, so what they do is they make you wait an hour.  If you are still there after this time, you are probably legitimate, which is no fun if you fall into this category.  I hope you enjoy the cartoon.  Stay well:)

Funny.

I found this card in a cystinuria forum.  It made me laugh so I thought I'd share it with you all:)

Emergency

I know, last time I said I was going to wrap up "Stuff that works" and let you know about my exciting new idea, but I am going to keep you in suspense. When I wrote the blog "I'm a Clutz", I realised that I have a lot to say about my personal experiences with emergency, and it is really important. I have listed my points.

1. This point is critical. If you are suffering any symptoms of stroke, heart attack or any other condition that you perceive to be potentially life threatening, don't wait. Call an ambulance or go straight to the closest emergency as soon as possible even if you think it might be nothing. Better to go and be told it's nothing than not go and end up dead.
2. If you're not sure just go. Even if it isn't life threatening (like my cut finger), better to have a doctor look you over. A small problem now might be a big problem later.
3. Preparation. Nobody plans to go to emergency, but if you do there are a some things you can do now to make life easier for when you actually need to go. First, you need to know where they are. Time is never a luxury when you need a doctor. If you have to figure out where to go you could waste valuable time which could, at worst, be critical. At best, uncomfortable for who ever needs the doctor. Also, most towns will have more than one option for emergency. It's a good idea to know where they all are.
4. It is also a good idea to research your options. Some emergencies have a bad reputation, and it's a good idea to know which ones. To find out ask around or keep your eyes on the media. They love a good hospital scandal. Other things that you might want to find out is the level of services available. Some facilities are not equipped to handle all emergencies, and you don't want to turn up to an emergency only to find they can't treat you. You also might want to find out if and how much you have to pay, and what are waiting times like.
5. Lastly, you might want to get the phone numbers of the local emergencies. If you need to go, but not urgently, a quick call to the various hospitals to find out if they are busy might save you a great deal of time in the waiting room.

Next time it is back to wrap up stuff that works. Until then, stay well:)

I'm a Clutz!!!

So, there I was, feeling pretty chuffed with myself actually. My wife was out with the girls and I had the responsibility of the kids all to myself. I had cooked dinner, tidied up, bathed the kids and got them to bed. All that was left was the dishes. That’s when it all came down like a house of cards.

Earlier I had navigated the vegetable chopping, potato mashing and burger burning without incident. Surely the dishes would be a breeze. Wrong. The chefs knife I used to cut the vegetables slipped (cursed tremor) and I got a lovely cut across the middle of my right hand.

So, I disturbed my wife’s dinner to ask her to come home and take me to hospital. So we pondered which emergency to attend (A calculated informed decision that I will blog about later) and decided to go to Box Hill.

When we arrived at the hospital the cut had yet to cease bleeding, so the triage nurse re-bandaged it up and I awaited the doctor to have a look at it. Fortunately we did not have to wait too long, and by that time the bleeding had stopped.

As a result the doctor decided not to stitch it up and simply decided to re-bandage it. I guess that it does beg the question as whether the hospital trip was necessary? Simply put, yes.

It is always better to go than not to and wish you did. Let the medical professionals be the judge. So anyway, we were home before midnight with my pride taking the biggest hit. On the bright side, my wife told me not to do the dishes any more;) Until next time, stay wellJ