Tracey Alley's Blog - Posts Tagged "hospital"
Rest and Relaxation? Not Quite
I was recently admitted to hospital for close to a week. I am severely anaemic and, in the doctor's words, needed a few pints of blood along with plenty of rest and relaxation. So off to hospital I go. Bag all packed, like a school camp or something, expecting new blood and plenty of rest.
Now, I'm not in any way, shape or form knocking the medical profession and especially not the nursing staff. They are a dedicated, genuinely caring group of people who work very hard. Particularly at the moment as there's been a computer glitch meaning that the majority of our nursing staff, in Queensland, are getting paid nothing or mere fractions of what they should be getting paid. The government says 'they're onto the problem and it will be fixed as soon as possible' but we all know what that means - it's the same as saying 'the cheque's in the mail'. But our nurses keep working on regardless - so I cannot fault them.
What I do find a little hard to understand though is how is a person supposed to get 'rest and relaxation' when every hour they come around and take your temperature, your blood pressure, your pulse, ask you a bunch of questions you've already answered what feels like a hundred times before - and then they tell you that 'you look a little peaky, you should get some rest'. Well, I'm trying but you make it a little difficult.
Then I have so little red blood cells and they can't even get an iron reading in my blood tests which is why I'm in hospital in the first place - so what do they do? Yup, three times a day they come and take six vials of blood for more testing. Of course it doesn't help that I have bad veins, skinny, deep and wriggling around like spaghetti so every single time they try to get some blood is an effort which usually takes three or four goes. Then they ask me why my arms and hands are covered in bruises?
Rest and relaxation? I think I'll book a week in Fiji instead :)
Cheers,
Trace
Now, I'm not in any way, shape or form knocking the medical profession and especially not the nursing staff. They are a dedicated, genuinely caring group of people who work very hard. Particularly at the moment as there's been a computer glitch meaning that the majority of our nursing staff, in Queensland, are getting paid nothing or mere fractions of what they should be getting paid. The government says 'they're onto the problem and it will be fixed as soon as possible' but we all know what that means - it's the same as saying 'the cheque's in the mail'. But our nurses keep working on regardless - so I cannot fault them.
What I do find a little hard to understand though is how is a person supposed to get 'rest and relaxation' when every hour they come around and take your temperature, your blood pressure, your pulse, ask you a bunch of questions you've already answered what feels like a hundred times before - and then they tell you that 'you look a little peaky, you should get some rest'. Well, I'm trying but you make it a little difficult.
Then I have so little red blood cells and they can't even get an iron reading in my blood tests which is why I'm in hospital in the first place - so what do they do? Yup, three times a day they come and take six vials of blood for more testing. Of course it doesn't help that I have bad veins, skinny, deep and wriggling around like spaghetti so every single time they try to get some blood is an effort which usually takes three or four goes. Then they ask me why my arms and hands are covered in bruises?
Rest and relaxation? I think I'll book a week in Fiji instead :)
Cheers,
Trace
Never, ever take your health for granted
I thought I was on the mend from my chronic anaemia problem and then took a very sudden, very dramatic turn for the worse. My red cell count, which should be between 120 and 140, dropped to 24 and my iron levels couldn't be detected at all.
I blame myself a little as the week before I collapsed I was feeling very tired and once again finding myself feeling short of breath at the smallest exertion but instead of going back to the doc's I kept working away - my thinking was 'I don't have time to be sick so I'll ignore this till I've finished the book'. Next thing I knew I wake up in hospital and I've lost two weeks.
It's way, way too easy when you're functioning to ignore the warning signs from your body that something's wrong - as I did. Because I could still walk and talk I figured I couldn't be too sick - wrong, very, very wrong.
Now I'm staying the in the luxury 2 star hospital being waited on hand and foot with the downside being because I can't get out of bed without fainting. It really isn't worth ignoring those little signs just because you're busy or it's inconvenient.
Anyway just wanted to remind everyone to take care of you first - only then can you be of any use to anyone else.
Cheers,
Trace
I blame myself a little as the week before I collapsed I was feeling very tired and once again finding myself feeling short of breath at the smallest exertion but instead of going back to the doc's I kept working away - my thinking was 'I don't have time to be sick so I'll ignore this till I've finished the book'. Next thing I knew I wake up in hospital and I've lost two weeks.
It's way, way too easy when you're functioning to ignore the warning signs from your body that something's wrong - as I did. Because I could still walk and talk I figured I couldn't be too sick - wrong, very, very wrong.
Now I'm staying the in the luxury 2 star hospital being waited on hand and foot with the downside being because I can't get out of bed without fainting. It really isn't worth ignoring those little signs just because you're busy or it's inconvenient.
Anyway just wanted to remind everyone to take care of you first - only then can you be of any use to anyone else.
Cheers,
Trace
