Last Thursday afternoon I confined myself to bed, suffering from excruciating (in male terms) abdominal pain. Pat got me an emergency appointment with Settle GP Dr Ruth Derham who correctly (as it turned out) diagnosed a blocked intestine and referred me straight to hospital as an emergency, offering us Airedale or Lancaster. We drove to Airedale rather than call an ambulance as it would be quicker (the joys of country living).
Nice private room on surgical ward 14 where I spent the evening being violently but rather unproductively sick to compliment the pain. Intravenous painkillers and anti-sickness drips sorted that. It had to be operated on immediately BUT I am on blood thinning drug Clopidogrel so two bags of blood platelets were brought by motor cycle from the Bradford Royal Infirmary and then off to theatre at 2130. Back on ward at 0130, having had my small intestines put back where they should be.
Surgeon this time was on-call consultant Tarig Ahmed. No photo as he is shy but what a guy. In the face of a doubting diagnosis from a registrar who had advised that I should re-commence eating and go home(!) he was in no doubt and ordered a CT scan. Then he, and a team of course, burnt the midnight oil and operated, despite which he was doing his ward rounds at 0800 that morning, when I was awake enough to shake his hand and thank him.
It is now Sunday and I am back home, feeling like a new man. That was my fourth admission to Airedale in three years or so. I am becoming a life member of the Theatre Four Anaesthetic Room Appreciation Society.
We read so much about the NHS these days. On my experience the system must be the best in the World.
I like to include relevant pictures in these postings but I am challenged with this one. So here goes:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Do please leave comments. If nothing else it shows that there is somebody out there.