Busy week and wheezy weekends

Hi All,

Hope you are all well, Joey - how was the house move?? Hope that it all went well and that you managed it without upsetting the apple cart too much (so to speak!!) I am on my way to my parents in a few hours time - its nice not to have to spend 12 hours on the coach anymore - that journey was just awful!!! Now I have Percy it means I am able to have a restful day and then set off once the traffic has died down after tea!!

It will take me around 2 hours to get back to my mum and dad's house!!! Since I got Percy, I have visited several friends. I went to see a good friend in hospital in Burton and another great friend in Grantham (three times!!) and I also visited two friends in Leicester for the first time - they were fabulous and I had a really lovely afternoon last thursday. The down side however of all this travelling round the country is that it seems to have rather upset the old lungs a bit!! They have been rather grumpy the last 5 or 6 days. Over the weekend it started with just getting breathless really easily, and gradually escalated to a rather irritating wheeze and tight chestedness over the last few days. Needless to say that I havent been sleeping that well since about monday really!! Last night was the worst and I literally didnt sleep a wink all evening. The most soul destroying thing was just starting to nod off through sheer exhaustion as S came to wake me this morning!!

S looked really concerned this morning when she realised that the whilstling was my chest wheezing. She kept asking me if I was OK, I felt shocking but I didnt want to worry her so kept saying I was fine. I had a few nebulisers in the hour and a half she was here this morning.They settled things a little bit and made my chest feel less tight and uncomfortable but didnt totally resolve the wheeze. I havent done much at all today and I have taken things really really slowly as I really dont want to end up back in hospital. I received a phone call from social services this morning as S was leaving - It was about the fitting of my hand rails - they wanted to arrange a time to come and fit them, and arranged to come at about lunchtime. They are now fitted - an extra one on my stairs and one on the outside of my house as I do struggle with the steps, particularly when I'm not feeling well! I also had a visit from some rather lovely firemen :) They asked if I wanted some free smoke detectors fitting - Of course!!!! They fitted them about an hour ago and so all that was left for me to do was to plonk a microwavable meal in and then eat and pack for my trip home to my parents.

Im all packed finally and as always recently got distracted by flippin facebook and the game farmville - blimey - that is sooooooooo addictive!!! I have just got to sort out my medications for my trip the next few days and then load up Percy!!! Then Im on the road!!

Im still rather chesty and I fear I may be getting another chest infection as my chest is rather mucusy and grotty!!! Im just hoping that my parents dog doesnt set the old allergy off too much as I do generally come back from my parents poorly as I am very allergic to their dog - I have dosed up on anti histamines and I am hoping that I can avoid kicking the old asthma off whilst I am there - I have also dosed up on the old vitamin C in the hope that if I am coming down with a chest infection I can kick that into touch quickly too!!!

I have had several conversations with my solicitor about my tribunal case too. Its all going OK though I am convinced that my ex employers are trying to stitch me up on several points - My solicitor thankfully is very very good and has been my rock through all of this - I will keep you all posted as and when things happen with the tribunal stuff!!

Anyways - I am going to have to sort out my meds and finish the last few bits of packing so that I can set off on my jollies!!!

Speak to you all soon
Loadsa lv Rattles Xxxxx

Hospital admission (still ongoing :-( and tribunal update (mmm - will my ex employer ever grow up???)

Hi All,

Well I was hoping to have been writing this from home by now but no such luck I'm afraid. Well, I came in to have my routine operation - the operation itself went fine. The general anaesthetic messed my chest about a little bit so I ended up on the ICU. I was on the ICU from the Wednesday through to the Friday evening where i still wasn't too great to be honest. The nurse on the ward wasn't happy with how i was from the moment she had handover and called the doctors to take a quick peek in on me.

This triggered my early warnings score to be high which increased the observations the nurses did, the more they checked them the worse my score got etc etc and then by midnight I was back under the radar of ICU again. I had a visit from a blogging buddy of mine KSD towards the beginning of the evening when things were very much not at their best and she stayed the night holding my hand and keeping me calm through the evening - even though misses wasn't well herself - Yes misses you know you weren't right (looks at KSD in a judgeful way but also very, very grateful of the company- and very sad you ended up captured post visiting me) :-(

On the Saturday one of the support workers was washing me when I got so breathless and wheezy it stopped in her tracks and she went to check my observations, they were a little low and high in all the wrong areas, so i was told to rest and given a neb! It helped a bit - then the docs were there again (the docs that visit you in PJ's - its never a good start when you see these guys as it never really boads well!!) Thankfully after yet more I'm OK really I'm oak's - they did think I was OK lol!!!

By Tuesday I was starting to wonder if i could keep people fooled much longer that i was OK, i was starting to struggle and really couldn't get why i was struggling so much, everything was pretty much the same except that i was again on oral theophylinne but it hadn't been oral that long and i didn't think It would have made much difference - yes some people had been really heavy handed with their antiperspirant sprays on this bay that am and there were also Lillis which never helps but still didn't feel there was a reason to feel quite so groggy!!!! After struggling most of the afternoon by the small hours of the morning the on call doc and ICU docs had restarted theophylinne infusion as levels were sub therapeutic run a dose of magnesium through and increased the oxygen to full 15 litres used on the wards.... I was then just waiting for a bed on the unit.

I went up to the unit for about 5 am the nurses on the ward had been great bless them and looked after me so well = the student nurse was lovely too sitting with my and holding my hand when i had ABG's (arterial blood gases) done - these are the single most horrendous blood tests ever and they hurt me so much now as i just dont have any access to vein or arteries due to them being so overused in the past. Its a nightmare!! I was on the unit they took blood and found that with the theophylinne in and now working i was able to utilise four times more oxygen - blimey - wonderdrug or what - i always said it had always worked for me and that i had always found it really helped - there was all the proof we needed!!! So after keeping a very close eye on me all of wed i was finally allowed back to my old bed space on the ward i had been on before lol- almost like I had never been away....

I settled back in well and was fine again till the theophylinne went back to an oral dose so we have been playing with dosage ever since and over the last weekend was my most recent blip where infusions and magnesium etc etc were restarted etc etc

It was all a bit soul destroying, when i was told I had a cellulitis infection from a cannula and wasn't to be given anymore venous access as i haven't been able to keep anything down for the entire admission really and have actually been sick on most days (worst being Tuesday evening and all day yesterday. I struggled all day and last night mentioned to a lovely nurse that I didn't think it was worth staying in if i wasn't doing anything that i couldn't do at home - I could still see the docs point and to be honest today i understood it a bit more (Ive got a bit more antibiotic in my system too lol!!


I tried sooo hard just to walk out of the hospital yesterday but didn't get very far at all as without the oxygen i was struggling with my breathing and with out any anti - emetic in me i was throwing up loads (not that there was even anything left to throw up!!) Gggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

The nurse was lovely as she let me come back to the ward - hardest bit?? - Accepting that they were actually right lol!! Think part of it was the temperature to be honest as its not something I would ever, ever do - it was just quite simply that i felt i was getting more and more infection into my system and that it was making me really poorly and no one was listening!! I did though realise that even if they do burn and sting like a bug**r an intra muscular cylizine injection was required!!

Anyways saw the docs today on ward round, they looked at my last cannula site and said ouch is it sore?? (Hell yes!!!!) Its bright red and the tracking starts from there the cannula was entered in a vein on my wrist/palm of hand (yes that hurt too - i can categorically say - never ever let them do one there!!!!!!) The doc mentioned nausea (still there - only managed tiny bit of soluble pred that morning not even the hydrocortisone!! and had thrown 3 lots of antibiotics up and not managed any of the anti fungals for the systemic candida!! My usual consultant who is a real susperstar came in to see me today aswell - he knows me better than anyone and also knows what my body can and cannot take sooooo it was great to see him taking charge over my protocol for the other docs to follow!!!

I also menetioned tribunal things - i missed a deadline for the end of june as i was too poorly to contact my solicitor when i was on the ICU, I contacted them last week prior to my laptop coming into the hospital for me :-) ( no more robyou line for me - its DVD's all the way lol!!)

Last week i promised the solicitor that i would email him the specs of my case before the 17th. Again ive been upto the ICU and almost ended up there again since i spoke to him last so i am hoping that the email i have sent him today will help and that if he needs any further information tomorrrow then i will give it to him via phone or email. My employers (ex that is) feel that this further demonstrates that they are caring employers as this is what it was like for them and think that the fact i am prolonging the case by being unwell - in their veiws this shows them im being unreasonable lol - they actually stated in writing that they felt that by delaying it all made them look better as they feel they shouldnt have to accomodate my illnesses anymore hahahahahahaha!!!

Anyways guys I will be getting the laptop out tomorrow at some point to speak so my solicitor so I will write another tribunal update soon as i can and hopefully keep you all posted on how i am gettng on physiotherapy and OT wise!!!

Take care all lotsa Lv
Xxxxxxx

What next????

I had my meeting at work yesterday. Couldn't write yesterday as my head was and to be honest still is mostly all over the place!! I met up with my union officer P at 1pm and we talked about what we thought would happen in the meeting - both of us believed that the trust wouldn't make a decision there and then and would need time to think of the options of allowing me part time working or redeployment.

I went in and listened to the managements case - making it all out to be viral infections or trivialising all my absences. This is not the reality - the reality was that I only ever took time off work when I was in hospital acutely unwell or just post a hospitalisation for recovery before returning - often before I was well as I was worried about yesterday ever arriving!!

It was then my turn to ask questions! We hadn't really structured questions and had instead a written log of our comments on the management case - most of which did not need a response from management and some than warranted explanation.

It turns out that it is very common knowledge within my department that I was replaced last year, which itself is totally unacceptable. This was denied at the meeting but will come out in the wash when they fail to replace me I suppose - again strengthening my case in any possible tribunal. I have heard E referred to as the new me, so it doesn't take Einstein to work out they didn't intend on having me return to work and the meeting was a formality!

The other major comment was the lack of support they had given not allowing me to reduce my hours and not thinking of alternative employment and refusing the opportunity to work with remploy! This then lead to a side issue to which I have never been involved in, there are huge discussions over the on-call part of my job and all staff have been included in the debate - except me - did they have no intention of including me as they knew I wouldn't be there??? mmm!


Anyway, P and I were told to get a drink whilst they thought over this difficult decision... we went and sat downstairs where my manager asked if I had brought my locker key in with me....! - Yes I kid you not, the meeting it appeared had already reached a decision in my mind at that point! It took a grand total of between 5 and 10 minutes before the HR representative came in to say they had reached a decision. Walking back in that room I knew the response before they said anything. They were not prepared to help in anyway- the NHS sucks!

Anyway - I am to receive 5 weeks pay plus my annual leave pay (roughly 5 weeks also!)That's it! No job no income and a mortgage to pay!, Needless to say I was and still am totally devastated - I feel as though I have no purpose anymore. I also feel angry they didn't do anything to help me keep my job which in my view shows them up as the uncaring ass's they are. (Trying not to swear which believe me is all I wanna do right now!)

I met up with a friend M from work afterwards who informed me that ALL staff in the department got £15 worth of vouchers at Christmas - yes all staff, was I not included in the staff at that point because I got nothing!!! In the entire year last year whilst I was attached to oxygen and IV's I did not so much as receive a scrap of paper wishing me well - had they given up when I originally went into hospital?? I believe they had really - they had no intention of helping!

Anyway - I'm due to go out with a couple of nice peeps from work and the kids so I'm going to have to draw a conclusion to this post..

Next step is to wait for the confirmation letter from HR which I expect was probably already typed and will be here in a day or so - it amazes me how efficient they can be at times!! Then lodge an appeal, if that as i suspect it will do, does in fact fail I have to then do a tribunal case against them. But, and this is a big but - they destroyed my everything yesterday, I felt and still do feel like my world is slowly crumbling around me - all for having miserable asthma!!

Anyways peeps - I will try and post good news soon, till then take care all,
Lv Rattles Xxx