I am not Dead

I am not dead, although very nearly was. Here is my story... (large sections missing due to no recollection)

Last Tuesday night I went to Rodney Hide's book launch at Parliament's Grand Hall, afterwards me and the guys and girl went to Dog and Bone and then Occi for some food and drinks. We all depart and I start to walk home with Peter and Scott.

We get to corner of Waring Taylor and Lambton Quay and I do not feel so good so sit down, and then proceed to collapse. Ambulance is called and I am carted off to Wellington Emergency Department. Memory is rather blurry of this, know I had a line put in, bloods taken, Jordan, Lukas and Geoff came in on hearing I had been sent there, I was transferred to Short Stay Unit supposedly for observation overnight. Lukas reads first chapter of Rodney's book to me, they bid me good night and get better and I go to sleep and they leave.

Overnight I become uncontrollable for the level of staff in short stay unit and get moved back into ED and into resus. I now have two lines in my arm, a throbbing headache am seriously not with it and not feeling the best. Get moved to smaller cubicle to await transfer to a ward. I collapse in bathroom cubicle, hinges have to be removed. Get back to cubicle and finally moved up to ward with Holly who has come to see me.

In Ward 16, room to myself nice enough nurse, killer headache not entirely with it but still feeling not too bad. Peter comes to visit, I feel super bad for giving him such a fright the previous night. I have really long late afternoon sleep, wake up about 7pm and have some dinner (FYI its actually better than my cooking). Lay about have more drugs, don't feel so good. Start to seize again and get drugged up more. I stop seem ok, checked by house surgeon. Later in the night it happens again, I get resuscitated, I get moved to the high dependency unit, am put on oxygen, fluids and pumped full of more muscle relaxants and sedatives.

So I wake up in the morning in a unit where there is one nurse to two patients, only four patients in the unit and the two nurses are constantly in there. I have Holly, Jordan, Rita, Fern, Mum, Di, etc all come and visit although my memory is blurry. Check my full consultant team and should hopefully be ok for Saturday discharge.

Friday night take a turn for the worse, intensivist called, ICU is full but if I get any worse was to be moved there, placed on respirator and paralysed. Luckily by sickness stays stable (not good but better than ICU thankfully) and am monitored overnight, more fluids etc etc. Spend more time in HDU before finally allowed out onto ward again Sunday afternoon. Still really high though.

Monday morning am finally discharged to strict bed rest and relaxtion, and only because my mother is a nurse so knows how to monitor me properly and because the staff at Hawkes Bay Hospital know me and should I end up in there they know my past.

So that is why I have been absent from blogging and probably will be until next week, as the amount of energy even to do this, or walk from bed to bathroom is amazing! My body is so weak at the moment I hate it.

Staff at Wellington Hospital were fantastic especially HDU staff, my consultant and the food ladies. I also want to thank my friends who came and visited and kept in contact via text and also my Mum who drove down sat by my side, and had to endure the phone call on Friday night to come back in from where she was staying as I may not last the night. She was a rock and I never saw her cry the whole time.

If you know me, feel free to text or email, I am occassionally checking emails and my phone is constantly by me, it is the only things that makes life seem somewhat normal currently. I look forward to coming back more regularly next week.

Look after yourselves.