The Wednesday with a hospital visit that explains no blog post

 Hi,

Well, Wednesday was not your ordinary Gilbert day, that is for sure. Mike woke up feeling his left arm was a bit dead, or numb, or unresponsive. 6.30am he really noticed once he got up. He decided he had slept on it funny. I later found out he spilled his coffee trying to use it and then hit himself in the face with his toothbrush. Okay.

He was running late so cancelled gym with Quentin when he missed the bus. I was going to ride in later so I changed to bus in with him. It is not often we get the chance to bus in together.

But as we walked from The Terrace bus stop to work, he said his left leg was also going dead and not doing what he expected. His face looked fine when he smiled. But he decided the symptoms were just enough like the start of stroke to muck around. His first aid training kicked in and he said if anyone told him this, he would call an ambulance immediately. There are two things you don't mess about with and they are chest pains and aysmmetric weakness.

So, just outside work, he rang for one. Described the symptoms. They said they would send an ambulance and a few minutes later, Gus and Kate turned up and took Mike into the new rig to assess. After a lot of FAST checks, Gus said Mike was fine, but he'd like to err on the side of caution and take him to ED.

When Gus asked Mike to squeeze his fingers, Mike gave them a good squeeze. I saw Gus wince and he said that Mike was really strong. A few other tests had Gus saying Mike was so strong. He repeated that to the ED nurse when he handed Mike over to her! That was good. And also - kudos to Quentin for making sure he is that strong.

So after our sedate ride to Wellington hospital (no lights and sirens, what a shame) and got admitted via the ED entrance. This was at 9.20am now. Mike got to sit on a stretcher in the middle of ED for about 4 hours while his case got to the top of the queue. He got his bp checked and had blood tests taken every hour. By about 10.30am Mike felt fine. But now we wanted to know if we could find out what had caused it. Certainly nothing like he had experienced before.

Mike got offered lunch - sandwiches. But I was still full from the quiz night (ooh - I did not tell you about that! Green Man quiz. Me, Mike, Celia, Madeleine and Lisa. We came 9th - but we think they got our list answers wrong, We got 10! And they gave us 5).

Patient waits patiently

Hooked up

Then he got into a room and hooked up to the monitor for ECG scans and bp. We stayed in here for a while. Just as we moved to the room at about 3pm a volunteer asked if we wanted something to eat. I got a veg sandwich and a wee banana and a Milo.

Taking ECG and bp all the time

From here he went for a CT scan. And then around 6pm moved to the ED observation rooms. Here we scored dinner. Mike got mince and mash and boiled veg. I even got dahl and rice. A huge thank you to all the ED staff. From the paramedics to the ED staff (nurses, orderlies and docs) and volunteers, it was all a fantastic experience.

What does this handle do to the bed?

We did not tell everyone about this visit. We were not sure what was happening right at the start. And then once Mike felt fine, it seemed silly to worry people when we knew nothing.

The neurologist came to talk and check Mike around 7pm. She spent about 2 hours off and on with Mike. Testing reflexes. Checking his pain receptors. And Mike ended up getting blood thinners for 3 weeks and having an ultrasound and MRI booked for some time in the next week.

So. No one knows what it was. No sign of a stroke. But the symptoms could be (could!) a TIA. So they are treating it like a TIA. Doing the ultrasounds and MRI and having the blood thinners. We get to watch Mike like a hawk for 3 weeks. That is the typical length of time after a TIA for a stroke to occur.

We do not think it is that. But happy to take the advice of the health professionals.

We ubered home and fell into bed. 13 hours from the ambulance to the Uber. A long day. But every single person was great. And the people that knew (mainly from work and Quentin) offered such amazing support.

Back to normal today. I had garage gym with Quentin. Deads. 70kg 5 reps x 4 sets. Mike is heading into work. 

So there you go. Huge day. But mostly just a waiting game. I was only worried once Mike said he needed an ambulance until Gus checked him. Then it went down to a normal level of concern about being in a hospital. Especially as Mike soon felt fine.

Let's hope we do not need to go there again for a long time.

Love,

Angela

The Monday with Toby at hospital

Hi,

Well, at midday I got a text from Toby saying his PE teacher thinks he has a broken thumb.  That escalated into Toby going to A&E and me cancelling work stuff to go and meet him there.

Work was crazy too - loads of issues.  So I delegated a bit and met Mike (he had the car) and then drove to the hospital.  I eventually found a park underneath the hospital and found Toby in the emergency department.  I got to him around 2pm I guess.  He'd been there since 1pm.

I wasn't there long (long enough to eat my lunch) before they called us into the minor treatment area of the ED.  We got X-rays pretty quick and the nurse was fascinated with Toby's bendy joints.

There was a young chap in the bed to next ours that seemed to be a builder of some sort and had a sore hand.  I heard his name at one stage, but thought nothing of it.  But when they took us up to the ortho clinic, he came with us.  And as the ortho receptionist asked for his papers, she said his name.  Corey Smith.  And it still didn't register.

Toby and I settled into the busy waiting room.  And I am slightly mortified to admit that we both fell asleep on the hard chairs.  People must have been astonished.

Anyway, I jerked awake and 1 minute later Tim walked past.  Tim is Isaac's father and an ortho surgeon.  And on-call.  A few words later and we got seen by Carl the registrar and Toby got a splint on his thumb and an appointment in a week.

As we were leaving, a scooter hurtled out past us and Toby said it was the young guy with us.  Then I realised that it was Fran's son!  I can't believe I didn't put two and two together until we were leaving.  I blame stress over Toby for my lack of brain power.

Anyway, I cooked tea when we got home.  Fish.  Mmmmmm.

Fish with pea smash

Busy day chasing up stuff ahead.  I hope Toby is ok at school.

Have a brilliant day!

Love,
Angela