My Hospital Experiences in London

As you see the post says experienceS, I have now been to the hospital twice!! Since some of you have seen the picture of my neck brace, I will share this story first, then shares the other story.

HOSPITAL TRIP #2:

So..let's go back to last Friday (my birthday....12/2/16). I was just watching a movie when all of a sudden it felt like I was smacked on the back of my head with a shovel. It was so painful. There was a bump and severe pain. But there is weird stuff going on with my body all the time, so I just tried not to touch it and went to bed for the evening. Over the weekend, I was slightly concerned about my head because there was still severe pain but I figured I'd just go to the doctor on Monday. I couldn't touch that area of my head or lay on it..so I had to be pretty careful and I was just counting down the time until Monday when my doctor's office had walking hours. 

I woke up Monday morning, my head wasn't hurting quite as bad but I knew I should still go to the doctor. When I arrived, they said I wouldn't be seen for a few hours. I had tons of studying to so I asked when I could make the next appointment-and it was Wednesday afternoon. I decided to just book the appointment because there were a couple other things I needed to talk to her about anyway.

Over the course of Monday-Wednesday I had multiple migraines and constant headaches if it wasn't a migraine. But the constant pain and the bump and gone down a decent amount. When I finally made it to the doc again on Wednesday, I first got the results of my MRI (which I'll explain in my next story), then I told her about my head. 

Apparently, all my symptoms matched up with a subarachnoid haemorrhage, except that I didn't have slurred speech and the pain in my head was starting to get better. She instantly called the hospital asking if they thought I should come in even though those two symptoms didn't match up.

A subarachnoid haemorrhage for those who don't know is an uncommon type of stroke caused by bleeding on the surface of the brain. It is very serious and can be fatal.

The hospital told me to come right away. I ran home, grabbed a few things and headed to the hospital.  Possible bleeding of the brain wasn't exactly what I needed at the moment...I waited a lot and finally got in to see the doctor. They took my blood, did some neurological testing (which thankfully came back all normal), and then I had to tell my story of what happened to 3 different people. The first two were ready to do a CT scan of my brain and then since it had been 5 days of headaches and such, they were also going to do a spinal tap to get some spinal fluid to test. The third doctor came in and he said based on what the other doctor's told him he was ready to do the same thing but he wanted to hear from me what happened again. As I told the story, he began to ask some additional questions that the others hadn't asked. After quite a while he said he firmly didn't believe I had the haemorrhage and what he thinks happened was that a nerve in my neck got pinched and is sending massive pain signals to my head. He seemed very confident. He could back up everything. And it made perfect sense to me. I thought about what he said for a minute and I felt good about not proceeding with the other tests, even as a precaution.

So now, I wear the neck brace because I can't be supporting the weight my neck does. My neck needs to be healing, so that hopefully we can stop the nerve from being pinched and in turn stop the pain signals from going to my head.













The neck brace is NOT fun, comfortable, or very attractive haha and I get really hot wearing it. But I try to wear it as much as possible so that I can get better. I am ready for my head to stop hurting. Since the hospital, I have been taking some pain meds to also help. I wouldn't say they are helping much though. The pain has decreased but is still present. So we will just keep playing it by ear for the next little while. I may need to do some physio therapy (physical).







HOSPITAL TRIP #1:

Oxford Street: right outside of Primark

Let's go back to October...October 30th to be exact. I decided to go to Oxford Street and do some shopping. I found the store Primark-which is one of my favourite. I was there for a while and bought some great stuff. I left the store and starting walking further away from my home, continuing down Oxford Street to see what they had to offer. All of a sudden there was some severe pain going down my leg. Every once in a while, I get some sharp shooting pains, so I just stopped, shook my leg a bit and continued on. This pain was not getting better, nor was it just one shot of pain. I decided I should start walking back home, not further from home. I thought I could stop somewhere for lunch on my way and maybe let my leg rest. I got back in front of Primark and my leg was hurting so bad, I honestly didn't know what to do. I was standing on the sidewalk yet I didn't feel like I could stand, the pain was coming from my back and I didn't know if I could sit, the pain was shooting and I was moaning outloud in the middle of the street. I saw that there was a Tube station and I wondered if I could make it home.....

Attempting two more steps, I realised that was a really stupid idea. I hobbled back into the Primark store because I knew there was a security guard just inside. I asked him for somewhere to sit, at this point, I was basically in tears. He looked a little confused and I just said, "Sir, I just need ANYWHERE, to sit or lay down, I can't walk, there is massive amounts of pain in my leg and back. I think I need some first aid." He started to radio someone and I had a huge shot of pain run through my body and I just cried out in pain. I walked away from the main and just started to lay down. This very kind lady, a mother, came over and started to ask me questions and find out what was going on. I could barely talk because of the massive amounts of pain. She helped me lay down and helped me start taking deep breaths. I honestly can't give justice to the situation through these words-I was in the most pain I have ever been in, I was crying and screaming out in the middle of a massive store, and I couldn't help it. The lady that was helping me, finally got me breathing enough to talk. Her husband was helping with crowd control because 100 people surrounding me was not going to help the situation. The security guard was getting management and then management called 999 (our 911). An ambulance was on its way.

Since I wasn't actually dying, even though I felt like it, I was not the priority of the ambulance, I heard at least 4 ambulances pass our store while I was laying there. But we did get a paramedic on a bike that came to help until the ambulance showed up. They had me take this oxygen/laughing gas stuff. The paramedic told me it is the pain medication that they have pregnant ladies take before giving birth-I told him I didn't want to give birth there because that stuff was doing NOTHING for me haha I was laying on the floor of Primark, breathing in this medication stuff, answering questions about my health history for about an hour before the ambulance finally showed up.

Main entrance to the
University College London Hospital

They came and I was fireman carried to the ambulance and put in the bed. I answered a few more questions for the new guys and their paperwork then we were off to the hospital. They took me in and I still waited another 2 hours before I saw a doctor. **Side note: I have a lot of issues with this socialist medical system!!!

I saw the doctor, they gave me tests and medication and we concluded that it was my sciatica nerve. I had never had issues before and we aren't sure what triggered it to happen when it did. I was put on tons of medication and did lots of stretches. I was in the hospital all day long. They advised that I didn't leave until I could walk again. When I was "walking" it was more like hobbling and I only put weight on my left leg for about 1/2 a second. I called a taxi and got home. I ended up in bed for basically a week. I could barely walk unassisted-I had to be holding on to something if I was moving. This was the first time I was thankful my toilet was only about 7 steps away and the kitchen is right there so I could hold on to the stove, then sink, and kitchen table to get to the bathroom.

Going for my MRI

I had a lovely neighbour who went grocery shopping for me as well. Now..fast forward a few weeks. I was obviously walking better and didn't have constant shooting pain. But I was losing feeling in my calf, shin, and foot on that same leg. I knew that wasn't normal, especially after a few weeks. So I went back into my doctor. I was scheduled for an MRI for the 21st of December (once I got home from Italy).

I found out my results at my most recent Dr. apt. And apparently there is some serious bulging of one of the disks and it just was hitting against the sciatica nerve. As most of you know, I have had other back issues before. And those are some degenerative/dehydration of a couple disks. Now there is a broad disk protrusion which is hitting the nerve root. So they recommend some physio therapy. I will be calling them this week and hopefully starting soon.

So there are my medical adventures. I have a lot of issues with the socialist system...for example, I asked to see a cardiologist the first week I was here and six and a half months later I still haven't even heard from one, let alone seen one. But I will be home in another eight months and then can start seeing my doctors again. I just try to eat healthy and take care of my body best I can for now. I hope you enjoyed the stories!!

Thanks for reading! Talk to you soon.

**Side note: I am attempting to keep up professionally by keeping my LinkedIn profile up-to-date. Another goal I have with this is that I am going to be listening to leadership/business/self-help/inspirational podcasts and keeping another blog with summaries and thoughts of what I learned. If those topics interest you or someone you know, feel free to follow and share that blog as well: http://keepingupwithbusiness.blogspot.co.uk
I am now on Twitter @cydrodilla02 also.

Enjoy :)