Monday 22 July 2013

The day I didn't blow things out of proportion

You may or may not have seen yesterday's post that I wrote while sat in the Urgent Care Centre at the hospital waiting for test results.
 
To recap I went to see my GP about swollen ankles.  My ankles have always swollen even when I am skinny, my right more than my left, but lately even I have wondered whether I am right is thinking they were swelling more than normal.
 
Before my 2 weeks leave I was at the GP about the slipped disc and mentioned it and he asked whether there I'd recently broken a bone and all the usual questions, had a feel at my leg and said it was likely down to the hot weather, which is unusally hotter than normal at this time of year.
 
During my two weeks leave they swelled a little but not as much as they do when I am at work, sat in a chair, playing with MS Excel and a bunch of numbers all day.  When I returned to work they started to swell again.
 
Now we all know I have a phobia of feet, massively so, and so you can imagine the horror at the idea of taking photos of my own feet which have to bee some of ugliest in the world.  Only being able to get a morning appointment at the GP's, I figured they needed to see what they looked like by the end of the day.  In the interests of this story here they are: though I have removed as much of the foot as possible so you can just see the swelling:
 
No this is not a fat arm - this is my right ankle!


Not looking quite as swollen from above!
Seriously, this ankle would not have looked out of place on a 50 stone person.  Now, I am fat as I have gotten far too comfortable with Hubby since we married but still, even I had to agree they were a little excessive.
 
So I trollied off to the GP expecting water tablets and a stern telling off to lose weight.
 
Instead, I was sent to the hospital where I sat patiently in excess of 30 degrees of heat expecting to be told again, water tablets and start moving around woman!
 
 
After all, the initial question and answer sheet with the nurse indicated a low risk score and I am talking ZERO, so all I had to do was sit still, read a book on the iPhone and try desperately to stay awake.
 
Even when the nurse wandered back with what looked suspiciously like a prescription I was still thinking "Water tablets!"
 
Oh no, apparently the blood tests indicate a blood clot, hopefully small, somewhere so I have to return to the hospital on Thursday afternoon for a scan of my right leg.  What happened to ZERO?  Meanwhile, after getting over the shock (and having a bit of a moment because I am nothing if not melodramatic when it comes to things that shock me), the nurse informed me that prior to the scan they have to treat the results as though I have Deep Vein Thrombosis and treat me with Heparin.
 
I luckily do not have a fear of needles but I am not keen on looking at them when they poke my skin (why does it hurt a bit more when you do....) so I didn't have a song and dance when she informed me she was going to stab me there and then and I would have to stab myself daily until the full results on Thursday. 
 
I was having a moment of wondering if I could be an owl and turn my head enough to stab myself in the butt when she said the needle went in my tummy.  Instructions to pinch some skin resulted in a response from me of "Oh that's okay!  I have plenty of padding for that!" (See, I was getting over the shock now and moving into 'lets make a joke of everything' mode). 
 
For interest, in case this ever happens to you guys the needles are much smaller than those they do their vampire bit and take your blood so it doesn't hurt as much.  After full instructions, I got myself ready to go home complete with a 'sharps bin', a good idea at the best of time but when you have fluffers like mine that chew experimentally on anything they can find, a sharps bin is a great idea.  I should, as an aside, take wagers on how quickly Lily would get in it if she could reach it because she most definitely would seen as zips are no problem for her.
 
On my way out, I stopped to thank the nurses and doctors and said I hoped their arguments for, at least, portable air conditioners was successful soon and asked what I could do to help reduce leg swelling.  The usual; raise your legs above your heart position (not something I can do well at work I imagine), take small walks each hour (my boss is going to love me - another thing I can annoy her with seen as I appear to be doing that a lot lately) and drink plenty of fluids.  My question/statement "I assume by fluids you do not mean Coca Cola or Pepsi Max...." met with a resounding no.
 
Hubby went into protection mode as soon as I updated him on progress and has refused to let me do anything all weekend except stay in bed and raise my feet, sleep a lot and an occasional play on the computer - though after 2 hours the right leg swells so I take myself back upstairs. I should be grateful, apparently, that he let me put some washing on and transfer clothes to the dryer!
 
However, I have a fasting blood test early this morning and Freddy Fluff is at the vet as he is still nibbling his wrist and elbow indicating his pains are back, and Hubby has gone to work.  Which means.....I can do some cleaning without him worrying himself into a heart attack.
 
So there we go peeps, my Friday was very busy and weekend less so...how was yours?
 


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