Another Hospital Visit
Another Saturday morning spent at the Ito Hospital. The hospital waiting room wasn’t as packed this morning though I arrived a bit later than I wanted to. Mind you it was only 7 minutes after the hospital opened and today I got to be number 174.
I was really impressed by how quickly they can turn round blood test results. I had my blood taken at 8.45 and when I got to see the consultant at 10.15 he had the results. I was surprised by these as, even though I’m now on medication, I’m getting worse instead of better. So he prescribed more medication. I’ll need to go back for more tests – not something I’m looking forward to but something that I’m going to need to do regularly for the forseeable future.
I don’t like having blood taken but the nurses at the hospital are very competent. I wasn’t overly happy, however, with the way they put pressure on the injection puncture once they finished. At my Doctor’s surgery they use neat little plasters. At the hospital they used a large wad of gauze and what felt like packing tape.
Too Much Tape
January 10th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Getting all that tape off is often worse than the injection itself. There’s no way to remove it without also yanking off a layer of skin and hair. And I bruise very badly after blood tests, so ripping off packing tape from a bruise isn’t very nice.
I hope they are able to get this all sorted for you soon. The uncertainty and waiting around is what would get to me.
January 11th, 2009 at 4:10 am
It was hard to get the tape off. I was lucky though – no bruising from the blood test. First time ever.
It’s going to be another two months before I know if the new medication is working. And if it isn’t – well this could all take a while.
January 11th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
The tape isn’t nearly as bad as what I saw at first glance – the black t-shirt made it look like they amputated your arm completely!! That’s a lot of blood to take in one go!
As for the tape, the blood transfusion people are the best I know – they put a nice neat sticking plaster on, then wrap some kind of sticky bandage round and round your elbow until you can’t bend it for the rest of the day.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I think I would have been doing a lot more complaining if they had taken off half my arm!