My Hospital Appointment…

At last the day of my appointment to see the Consultant has arrived… The appointment was for 10.00am. Not a good time of day for me… Just a little too early without getting up extra early to make myself ‘safe’ to leave the house.

I must have started worrying about it on Friday. And as I’ve said before, stress can bring on a bad bout of visits to the bathroom! I sat watching Crufts live on my PC for most of the day, then in the afternoon all hell let lose, tummy wise. I had to dose myself up and then got such a swollen tummy, I just didn’t feel like eating much. I had had a small pie around midday, as usual then a bit of pasta late. Not enough to keep a mouse alive.

Bad Saturday & Sunday night… I went off to bed and managed to rest and fall asleep for a short while, then woke feeling very sick. So it was trips to the bathroom. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sick. I’d have felt a lot better if I had been! Got up on the Sunday morning and was sick! I felt a little better then, but was dreadfully tired as I hadn’t had much sleep during two nights.

On the PC watching Crufts for most of the two days. My son Danny was coming up on Saturday, but I put him off as I was just not feeling well. I rang him on Saturday morning after Chris, bless him, had done a great deal of extra housework!

Crufts…

I am so impressed with the coverage that the Kennel Club have given. I have managed to see far more of Crufts than if I’d been there all four days, as is usual. As you may know, the BBC pulled out of filming this year. In my opinion, that is the best thing that they could have done. We wouldn’t have had the continual coverage all four days, if they had been there. We’ve never had coverage online before.

The BBC used to get some celeb presenters, half of which didn’t know one end of a dog from another, and film five minutes of this and that. You ended up with four hours on four nights of just a taster of what was going on, interspersed with chit chat as the presenters made sure they had their faces on camera half the time. They were generally asking silly questions that were totally irrelevant and showed their ignorance of dogs.

During the ‘live’ coverage we have had people who knew what they were talking about commentating on the events.

I have paid my £9.99 to be able to watch Video On Demand where I can catch up on all that I didn’t see. I watched  the Main Arena Events ‘live’ for free.  All the Obedience Events were put up the following day to watch V.O.D. So watched some in the evenings.

Back to my problems…

Sunday night I went to bed early... Unfortunately, my tummy woke me unexpectedly at 3.00am. It was twenty past before I could get back into my bedroom to take some tablets to bind me. Then I awoke with a start at 5.30am and had to rush through to the bathroom again! Took a couple more tablets and lay down again. Dave woke me at just gone eight… I hadn’t fed the dogs! He made me a coffee – I fed the dogs – then ran a bath. Then I took a couple more tablets. Oh dear… I am going to suffer with a swollen tummy after all these tablets, but I dare not leave the house unless I feel safe.

We needed to leave by nine to give us time to park up at the hospital and find the right department. Dave went out and warmed up the engine. I let him drive. Big mistake… I’ve not let him drive me for months, and yet again, he’s forgotten how to use the indicators. I so annoys me! Men!!!

I got out at the hospital main entrance and left him to park up. He noticed that someone was about to leave a Disabled spot in front of the hospital, but failed to notice a woman waiting to go in the spot when the car had backed out. I was standing quite near at the main entrance finishing off my last ciggie, so I saw it all.

Dave pulled up behind the car that was about to reverse out which meant the woman waiting was beside him… but she was sort of parked very near the left curb. She didn’t have her indicator on to indicate she wanted to turn into the parking spot when the car came out. So I don’t blame Dave for not noticing her at first. But she then pulled out into the road… Two more cars came up and had to stop behind Dave as there was no longer room for them to drive through. Silly woman!

I saw the reversing lights go on on our car… Luckily, the car behind noticed and also began to reverse slowly as the end car driver woke up and also began to move! Dave had to reverse up a bit to let the car out of the spot!

Then he drove straight in, leaving the poor woman to swear at him from her driving seat! I did feel a bit sorry for her as she had been there first, but you’d never have realised she wanted the parking spot from her position on the road. She had been where people stop to let passengers out of cars.

We went into the Foyer… I asked where my department was. I was told it was at the other end of the hospital. Luckily, we had left plenty of time. Off we set… Dave stopping a couple of times to get his breath back and once for a sit down. Got to the right place to be told I should go back near the main entrance. Here we go…!

We did manage to get back the whole way we had just walked and I booked in. My doctor was running late! What’s new???

Found a couple of seats together. The place was packed out. I got chatting to a lovely lady in her 40s with similar problems to mine. She was with her mother. I did feel for her being so young, with similar problems to me. You sort of expect things to start deteriorating with your body as you get older. I was fit as a fiddle in my 40s, working and training my dogs and walking them for miles. Then competing or judging each weekend and driving all over the UK to where the shows were.

I got a warm welcome from the doctor when it was eventually my time. I was called in an hour and ten minutes late! He actually apologized for the delay and for having to give me such an early morning appointment. He said he’d been worried about me. I’d like to believe he had given me a second thought… but I doubt it with the number of patients he has!

He has recommended that I see a surgeon for keyhole surgery. To put a camera down my throat to see if there is any way to take care of this blockage/constriction. I told him I hadn’t eaten anything other than a couple of small pies over two days. I told him I hadn’t had much sleep either… I don’t think I left anything out. He really did seem to remember what I’d told him the last time I’d seen him… OK. He’d read up on my notes! But it is nice to feel that the doctor does know quite a bit about you.

So fingers crossed I don’t have to wait too long to see a surgeon. I was told it should be in the next 3 or 4 weeks. I do hope so. I really am a little worried about my weight. I am nearly 6 stone. Far too slim for me… I look like a stick woman. Stand sideways and I can hide behind a broom handle!

I promised to let friends know how things went with my appointment. Now I am going back to finish watching the fantastic videos the Kennel Club have done of Crufts. Who knows, may be next year I’ll be able to go again?