Firstly I apologise about being so behind with my blog posts! I want to update evrryone everyday now that I'm home but I'm still behind from when I was in the hospital! However, once I moved to the ward it was mainly just a couple of weeks of resting and physio and the days went by pretty quickly so my blog posts will start to include a few days in one and I'll hopefully be up to date soon!
Saturday 10th March
So I was told I'd probably be ready to move onto the ward by Monday (which even that sounded very scary! It has only been a couple of days since I came back into the real world!) but the doctors came round this morning and have said that I'm moving today! Jim Quick is the name of the ward at Wythenshawe, named after a fellow heart transplantee that did a lot of fundraising for the New Start charity following his transplant in 1987 (he was only the eight person to have the operation), and he was actually a business owner in Cheshire which is where I live. He sadly passed away in 2007, but he has a plaque up on the ward and everyone speaks very highly of him.
After the nurses liased with the ward they said there'd be a bed for me by 11:30am, so I had my breakfast and meds as normal and then I just sat around really. I had to have my arterial line taken out of my wrist before moving onto the ward (this measures your blood pressure as well as other things and they can take blood from it without having to poke you numerous times a day, but you're not allowed on the ward with one in). The aterial line goes into the artery rather than the vein so they don't put medicine into it, and mine was bruised all over my hand and all down my arm! Probably from me wiggling around so much in ICU, but none of my bruises hurt which is strange. They also took out my catheter before I could move onto the ward, which worried me slightly because I am still on diuretics and I haven't yet walked on my own! Having the catheter out was a strange feeling but not painful, this is something I was dreading because I've never had one before. But it just feels like you need a wee.
Emily came to say hello while I was still in CTCCU so she helped me pack up my things which was great because I had a lot of stuff! Then she headed off and by about 12pm the nurses took me over to the ward.
Now, when I arrived on the ward I went into full on strop mode. I have been on Jim Quick before for my assessment stay and the staff and everything are lovely, but it was a grey day outside, one lady was lay with a nebuliser on and the other two ladies were asleep and I just felt really gloomy when I arrived. I was put in the bed but I couldn't move to get my TV or have any of my stuff around me and I couldn't see any nurses. I'd gone from having 2 nurses to having 1 nurse to 4 patients and it was a bit of a shock to say the least.
So I literally just lay there and wanted the time to pass by. And thankfully my cousins Beth and Emily came to see me at around 2:30 although it felt like I'd been lay there for hours! I was also in a hell of a lot more pain now that I was having to move for myself. In CTCCU I'd been having IV paracetemol in the morning and that was it, so the nurse said I need to take regular pain killers and she gave me two oral paracetemol (this didn't do much to be honest). I was very clostraphobic on the ward and I just wanted to go and get some air but because of the risk of infection I was told I wasn't allowed off the ward for at least a few days, so I sat in the day room with my cousins and I could at least open the window. We had a good chat but I was exhausted which I hate because I can't concentrate properly on what people are saying.
Once the girls had left I spoke to my mum and told her how miserable I was and that I felt like I'd just been abandoned on the ward and she called and spoke to the night staff to make sure they looked after me haha! As soon as the night staff came on at about 8pm I felt much better, a lovely nurse named Lara asked if I needed anything and she suggested I have IV paracetemol instead as its better and she said to just buzz if I need to go to the toilet and she'll help me walk there, so I felt much more comfortable. Also, Ciaran came in the evening and unpacked for me and put everything where I could easily reach it, and we just watch TV until I fell asleep.
So off I went to sleep, my first night on the ward! I was exhausted so it didn't take long to get to sleep!
Saturday 10th March
So I was told I'd probably be ready to move onto the ward by Monday (which even that sounded very scary! It has only been a couple of days since I came back into the real world!) but the doctors came round this morning and have said that I'm moving today! Jim Quick is the name of the ward at Wythenshawe, named after a fellow heart transplantee that did a lot of fundraising for the New Start charity following his transplant in 1987 (he was only the eight person to have the operation), and he was actually a business owner in Cheshire which is where I live. He sadly passed away in 2007, but he has a plaque up on the ward and everyone speaks very highly of him.
After the nurses liased with the ward they said there'd be a bed for me by 11:30am, so I had my breakfast and meds as normal and then I just sat around really. I had to have my arterial line taken out of my wrist before moving onto the ward (this measures your blood pressure as well as other things and they can take blood from it without having to poke you numerous times a day, but you're not allowed on the ward with one in). The aterial line goes into the artery rather than the vein so they don't put medicine into it, and mine was bruised all over my hand and all down my arm! Probably from me wiggling around so much in ICU, but none of my bruises hurt which is strange. They also took out my catheter before I could move onto the ward, which worried me slightly because I am still on diuretics and I haven't yet walked on my own! Having the catheter out was a strange feeling but not painful, this is something I was dreading because I've never had one before. But it just feels like you need a wee.
Emily came to say hello while I was still in CTCCU so she helped me pack up my things which was great because I had a lot of stuff! Then she headed off and by about 12pm the nurses took me over to the ward.
Now, when I arrived on the ward I went into full on strop mode. I have been on Jim Quick before for my assessment stay and the staff and everything are lovely, but it was a grey day outside, one lady was lay with a nebuliser on and the other two ladies were asleep and I just felt really gloomy when I arrived. I was put in the bed but I couldn't move to get my TV or have any of my stuff around me and I couldn't see any nurses. I'd gone from having 2 nurses to having 1 nurse to 4 patients and it was a bit of a shock to say the least.
So I literally just lay there and wanted the time to pass by. And thankfully my cousins Beth and Emily came to see me at around 2:30 although it felt like I'd been lay there for hours! I was also in a hell of a lot more pain now that I was having to move for myself. In CTCCU I'd been having IV paracetemol in the morning and that was it, so the nurse said I need to take regular pain killers and she gave me two oral paracetemol (this didn't do much to be honest). I was very clostraphobic on the ward and I just wanted to go and get some air but because of the risk of infection I was told I wasn't allowed off the ward for at least a few days, so I sat in the day room with my cousins and I could at least open the window. We had a good chat but I was exhausted which I hate because I can't concentrate properly on what people are saying.
Once the girls had left I spoke to my mum and told her how miserable I was and that I felt like I'd just been abandoned on the ward and she called and spoke to the night staff to make sure they looked after me haha! As soon as the night staff came on at about 8pm I felt much better, a lovely nurse named Lara asked if I needed anything and she suggested I have IV paracetemol instead as its better and she said to just buzz if I need to go to the toilet and she'll help me walk there, so I felt much more comfortable. Also, Ciaran came in the evening and unpacked for me and put everything where I could easily reach it, and we just watch TV until I fell asleep.
So off I went to sleep, my first night on the ward! I was exhausted so it didn't take long to get to sleep!
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