The Next Best Thing

7th June - I had a very painful night, I was dosed up on IV painkillers and was screaming out in pain a lot of the time. My back is so so painful. God this is so shite. 

Mid-morning I have a chest x-ray to see if the fluid on my lung linings is behaving or not. After my chest x-ray Michelle and Rob come and visit me. I have been missing Fagin and Poppy terribly and the lovely Michelle brought me a cushion as a pressie! She said if I could not go to the borders then she would bring them to me in cushion format! The next best thing - thanks so much Mish - you rock!

My awesome cushion!

That evening, the book club girls come to visit. Because I can't go to book club at whoever's turn it is, they bring book club to my bedside! We chat about the book for a tiny bit and then spend the rest of the time gossipping. Such a nice idea - thanks girls.

That evening I have the most dreadful sleep. In the ward next to mine there is a man with severe Alzheimer's. He calls out his wife's name over and over again. He also shouts "nurse, nurse, nurse" constantly. The nurses go to him and he asks where he is and why he's there. They gently explain but then 5 minutes later the same thing happens again. It's absolutely heartbreaking, but selfishly it's also annoying as i really need to sleep. I feel hideous saying that. He then asks to leave, many many times. He starts offering bribes to the nurses and to people each side of him. People tell him it's not possible and he starts to get really angry. He starts talking about killing people. He talks about his past as a "gangster" and says he is going to get his people to follow everyone in his ward and the next and kill them. He also says he is going to "start killing at random unless he's let out". Now I know this is his Alzheimer's talking and that he is unable to get out of his bed, let alone kill anyone, but it's still a pretty scary thing to be listening to.

8th June - Today I was determined to actually make a real effort with my walking. I manage to walk (with my walker) all the way to the end of the ward. I am bloody proud of myself.

Because of the amount of blood i keep having taken from me, I asked one of the nurses to find out what my blood type is. No reason other than curiosity. I'm 34 years old and have never found this out, so i might as well take the opportunity where I can. Turns out I am B+, the same as my mum .

Back in February, I had an appointment where I found out I had neurofibromatosis type 1. The doc at the time said it was highly likely I had it based on my skin. However they wanted to test me to 100% confirm. Today I got the news that they were somehow able to test the 3 tiny drops of blood they got from my shitty veins and it's been confirmed that the reason I have NF1 is due to a gene mutation. It changes zip, but I suppose it's nice to have the explanation. Dr P will love this for her write up of me for her case study!