CF | Hospital Stay #2

Hi! How are you? So I didn't blog for a bit because I was in hospital for a couple of weeks, thanks to CF being a massive bean. I went to the CF Clinic on thinking I'd need IVs and a few days in but it kind of ended up being a bit more complicated!

So I got to Mulberry Ward (how very me!) on Tuesday 28th October and my oxygen levels were low at 88 (95-100 is considered the 'normal' range for people, mine are usually about 93) and as they put you on oxygen if you go below 90 I had to use this machine 24/7:

This is different to the usual oxygen as it's humidified, so it was quite steamy and worked wonders at clearing my chest and sinuses so it did make it easier to breathe. However it's not the nicest thing as it's really hot and noisy and as it uses water to create the steam it kept squirting up into my nose, usually when I was sleeping! It wasn't portable either so I had to stay in bed. I was put on IVs and as the week went on I just didn't really show any improvement and felt like I was getting weaker. I needed help to do everything especially when it came to getting my medicines but apart from IVs I had to do it all pretty much myself, like I'd have to take off the oxygen to get my meds and set them up which was really tiring and difficult. I wasn't getting the care I needed on Mulberry, I needed more help and my IVs were never on time which stressed me out a lot but this isn't the nurses fault, they were just so short staffed. The kind of final straw came on Sunday when something was up with the humidified oxygen and the nurses didn't know what to do so they put me on an oxygen canister which then run out but I was too unwell to notice so my levels dropped to 65 and I turned blue! So at 4AM Tuesday morning (fab timing that was...) a doctor came into my room and told me I was going to the High Dependency Unit because the amount of oxygen I was on was a little bit higher than Mulberry Ward was used to dealing with and that the care on HDU was better so they thought I'd improve faster there. But there was no side rooms there (CF patients need to have their own rooms because of risk of cross infection) so I went to the Intensive Care Unit where I was wired up to all sorts:

So I was still bed bound but in the ICU it's one nurse per patient so I was very well looked after and got to rest lots. The only thing I didn't like there was when they put an arterial line in my wrist, I'm usually not a squeamish person and I don't mind needles but this was quite gross! They stitched it into the palm of my hand and it just freaked me out but after two days they had to take it out anyway because it was painful and wasn't working. On Thursday a bed became available on HDU and I got to take off most of the wires which was good! I was still stuck in bed though, especially as I had to have my overnight feed every day from 3pm to 8am. I got a lot better there and was able to go back on regular oxygen rather than the heated stuff, by Wednesday I was off it all together and was well enough to go back to Mulberry Ward by Tuesday which I was happy about because for a week I'd been stuck in rooms with no windows so I was feeling a bit stir crazy! But that was a good sign because before I'd felt too ill to even care about being stuck in bed. 

Today I got to go home and I'm so happy to be back with my Freddydog, I was gone for 2 and half weeks which is the longest I've ever not seen him! But he's of course ignoring me for leaving him for so long. To be honest I feel quite overwhelmed now, I was stuck in my room the entire time so coming outside was weird. It could've been a lot worse I know but I feel a bit emotionally exhausted now (doesn't that sound silly?) But I think now I'm back with my family, my own bed and food and no more constantly being poked and prodded by people (I will not miss those daily 7:30am blood tests!)  I'll be fine soon. I just need to do another week of home IVs and then I'm good to go! Definitely planning a trip to Oxford Street once I'm better.

Thank you to everyone who messaged me, it was so lovely of you and really lifted my spirits! Hope you're well and have a fab weekend!

Read more about CF here and here.