HAVING been continually spewing I’ve had no sleep when the phone rings at 5.30am. It’s NHS24 calling to apologise that they couldn’t get a doctor and asking us to go to A&E at Forth Valley Royal Hospital near Larbert.
We’re straight in the car for 60-odd minute drive and I’m booked in and seen by triage pretty quick. But it’s a 5-½ hour wait for a doctor. And I have to wait in the main waiting area, spewing and groaning in public. I’m sure folks must think I’m some kind of drunken junkie or something.
After about three hours I’m still vomiting and a huge big splurge of blood-laced spew makes Margaret go back to reception and I’m called back into triage for my second round of blood pressure, pulse, temperature and blood sugar. This time, though, I’m sent through the back to a much more comfortable and private waiting area – I think they realised my vomiting wasn’t a great spectacle for the poor folks around me in the waiting area! Margaret’s not allowed to come with me tho’ 🙁
Ironically, by the time I get there I’m feeling a little better – that last big vomit musta cleared things – and I have a much more comfortable hour waiting for the doctor.
The doctor that sees me – Ruth – is really nice and wants to hear the full story. Not just this episode, but the history too. This is the first time I’ve been seen in a lucid condition so it appears the lengthy wait has turned out to be a good thing as we have a long conversation. She reckons that I may be having a reaction to a combination of things…a difficult thing to work out but recommend that next time I start to be sick we go straight to A&E – not bothering with NHS 24 – and tell reception that I may be having an allergic reaction and have been told by the doctor that I need a tryplase test done immediately. Apparently this blood test – if carried out within 90-minutes of a reaction starting – can give some clues as to what might be going on.
She also gives me some tablets and other stuff to help. We’re off home!
Of course the day’s guitar lessons and my Monday night livestream are all burst and have to be re-organised/scheduled. I crash out when we get home.
