The 16th & 17th; I am home.

The 16th of March.  I am home. HOME! I have to go back tomorrow but eh, I get to sleep in my own bed tonight and that is all I care about. 

So the doctors came to see me this morning and said they'd stopped the mero after my 6am dose, so then the only thing that was left to sort out was my oxygen. I explained to them that I do have oxygen at home, so if that was all that was keeping me in, I was very much wasting a bed. They were surprised but pleased to learn this, and said that yes in that case you can go, but we need to confirm with Dr. Sutton. 

Then I spent the rest of the day waiting for it to be confirmed. However, it emerged at about half past four that actually, Dr. Sutton has been on a course all day, but he'd probably agree so that's fine. But then there were issues with changing the dressing on my line and arranging nurses to flush it. Then they wanted me to come and see the vascular team at eleven o'clock tomorrow, but earlier today the pain team had phoned, saying they'd had a cancellation tomorrow and did I want to come at eleven? Of course, I said yes, so tomorrow I'll see them, then go up to 516 and they'll bleep the vascular team, and we'll talk about my line and hopefully sorting out the motherfucking venoplasty I've needed for three months. 

We finally left at six and I am at home and I am really looking forward to my bed. 

The 17th of March. 

Oh, sleep in my own bed is good. I did wake up a couple of times, but so with it for duvet and electric blanket. 

I didn't get the lie-in I've been waiting for because I had my appointment at the pain clinic at eleven. We left at ten to allow for traffic and parking, but even that was not enough as there had been an accident in the Queensway tunnel which made the traffic utterly solid. It was incredibly tedious, but we eventually got to the QE only half an hour late. Thankfully, I was still able to be seen (I did ring to let them know I'd be delayed) and met a Dr. Blaney who has several avenues of thought we might go down - I will start with a patch via the GP, and we have multiple drugs I can try to hopefully find one that works and doesn't give me side effects. He's also going to refer me for physio so I will get that appointment at some point. There's also the option of steroid injections if nothing else works. 

After that, it was up to 516 to see the vascular team about my line. It emerged that nobody up there really knew what was going on, until one of the doctors who's been seeing me arrived. She went to see Ben about what he wanted, and we went to have some lunch. While sitting in the foyer, I saw a girl I met at Euston recently who I got chatting to about NG tubes (she had one) which was extremely random, but really good because I wasn't able to get her name or anything before, so now I have a new pal!

Shortly after seeing her, my phone rang, and it was nurse Connor. The doctor had come back and they'd spoken to the IV team and basically, he was going to take my PICC out. That was grand, so we returned to the ward, and I lay down in the consultation room and experienced the lovely sensation of having something really long pulled out of your veins. It's not painful, but there's definitely an awareness there. I don't really remember the last one coming out because I'd had midazolam and they let me do it. Then I had to hang out there for half an hour to make sure I didn't bleed everywhere, then I escaped (again)!