Where was I? (if you’ve come in at this part you won’t know where I was either! This story is carrying on from ‘I’m a 40 year old blogger…part 1’!).
Oh yeah I was being detained by the NHS against my wishes! But if I had walked out of the admittance ward for the sake of my visitors arriving from Hull then it would have delayed the investigation into what was causing my symptoms. I was tempted but my doctors words were ringing in my ear (along with the tinnitus – one of my symptoms!) that he thought it could be MS. Although it wasn’t by any means a positive diagnosis, it was enough to keep me from doing a Steve McQueen great escape!
I had a CT scan and then had to wait for someone to come and explain what the scan showed – if anything. By now, despite my good intentions of not escaping, the longer I was left waiting the more I plotted and schemed of a way to get out!
Finally, late in the afternoon (I had been there since 9am) a consultant came to speak with me regarding the scan. He told me that the scan showed I had an arachnoid cyst on my brain which was probably congenital and I would need to be kept in for an MRI scan. With that, he left the ward. I watched him leave the ward and, although I can’t remember, I wouldn’t be surprised if my mouth was hanging open! I was frustrated, hungry, upset at not being there for my visitors and in need of nicotine and the consultant just speaks complete jargon to me and swans off. Now excuse my ignorance but I didn’t know what congenital meant then, I didn’t know what the implications of having a cyst on the brain were and the only thing I associated with arachnoid was the scary movie about spiders! (I know the movie title doesn’t have the ‘o’ in it, but arachnid/arachnoid same difference to me at the time! I also know that some people would scoff at me using the term scary to describe that movie but what can I say I’m easily spooked…just ask Lindsay!)
After a restless nights sleep, I was seen by a different consultant who explained the CT scan findings to me in laymans terms, so now I knew congenital meant present from birth, and arachnoid meant ‘the fine, delicate membrane, the middle one of the three membranes or meninges that surround the brain and spinal cord, situated between the dura mater and the pia mater’ (I’ve just lifted that from the dictionary because even in laymans terms I’m struggling to recall her exact definition!). She also explained why I needed an MRI scan and said I would hopefully have the scan today, but if it couldn’t be done today (Friday) it would be Monday.
I jumped on the possibility that if it couldn’t be done today then it was pointless taking up a bed over the weekend and I might just be able to escape – if only for the weekend! So I asked her if the MRI scan couldn’t be done today could I go home to my visitors on the promise I would return Sunday afternoon! She couldn’t see a problem with that! Her approach and manner towards patients were so different to the consultants from the previous night, I wish I could have bottled it up and sprayed it on him! But that continued to be my experience through the course of my care with those in the medical/health care profession. Some excelled in their standard of care, empathy and compassion, while others failed completely in these qualities, thankfully I can say the latter occurred the least often.
I didn’t get the scan that day so I did get to escape to spend time with friends and I did return on the Sunday afternoon as promised!
To be continued in part 3…
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