In A&E All Morning!

Further to my post yesterday, I had a very rough night. I continued to feel very faint with severe acid reflux and could not lay down to sleep at all. Googling Doctor Google, I sat up on sofa, but lets be honest nobody can get to sleep properly sitting up. I struggled all night. I couldn't even drink water because of the severity of the acid. I took an extra 30mg tablet of Lanzoprazole, which didn't really make any difference. By the morning I was completely worn out and exasperated. I decided to ring NHS 111 as I couldn't drink or eat and needed some advice. There was no way I was going to A&E wasting valuable staff time etc. After ringing 111 and then speaking to a doctor on the phone, they advised me to go to A&E within the hour, as severe acid reflux can be a sign of more serious things eg heart. They advised me to get someone to take me, hmmmm...... who? I certainly wasn't going to infect any of my work colleagues with my virus, so took myself to A&E.

I was very lucky indeed, as there were only about half a dozen people in the waiting room. I didn't feel particularly safe sitting down, I nearly laid down on the floor I felt so faint. I was seen fairly promptly by a triage nurse, who did my obs. My temperature was high and my blood pressure was low. Then I had to wait in the waiting room again and was called back and put onto a trolley, where they did an ECG, took bloods and inserted a cannula with a bag of fluids. I had obs taken again several times and at one point my BP dropped to 99 over sixty something. A very flamboyant A&E doctor then attended and assessed me. I was dehydrated because of lack of fluids and probably faint because I had not eaten since yesterday lunchtime. He thought that because of the virus I have, that my acid reflux was exacerbated and he explained that this should settle down. He couldn't believe that my GP had not sent me for further investigations since I have been on Lanzoprazole for so many years. He said he will write to my GP to advise that I have an endoscopy – he went on to explain that I may not be on the correct tablet anyway, depending on what is going on exactly. He advised me to eat very lightly eg fruit only for the next for days and to rest at home. All the staff in A&E were awesome, very kind and caring indeed – couldn't fault them at all. As I left, the waiting room was bursting at the seams.

So no work for the next few days and Vivien and Lucy will be celebrating Lucy's birthday alone tomorrow. We were going to Prezzos in the evening. We will have to meet up again when I am well. On hindsight, I really regret going to Cambridge on the train, how stupid was I!!! I still have a temperature this evening and my stomach is still painful, fruit is not going down very well either.