1 Year On.

 

12 months ago today, 8th Oct at around 9am I called the local health centre to ask if a GP could do a home visit as I was unable to leave the flat to go up there due to various reasons. However the GP refused to come see me and sent out an ambulance & 2 paramedics to take me up to the local hospital. I felt this was totally unneccesary and a complete waste of money.  

They arrived around lunchtime & strapped me into some metal chair which was very uncomfortable and dragged me down the stairs like I was a sack of coal. I was getting increasingly stressed and they wouldn’t stop despite me screaming at them. They could see I was severely agitated and crying yet they refused to stop. By the time I got into the ambulance I had almost passed out and needed oxygen. Yet before they arrived I was walking about in the flat, albeit slowly but ok. They way they treated me was not what I expected and it left me extremely traumatised & distressed.

I aksed to see a GP because I had a large abcess in my groin area but by the time I got up to the hospital I was virtually unable to breath without oxygen and was highly distressed.

At the hospital I was seen to by a couple of nurses and then the rest of it is mostly a blur. I remember seeing a couple of faces I recognised (it’s a small island and you get used to seeing people around even if you don’t know their names) I must have passed out a few times because when I woke up my clothes – my top & bra (both brand new) had been cut off me as had my knickers & trousers and I was in the obligatory hospital gown – which as always is never big enough. I was told I needed to go to the mainland and would be airlifted over once the helicopter had landed over the road on the local football pitch.

I spent the next 2 weeks in Paisley hospital in the coronary care unit – seems I had something called “Atrial Fibrillation” which is a heart condition that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. I was told it was like a mini heart attack.

You can read the blog post I wrote when I eventually got out of hospital here 

I ended up back at the local hospital a week after coming home as I had a mini stroke – so heart issues, diabetes & a stroke. I don’t do things by halves me!!!!

So a year on, nothing much has changed. Health is still bad, I’m still on meds for the heart issue, and the diabetes, which I was told I had less than an hour before I was discharged from the hospital after nearly 2 weeks – is causing me a lot of problems. I had asked to be referred to mental health services but they are totally overstretched here on the island and not taking new referals apparently so nothing came of that. 

I’m still housebound, so in total (apart from the trip to hospital) I’ve not been out of the flat for nearly 20 months since late Feb. 2020.

Still not seen a GP either!!!