The Taming of the Screw

Sorry for my lack of blogging but there's been a lot going on! Anyway, new updated! I have a screw loose..(insert joke here)..I have a screw in my back that has come loose. The very last screw at the bottom of my back has come away & is now poking out if my skin (minging I know).. So I noticed this happening pretty much straight away, one night I was in my nana's bathroom putting moisturiser on my legs & I felt this twinge in my back on the left side where I would imagine my kidneys to be. I came downstairs to tell my nana as I could now feel a round lump under my skin, she couldn't feel anything nor could my uncle mark or my mum, but you know you're own body & you know when something doesn't feel right. At the time that all my crazy heart stuff was going on (previous post) I told every doctor that I saw, maybe 6 or more & they all told me there was nothing to worry about that I could feel it purely because I was very skinny. Well, HA! They were wrong. I met with Mr. H, my consultant here in Belfast in December. He did two X-rays, one from the front & one from the side. He had a look at them at said they looked good & that everything was healing well. I told him about the lump I could feel, he went & had a second look at the anterior X-Ray, low & behold there it was, my loose screw! I wasn't going crazy, I wasn't too skinny, I was right! So he said first of all that I needed it fixed, sent me for an MRI to see if there was any damage to the bone (suggesting movement) or if it had always been like that since I first had the surgery. The MRI showed no movement so then Mr. H (who is a bit of an arse tbh) decided I didn't need the surgery & that I'd have to wait to see my London consultants in mid January. At the end of January after many threatening phone calls we finally got an appointment with Mr. L (a surgeon from RNOH), he took one look at my X-ray said yes that isn't right let's fix it for you, no questions, no fighting, just plain & simple it needs fixed! So that takes us to now, I am off to London tomorrow & am being admitted to RNOH at 7am on Tuesday morning short 20 minute procedure, few days stay & home again, hopefully this will FINALLY be the end of my surgeries, for this year at least!!
LJ xo

My heart will go on...hopefully

So, I arrived in the A&E department of the Ulster Hospital, within minutes I was in triage. The nurse there told me I looked very weak & unwell even though my vitals were normal. She took me through to the majors unit of A&E, not a nice calm place that's for sure.. I again had blood tests, chest X-ray etc done & again they showed nothing.. But this time my Doctor actually just looked at me, knew there was something going on, that I wouldn't look the way I did if I was perfectly healthy.. It was time for her to clock off for the night so she handed me over to another doctor. I again repeated my symptoms to him, but this time he picked up on one, "I feel worse when i stand up, my head goes really light & the colour drains from my face", so he decided to repeat my ECG, lying down first then standing up.. And FINALLY, they found something unusual. My heart rate when I was lying down was 52bpm. And when I stood up, instantly, jumped to 146bpm. There it was, a black & white symptom. Nothing I could over exaggerate. I was now a very interesting case, 19, post surgery, otherwise healthy, with a racing heart rate, only when standing. I was admitted to the medical assessment unit for the night as there were no beds on the cardiology ward. I continued to be sick through the night even with anti-sickness meds, and became very very restless..The next morning my room was constantly visited by Doctors.. No one had any clue what was going on.. I was given 4 bags of fluids which helped to get rid of the nausea & regulate my temperature even though I still couldn't really eat, especially the horrendous hospital food (minced chicken for example). I was then moved up to the cardiology ward & assigned to Prof. Trinoch & consultant Dr. Donnelly. I was given a telemetry which monitored my heart 24/7, one night I got out of bed & the doctors came running in to see what I was doing because my heart had just raced to 160bpm. I was started on beta blockers to help control my heart rate, within a couple of days I felt much better, I was given the diagnosis of SVT (super ventricular tachycardia), I won't go unto it cause I'll be here forever, but look it up if your interested. I was allowed to go home, & continue to take my beta blocker each morning.
                                                           LJxo

Complications Part 2..

So, this was now the 10th of October.. I had lost a stone in the last 2 weeks, was practically grey in colour, exhausted, my temperature was all over the place, I felt clammy all the time, nauseous, vomiting up everything even water, extremely light headed when standing up; all the colour would drain from my face, I'd feel like I was going to collapse & my chest pain had gotten worse alongside a racing heart. My mum decided I needed to go into hospital, that I  couldn't afford to lose anymore weight, so off we went to the Royal Victoria Hospital A&E. I sat in the waiting room on plastic chairs for 6 hours, despite telling them I was 4 weeks post spinal surgery.. I was eventually seen by a junior doctor. She did a chest x ray, bloods, urine, found nothing so told me that I had pain anxiety & that I was "skin and bones, pale, exhausted, but nothing is wrong, you should just get anti-sickness medication off your GP on Monday" this was on Saturday.. That night I spent all night lying on the tiles on my bathroom floor trying to keep my temperature down, vomiting even with nothing to be sick on, got no sleep & was getting weaker & weaker. The next morning I got up early had my medication & tried to have some breakfast, 3 bites later & I was being sick again.. I felt like I was dying.. I was so dehydrated, weak, sore & exhausted. I called the on call doctor, she came out immediately, took one look at me & told me I should be in hospital for fluids & anti-sickness if nothing else. She gave me an anti sickness injection & gave me a note to take to A&E, this time in the Mid-Ulster Hospital. I got an over night bag together & off I went..
                                                                          LJxo

Complications..Part one

So although my surgery was great, & Mr. Shaw did a fab job it wasn't all plain sailing.. Far from it. So going back to when I was in London, I had this persistent chest pain on my right side, almost like a burning sensation when I moved, particularly when I sat forward or stood up. I mentioned it to my doctor, but nothing was ever investigated so I thought it was part in parcel of the surgery & it would probably heal itself. Well, it didn't.. I went to see my local GP on the 23rd of September for the nurse to check my scars were healing & everything was how it should be. Both the GP & Nurse said how pale I was & that I didn't look well. I mentioned to the GP at this point that I had the recurring chest pain, she then sent me & my mum up to the Royal Victoria Hospital as she didn't know enough about scoliosis or the surgery to advise anything. We then headed to A&E, sat for a few hours before being seen by a Junior Dr. He did bloods, chest x-ray and arterial blood tests.. found nothing wrong, but sent me up to orthopaedics anyway. They were not any help at all!! They simply upped my morphine by 20mg, which was already 140mg per day, and considering i was only 47kilos, that was a lot! They then sent me home. I continued to get worse.. now losing weight too. I couldn't have imagined what was at the bottom of this, all i knew at this point was that I had continuous chest pain that wasn't getting any better..
                                                             LJxo

The transformation..

Surgery Part 2

My next surgery was much bigger & more invasive, but I just wanted it done, I wasn't nervous, I was determined. The same surgery prep as I mentioned in my last post was all done again. I was a pro at blood tests by now & cannulas, even if I did still need my "magic" numbing cream.. I went off the surgery in the afternoon of the 9th of September with my mum this time. I bid my nana goodbye & was perfectly calm. I again got the floaty feeling with the pre med, & don't remember anything until recovery. Again I had tea & toast, (four slices this time) ha, & slept soundly through the night, I was comfortable in the early hours of the morning but by the time my mum arrived at 10am I was crying in agony, the dia-morphine injection had worn off & I could feel everything.. The nurses did their best to manage my pain, but it took 4 hours for me to feel any kind of relief. I was then moved up to my ward again & started getting a temperature.. This continued to increase through the night as well as my heart rate..there were only 2 nurses on my ward & 1 on call doctor for the whole hospital so very little could be done until the morning. My mum arrived at 6am & we were shortly surrounded by all sorts of Doctors. They did arterial blood tests, chest x-rays, & a CTPA scan with contrast dye where they found shadowing in my upper right lung, I was told I had a clot & that they would start me on clexane injections that evening to thin my blood. We were also told that the clexane could gather around the nerves at the base of my spine & make me lose all feeling in my legs & feet. I was on my ward with no monitoring apart from my mum tickling my feet and legs for an hour before I was moved back the HDU for another night. I was incredibly uncomfortable all night, & in the morning more doctors & tests.. It was then picked up that I needed a blood transfusion, 2 units. I continued to have the clexane injections every evening, they were injected into my belly, not the nicest thing ever & then I was started on warfarin. The doctors weren't convinced with the clot diagnosis so got a cardiologist from a neighbouring hospital to do an ultra sound of my heart, he said I had one of the strongest hearts he'd seen & there was no clot, nor had there ever been. I was discharged this day.. The surgery was completely successful & my back was the one thing that didn't give me any trouble. I grew 2 inches & had an incredible result.. What stood out for me was when my doctors were talking about me & said "this is Leigh, & she had scoliosis".. I didn't have it anymore.. Wow.
           LJxo

Surgery Part 1

Sorry for the absence of posts, but only now 3 months post surgery on Monday do I feel ready to talk about the past 12 weeks & everything the surgeries brought.. So I arrived in London on 1st of September veryyy early, 7am actually & wasn't being admitted into the RNOH until 2pm, was the longest wait of my life..(until that night). I arrived at the hospital & was lucky enough to be put in lovely ward 4 beside a girl who was my age, born exactly a week before me, & having a similar surgery on the same day. Us & our families quickly bonded & this helped to keep my mind off the upcoming surgery. My surgery was scheduled for the next morning around 10.30am. The anaesthetist came & met with me in the evening to take blood & talk through what meds would be used to put me to sleep, what I would have during the surgery & what I would have after the surgery. Mr. Shaw (my surgeon) came & introduced me to my Doctor, Adam Benton, he talked me through my anterior fusion, the procedure & got me to sign my consent forms. This surgery fixed my lumbar curve. That night I didn't sleep a wink, I was terrified. It was incredibly hard when my family left, just thinking the next time I saw them it would be my surgery day. The nurses came early that morning, I wasn't allowed any breakfast, had to have a shower, take off any make up & jewellery, tie my hair up & put on my surgery clothes (not the best thing I've ever worn). I said my goodbyes to my mum & nana. I met the scrub nurse in the prep room, the anaesthetists gave me my pre med which made all my nerves disappear & made me feel veryyy floaty..haha that's all I remember until I woke up in recovery, & of course the first thing I do after spinal surgery is sneeze.. *sigh* I was incredibly drugged up & sleepy, but much more comfortable than I expected to be. I was lucky with the morphine too, it didn't make me nauseous, the opposite, I had tea & toast as soon as I arrived in the HDU. My night there was very comfortable, even the next morning, I even put make up on!! That soon wore off once I had to be turned, changed & moved up to the ward, although my back gave me very little trouble, my chest drain was not so great, especially when it got caught on the side of my bed & moved about inside my chest. When that was removed on day 4, things got better & better, I could shower instead of bed baths, get my catheter out, & sit up out of bed, stand and eventually walk! I even got to go out for coffee in a wheel chair with my mum :) the surgery was very successful & I had no post up complications!! One down, one to go..
                                                                                             LJ xo