[Help] mental health - advice if possible please

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I feel a bit calmer - night sister has just started and is being a real doll - sorting out my meds and brought some soup. Unfortunately cant eat the soup or enjoy the coffee as my taste buds are shot and it all tastes like old gun metal literally.

But yes Harry, the only thing that has kept me sane the past 5 days in this room, is logging everything on my ipad with the view to sending it all to PALS - I will probably not send it, the value is the cathartic process of actually writing it.

Excellent - top work. Revenge is a dish best not served.....but the planning of it can be very calming. I keep all my work emails....just in case.

(Make sure you say something nice to the good nurse )

 

[Zeberdi]

I would always recommend taking in your meds from home also regardless of what a paramedic or GP says

Unfortunately I did but they were confiscated on admission - that’s what made me so upset - my asthma medicine was less than 12 inches from my head in a locked bedside safe draw to which I did not have access.

Have a lovely, very well qualified nursing sister on my team now who has explained tonight all my test results and even though she thinks I wont be leaving hospital tomorrow because the virus has impacted on my heart too, I feel much better - she’s also made arrangements for an urgent review of all my medication at 9.am during the doctors rounds tomorrow.

You NSC guys ….

Talked me down off the bloody ledge didn’t you - will not be forgotten

 

[Eric the meek]

Unfortunately I did but they were confiscated on admission - that’s what made me so upset - my asthma medicine was less than 12 inches from my head in a locked bedside safe draw to which I did not have access.

Have a lovely, very well qualified nursing sister on my team now who has explained tonight all my test results and even though she thinks I wont be leaving hospital tomorrow because the virus has impacted on my heart too, I feel much better - she’s also made arrangements for an urgent review of all my medication at 9.am during the doctors rounds tomorrow.

You NSC guys ….

Talked me down didn’t you - will not be forgotten

Great news, although I suspect it was that nursing sister. Whatever it was, something changed. Very glad to hear you're feeling much better anyway. Keep up the progress and enjoy a good night's sleep.

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

View attachment 158840

So as most people know, I was rushed into A&E on 19 March with breathing problems due to Covid - After all night on fluids, oxygen and Dexamethasone steroids, I was released Monday morning. Wednesday 21, morning a local GP called an ambulance for me after I registered with them temporarily and I was blue lighted back to hospital with a developing chest infection and breathing problems where I have been ever since.

I am a pretty stoical and strong person and have tried to keep positive through all this but I’ve been desperately ill, on nebulisers and very high steroids to try and control all the autoimmune responses my body is having to the virus - severe asthma attacks, fevers, oxygen depletion, extremely painful muscle spasms, violent vomiting, burning skin rashes, thyroid flare ups, chest pain, dangerously high blood pressure (all of which tbh I pretty much expected given my underlying health conditions).

What I didn’t expect was how difficult it would be to be in an isolation ward, 100s of miles from your nearest friends or family, allowed no visitors nor allowed out of my room, and only attended to by 3 nurses between 29 other patients or grumpy ancilliary workers who dont want to come into your room because of the notice stuck on the door. Ever since I have been here, the ward locked my own usual medication in a safe and the hospital was supposed to provide it but the medication has either been forgotten to be prescribed by an attending physician (after seeing me) or I have had to wait hours for it resulting in being very sick at times on top of the Covid. This morning I waited 5 hours for my morning meds (which included vital prednisone and crucial asthma prevention medication) because it hadn‘t been added to todays drug chart. Auxiallry Nurses keep counting out wrong doses (how difficult can it be to divide 5mg tablets into 40mg to work out how many tablets you need!?) and being unable to put on a BP cuff correctly to get an accurate reading.

For 4 days I was left in the same sweaty hospital gown that was too small - today they finally bought me a pair of pyjamas when I asked but they were so tiny (small boys probably) so I had to go back to the hospital gown. I have no toiletries and everytime I ask for soap, or anything else, it never arrives so I have stopped asking for anything now.

Maybe I’m feeling down because it’s not just the fact I am very ill in a strange hospital miles from home, with no visitors to bring me anything from home even if they were allowed to visit which they are not, but maybe its because I am in one of the worst ranked hospitals in the country, with a bare bone of unqualified staff being relied on to do jobs nursing staff should do and I am simply not getting consistent care or at the continual receiving end of passive aggressive behavior from people burnt out in their job if I dare asked for a jug of water or my overdue meds. Or maybe it’s the fact the only face to face contact I have had with other humans for the past 8 days is with masked health workers in gloves and apron coming in every 4 hours or so to put a breathing mask on me or stick a needle in me and getting out of the room as fast as is humanly possible because I am still infectious.

Or really maybe being on such high doses of oral steroids is making me angry and depressed because I can not sleep and have not slept for a week since treatment started.

Or maybe, I not had meals bought or the wrong diet - I’m on a very light, sugar free diet (soup mostly) and the dinner trolley staff have just slapped a massive roast dinner and apple crumble down on my bedside table - none of which I am able to eat.

I dont know what it is but it was enough to make me want to leave the hospital in the middle of the night Saturday and again this morning before I literally had a break down - problem is after walking a few yards, I tend to keel over and also cant leave without the prednisone to treat my autoimmune responses to the Covid infection.

So here I still am, at least until tomorrow afternoon, medicated up-to the eyeballs with my addled mind and autoimmune, asthmatic body being far more dangerous and threatening to me than the virus itself and struggling hard not to go into freefall of depression and despair.

Hope you are feeling better soon. Hope you get some sleep tonight.

 

[Sheebo]

All the best to everyone - and remember - there is ALWAYS light at the end of that tunnel. If you can’t see it now, it will appear. I’ve been there and I know. Talk, talk and more talk. And never be ashamed of anything

 

[South Oz Seagull]

Hope you get outta there and are on the mend very soon. We all seem to get tested in this life, through on-going challenges or situations that explode like yours. I could go further down the philosophical/mystical path with all of this but it's a football forum so I'd better not.

 

[Deleted member 37369]

Unfortunately I did but they were confiscated on admission - that’s what made me so upset - my asthma medicine was less than 12 inches from my head in a locked bedside safe draw to which I did not have access.

Have a lovely, very well qualified nursing sister on my team now who has explained tonight all my test results and even though she thinks I wont be leaving hospital tomorrow because the virus has impacted on my heart too, I feel much better - she’s also made arrangements for an urgent review of all my medication at 9.am during the doctors rounds tomorrow.

You NSC guys ….

Talked me down off the bloody ledge didn’t you - will not be forgotten

Good morning Zeb ... I hope you had a relatively peaceful night ... as far as that's possible when in hospital.

I know from personal experience with my son, having spent months at a time in hospital how important the nursing staff are to making a stay in hospital more bearable. I know there's a big debate over pay and NHS funding ... and this may be an uncomfortable truth ... but some of the nursing (and other) staff we have experienced over the years, clearly should not be in the job. BUT ... thankfully there are also many gems like the nursing sister you had last night.

I could fill pages with some of the issues we've had where some nurses have just been plain lazy where others have had to pick up the slack. But it's a constant fight and is mentally draining on top of everything else going on.

Good nutrition is so important when someone is unwell. Goodness me ... my son's last stay was shocking. Ticking what he wanted for dinner almost became a pointless exercise as so many times when they came round with his food, they handed him something else (something that was inappropriate for his dietary requirements), because they'd 'run out' of what he ordered!! Even something as simple as breakfast was a lottery depending who was doing the breakfast round in the morning. My son would usually order cornflakes and toast. If it was a particular person on breakfast duty, the chap would put a few cornflakes in a bowel and pour the milk on ... meaning that by the time he got to my son 30 minutes later it was just a soggy mess!! If it was the other chap doing it ... he would do it fresh at my son's bedside! It's not difficult ... and it probably seems such a stupid simple thing ... but on top of everything else going on these things can be huge.

Other than having to deal with covid, I don't know what your other medical issues are Zeb ... but hope things stabilise and improve for you asap and that you can get back home.

As has been suggested ... do carry on with your journal on your iPad, detailing what's going on ... although hopefully you won't have to add too much to it. And then you can decide what to do with it later ...

Hope your meds can get sorted this morning ... something else that should be very simple and yet seems to cause so many issues ... which can only impact on the wellbeing of the patient. Hoping for a good and positive day for you.

Best wishes ... HS

 

[Eric the meek]

@Zeberdi, you're not going to believe this, but I've just done a Lateral flow test, and I've tested positive for Covid.

I've been feeling a bit poorly of late, (headaches, persistent cough from post-nasal drip, diarrhea, fatigue more than usual) so I googled the symptoms and went 'ah'.
At the moment I don't seem to be as bad as you are, and I'm not in a high risk category, so I'll self-isolate at home and try not to let my wife and son catch it.

Hope you continue to make progress in the coming days and are home soon.

All the best, Eric.

 

[Zeberdi]

@Zeberdi, you're not going to believe this, but I've just done a Lateral flow test, and I've tested positive for Covid.

I've been feeling a bit poorly of late, (headaches, persistent cough from post-nasal drip, diarrhea, fatigue more than usual) so I googled the symptoms and went 'ah'.
At the moment I don't seem to be as bad as you are, and I'm not in a high risk category, so I'll self-isolate at home and try not to let my wife and son catch it.

Hope you continue to make progress in the coming days and are home soon.

All the best, Eric.

sorry to hear that Eric - if you start feeling breathless, have a very high temperature or wheezing probably time to contact 111 - otherwise, provided you dont have any serious underlying conditions (ie heart, blood cancer, chest, kidney, autoimmunity), you should be able to ride it out at home.

Feel better soon and I am glad you have your wife to look after you (even if it’s to leave soup outside the spare bedroom door! )

 

[Mr Phil]

Ah man it's easy to forget how serious covid is for those at risk, this thread really brings that home.
Hope you're doing ok today @Zeberdi and your morning meds assessment went as planned

 

[LamieRobertson]

Good morning Zeb ... I hope you had a relatively peaceful night ... as far as that's possible when in hospital.

I know from personal experience with my son, having spent months at a time in hospital how important the nursing staff are to making a stay in hospital more bearable. I know there's a big debate over pay and NHS funding ... and this may be an uncomfortable truth ... but some of the nursing (and other) staff we have experienced over the years, clearly should not be in the job. BUT ... thankfully there are also many gems like the nursing sister you had last night.

I could fill pages with some of the issues we've had where some nurses have just been plain lazy where others have had to pick up the slack. But it's a constant fight and is mentally draining on top of everything else going on.

Good nutrition is so important when someone is unwell. Goodness me ... my son's last stay was shocking. Ticking what he wanted for dinner almost became a pointless exercise as so many times when they came round with his food, they handed him something else (something that was inappropriate for his dietary requirements), because they'd 'run out' of what he ordered!! Even something as simple as breakfast was a lottery depending who was doing the breakfast round in the morning. My son would usually order cornflakes and toast. If it was a particular person on breakfast duty, the chap would put a few cornflakes in a bowel and pour the milk on ... meaning that by the time he got to my son 30 minutes later it was just a soggy mess!! If it was the other chap doing it ... he would do it fresh at my son's bedside! It's not difficult ... and it probably seems such a stupid simple thing ... but on top of everything else going on these things can be huge.

Other than having to deal with covid, I don't know what your other medical issues are Zeb ... but hope things stabilise and improve for you asap and that you can get back home.

As has been suggested ... do carry on with your journal on your iPad, detailing what's going on ... although hopefully you won't have to add too much to it. And then you can decide what to do with it later ...

Hope your meds can get sorted this morning ... something else that should be very simple and yet seems to cause so many issues ... which can only impact on the wellbeing of the patient. Hoping for a good and positive day for you.

Best wishes ... HS

Gawd I wouldn’t be happy at all about that

 

[pearl]

sorry to hear that Eric - if you start feeling breathless, have a very high temperature or wheezing probably time to contact 111 - otherwise, provided you dont have any serious underlying conditions (ie heart, blood cancer, chest, kidney, autoimmunity), you should be able to ride it out at home.

Feel better soon and I am glad you have your wife to look after you (even if it’s to leave soup outside the spare bedroom door! )

Hi Zeberdi
Well, I've been feeling a bit sorry for myself, lost another friend recently. God, I know more dead people than live one's these days!
Anyway your horrific news has given me a kick up the arse. I really hope your health improves soon so you can go back home.
Thinking of you, take care and very best wishes
Pearl
x

 

[SK1NT]

Anxiety and depression seems to be on the increase. I would say more than half of my friends and family now would class themselves as living with anxiety or depression. This has definitely increased since covid. I suffer from anxiety and it has been a little better of late. We have moved and the bigger house and space makes me feel less trapped. Previous i had 2 young kids, 3 cats and my partner all in a 2 bed flat.

Here is a good thread with some lovely replies that may help: https://www.northstandchat.com/threads/more-anxiety-as-i-get-older.388746/

I would say NSC is such a warming place. 99.9% of people here really care and can really help. If i ever have a problem or in future if i ever had one i think that NSC would be my first point of call.

I can't add to much more than what has already been posted or said in other threads however my main things that helped me were:

1) Diet - eating healthy just made me feel a little better. When i loaded up on crap food i seemed to feel worse.
2) Nature and going out for walks... this is a massive help. I use to get miserable and down when it got dark and in the evenings however i noticed these occurrences reduced if i had been out for a walk in the countryside.
3) Take a vitamin D spray : Amazon product
this helps with mood and immune system.
4) Exercise really does help. It's hard to start but make it routine.

Good luck and never ever feel silly. The fact you are brave enough to post on here is testament to you.

All the best mate

 

[Weststander]

Anxiety and depression seems to be on the increase. I would say more than half of my friends and family now would class themselves as living with anxiety or depression. This has definitely increased since covid. I suffer from anxiety and it has been a little better of late. We have moved and the bigger house and space makes me feel less trapped. Previous i had 2 young kids, 3 cats and my partner all in a 2 bed flat.

Here is a good thread with some lovely replies that may help: https://www.northstandchat.com/threads/more-anxiety-as-i-get-older.388746/

I would say NSC is such a warming place. 99.9% of people here really care and can really help. If i ever have a problem or in future if i ever had one i think that NSC would be my first point of call.

I can't add to much more than what has already been posted or said in other threads however my main things that helped me were:

1) Diet - eating healthy just made me feel a little better. When i loaded up on crap food i seemed to feel worse.
2) Nature and going out for walks... this is a massive help. I use to get miserable and down when it got dark and in the evenings however i noticed these occurrences reduced if i had been out for a walk in the countryside.
3) Take a vitamin D spray : Amazon product
this helps with mood and immune system.
4) Exercise really does help. It's hard to start but make it routine.

Good luck and never ever feel silly. The fact you are brave enough to post on here is testament to you.

All the best mate

All great advice, the exercise can simply be brisk walks.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

sorry to hear that Eric - if you start feeling breathless, have a very high temperature or wheezing probably time to contact 111 - otherwise, provided you dont have any serious underlying conditions (ie heart, blood cancer, chest, kidney, autoimmunity), you should be able to ride it out at home.

Feel better soon and I am glad you have your wife to look after you (even if it’s to leave soup outside the shed! )

corrected for you

 

[Zeberdi]

Hello all.

Im finally home from hospital and hopefully without too much long term damage from Covid, just very fatigued with some stomach problems and long term lung/fatigue issues.

Thank you again for helping to lift me out of a rabbit hole last week - I was actually fine after that emotional clusterfcuk last Sunday with your much appreciated help and more than fine now I am home, out of isolation and off such high doses of steroids.

You guys are the best and PL is back, yaaay! - 3 points today please

 

[Deleted member 37369]

The lads are out warming up … we’ll cheer them on and get the 3 points for you ️

 

[Zeberdi]

Im finally home from hospital

That didn’t last long - blue lighted to hospital on Saturday with stomach pains and vomiting sent home Sunday with no treatment- then re-admitted Monday morning at 6:am - finally had a ultra sound - gallbladder infection and stones and have developed some nasty neurological issues too including impaired vision and loss of balance Hey ho - at least it’s not Lewisham and I will not let this get me down and the above comments from lovely NSCers will help me to stay out of the rabbit hole

There is no tv here and I have no iPad so will probably not see the match tonight

 

[Brovion]

That didn’t last long - blue lighted to hospital on Saturday with stomach pains and vomiting sent home Sunday with no treatment- then re-admitted Monday morning at 6:am - finally had a ultra sound - gallbladder infection and stones and have developed some nasty neurological issues too including impaired vision and loss of balance Hey ho - at least it’s not Lewisham and I will not let this get me down and the above comments from lovely NSCers will help me to stay out of the rabbit hole

There is no tv here and I have no iPad so will probably not see the match tonight

Not sure any words from me are going to help, but jeez you've been through the wringer. Hang in there and 'take the positives' as they say, which I accept must be extremely hard in your case so just remember - at least you're not a Palace fan!

All the best.

 

[Springal]

That didn’t last long - blue lighted to hospital on Saturday with stomach pains and vomiting sent home Sunday with no treatment- then re-admitted Monday morning at 6:am - finally had a ultra sound - gallbladder infection and stones and have developed some nasty neurological issues too including impaired vision and loss of balance Hey ho - at least it’s not Lewisham and I will not let this get me down and the above comments from lovely NSCers will help me to stay out of the rabbit hole

There is no tv here and I have no iPad so will probably not see the match tonight

Interesting. I am fairly young, healthy and I had gallbladder issues after covid which resulted in it being removed. They are studying a potential link between covid and gallbladder issues according to my surgeon. All the best !