Thanks SurreyGirl. I’ll take your advice. I will save catching up on your thread for now, because I have more than I expected to record today and want to get it down.
Now, if anyone ever comes across this when browsing pre-op, two important things to note:
A. This won’t happen to you.
B. I am fine and tucked up in my bed at home.
So.... Day 5 was spent at local Accident & Emergency centre.
I had planned to make my own breakfast, so that Husband (H) , who has not been well himself, could have a lie in. I awoke at 3am in the night with quite bad pain and a feeling of nausea. I managed to manoeuvre a stack of pillows under my calves and that helped with both symptoms, and I then slept through to 8am without the need for a loo visit, unusual for me. I had dreams of shouting for people who couldn’t hear me, I think because I would have liked to call H but didn’t have the heart to. I’ll also say I think the mind has a 3am mode when everything feels worse. My heels for example felt like they were rubbed raw and there was nothing wrong with them after a little tug on the stockings.
I got up and to the loo and did my standing exercises and headed to the kitchen where I had told H what to lay out on the counter for my use. I enjoyed standing and looking out at the garden; knowing I wouldn’t be out there again I had made a special effort with the bit that is visible from the kitchen. This was my first viewing since the op. My temporary bedroom doesn’t have a window to the garden. I made tea and toast and realised the flaw in my plan: I had no way to carry breakfast to bed and I hadn’t arranged for the special chair to be in the kitchen. So I decided to breakfast standing up. I didn’t think about it too much because I have been having breakfast that way for the last couple of years as my arthritis made it uncomfortable to sit, long before I discovered it was arthritis. I had been distracted by the process of assembling food and pivoted on the post op leg which gave me a nasty feeling in the joint, but I stopped still and the feeling passed immediately and it seemed all was well. But I was unsettled.
I sipped some tea but the smell of hot toast suddenly made me feel sick. Then faint. My previous, first in a lifetime, faint, just over two weeks ago, had been diagnosed as hyperventilating from anxiety. So I told myself to take slow steady breaths and I would be fine. I leaned on the counter and realised I wouldn’t be fine. I yelled for H, still asleep upstairs, and hoped he would hear and be in time to catch me. The edges of my vision became patterned with grey lines.
Then to my surprise H had materialised instantly, which was good. Except he was looking down at me, very worried. “What happened?” I asked. Yes, the movie cliche is true. “I came in to see you shaking and then you just fell.” “On my bad side?” Yes. I took stock. I was on my back on the stone kitchen floor. I had a painful lump on the back of my head, but the hip, thank heaven, did not hurt more than before. H brought pillows and we tried to arrange me in the best possible position and discussed what to do. H phoned the private hospital and got a nurse. The hospital clearly wasn’t going to do anything. She suggested as I seemed to have a neurological problem I should see my GP. I asked for the physio and luckily got Mr Helpful and not Mr NoNeed. He talked me through the process to rise from flat on the floor. I said I would spend some time on my back while I worked up to it and he said I could call back when ready and he could talk me through it.
H and I discussed again, H reminded me that paramedics do come out to get people up after a fall. I thought that was the way to go, but as it wasn’t an emergency, we would try 111 not 999. We did, and got in a queue-for-first-available-operator. Gave up and called 999, who answered right away but said there would be a delay. Lay there feeling increasingly uncomfortable. I couldn’t tell if my back hurt from landing or just from being flat on stone tiles. My hip and thigh area was up to a 6 on pain score, breaking all previous records. Of course I hadn’t taken my meds (memo to self, in future take before getting out of bed) and I couldn’t raise myself to drink water and take them now. The 999 called back and said there was still delay, this was about 90 minutes from calling, and asked me the questions again. It was tempting to lie and say I had chest pains as I knew that would get faster service, but I was honest. H did however say truthfully that my pain was worse and I was getting distressed, and that got me an upgrade.
The crew then arrived after not too long and I explained about keeping the hip in position. They had a very nifty inflating device but it still needed the 2 of them plus H to keep me feeling secure. They got me in a chair but darn it, the faintness came straight back. They gave me oxygen and I felt ok.So it was right to call them because it would have been such a struggle without and I might have fallen straight back down again. I didn’t want to go to hospital but they pointed out that with the bloodthinning medication it would be a good idea to get the lump on my head checked, so off we went.
It was a long day but the NHS staff looked after me wonderfully between spells of attending to real emergencies. They didn’t think anything of the headbump. They did X-ray my pelvis and back and I was so relieved there was no fracture. I was pretty sure that I hadn’t dislocated the hip since it was moving ok, but there was a possibility of a hairline fracture. But all was good. My bones are clearly tougher than the bone china cups which haven’t survived those stone tiles. They tested my fluids for infection and all was ok, just the raised markers to be expected post surgery.
The doctor’s diagnosis of the faint this time was:
:My permanent low BP, though that’s obviously not enough in itself because I haven’t fainted before these two episodes
: Drinking too much coffee and tea, which had dehydrated me, lowering BP
: Standing still too long. Particularly when I have just got up after lying flat for a long time.
This fits, because the first faint was also after I’d stood through breakfast, with coffee, and continued to stand while I read the paper.
That’s good news because now I have some things to avoid and hopefully avoid recurrence. Also make sure a chair is always close by to sit in at the first sense of uneasiness, and call for help if possible, not trying to fight it.
Breakfast in bed tomorrow!