The first of my hospital patient records turned up today...

This is will probably be better understood by the long term regulars that know my history. But it is a warning to anyone about the dangers of drinking.

For that reason, please do not go off topic and start talking about the sort of day you have had, please use another thread. I want this to be here for people to have another motivation to rein in their alcohol consumption.

So today, the first part of my records turned up today. This was for my stay at Warwick hospital, which was only for about 13 hours, from 3:00pm until 4:00am when I was transferred to Coventry for specialist treatment. There has to be about 30 pages, plus 20 in reports from other hospitals and a CD of my head X-rays and also my CT scan. God knows what I'm going to get for my nearly two month stay at Coventry, which I as good as self discharged.

The real shock is what I was sent in for. I always thought it was for my stroke and then a complication of liver problems, because Warwick told my wife that I had a bleed on the brain and that was why they were shipping me off to Coventry.

Today I read, that my GP sent me there from his surgery, because he believed I was having liver failure. It is written in black and white, no ambiguity. The initial doctor's notes made me smile, at the casualness - Pt appears very unwell? Cerebral impairment 2ndy (secondary) to liver failure. Placed in cubicle 11. Medic informed. Pt unwell and needs seeing sooner rather than later, nurse in charge informed.

There then follows a lot of standard paperwork, my details, any other issues, constant BP, pulse and temp. So many different medicines, including a Librium detox. Comments of suspected ascites, jaundice and subchondral haematoma of the left eye, which eventually went completely red.

Later they stuck a cannula in my arm, to give me a plasma transfusion to stabilise me and try and bring the platelet count up. They have what they call a MEWS score (modified early warning score) and I was up there with the best. Ream after ream of charts.

Then we get to the nitty gritty, the notes and scans and ECG. Well, we know about the liver failure, but then the ECG comes up abnormal - with Anteroseptal Infarct - you can Google it, but it is to do with the heart and it is not good news. Then comes the CT report, at this stage there seems to some question of whether I need to be in the liver ward or the neuro ward.

The CT doesn't let me down, it confirms an acute cerebral haemotoma of a size 2.2 x 4.00 x 3.5cm, and the cherry on top, a midline shift of 6mm. Google midline shift for details - Wiki describes it well and it is not good news.

I can now understand why they stuck an oxygen mask on me, shoved me in an ambulance and packed me off to Coventry. I haven't properly looked at the CT scans, as they do take a bit of understanding.

Roll on the records from Coventry. I was 48 when this happened, never had a problem with drinking before, never used to balck out or need a beer in the morning to get me going. Have a think next time you reach for that next bottle of wine.

2 likes, 23 replies