So again, it's been a couple of weeks since I last did an update and again, I wish it was more of a happy one.
So, on 29/6 I got rushed into hospital.
Early Monday morning I was just going about my business before I crawled into bed for the night, I was finishing up watching some YouTube videos while actually working on a script for a YouTube video and I felt fine. I finished up what I was doing checked my blood sugars (6.5 mmol - Perfectly normal) and I crawled into bed and drifted off to sleep about 3:30am.
An hour later I awoke to the most searing gut pain of my life. " oh god what have I eaten " was the first thing that ran through my head.
I knew I was going to throw up but at this point I was just trying to put it off for as long as I could. So, I just lay there for a good 15 minutes just holding everything back. The time came where not only was did I know I was going to throw up but the other end needed some attention too. So, I threw back the bed covers and sat up. Mistake number 1. The room started spinning and sweat started pouring off me. But not the " boy I’m really hot " kind of sweat this was ice cold and flowed off me like a river. So, I stand up and lurch over to the bathroom and sit on the toilet, the world spinning around me and manage to get there completely out of breath just in time to catch all my bodily fluids which at this point were mostly blood.
But not the nice bright red blood this stuff had been a round in my stomach/GI tract for a while and was virtually black. So with blood expelled, still completely out of breath I try and make it back to my bed. I say try to make it to my bed because I didn’t quite make it. Just as I made it into the room before out go the lights and collapse to the side of the bed.
"Uiaad? are you ok" I hear as I start coming around
" Yeah I’m fine, just fallen out of bed I’m fine " I have no idea why I said this even still. Only thing I can think of that I opened my eyes and saw the side of my bed and put 2 and 2 together and got 6. All I remember here is her almost screaming " no you haven’t no you haven’t!!!!"
So, my wife helps me onto the bed and calls an ambulance - We get a rapid responder first who comes in with his kit and checks my blood sugars and they have jumped from 6.5 a couple of hours ago to 27. something and assumes that this is Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA).
Now when I was first diagnosed being diabetic, I did have DKA I had been walking around with blood sugars greater than 20 mmol and when I was admitted to hospital that time the initial measurement was 39.4 mmol - they had absolutely no idea how I was even awake let alone walking and talking. It's not something you forget the feeling of quickly and this was nothing like DKA apart from the high blood sugars. Eventually he takes my temperature (normal) pulse (raised) and blood pressure which is through the floor. You could see the look on his face change from " this is self-inflicted " to "holy shit this guy is on the edge" pillows were taken from behind my head and placed under my feet and a full ambulance called.
So, I get taken though to Accident and Emergency (ER) where I spend the next 6/7 hours having my blood pressure, temp and blood sugars taken. Blood pressure was going up, temperature was staying the same as it wasn't an issue in the first place and sugars are coming down, but none of this was a surprise as I’m bring pumped full of IV liquids and Insulin. I also had the now famous covid test (cotton swab to the back of the nose) which isn’t as uncomfortable as people make it out to be so you know (came back negative). Now all the while I have been in A&E I have been laying, with my head lower than my heart to improve blood pressure. Well it's been a while now and I really need to pee so I find the controls for the bed and slowly tilt myself flat and everything is fine. So, I sit up and there goes the world again, spinning around me like the tea cups ride and I lay back down and things slowly go back to normal.
Now if you know me, if there are one thing you take away very quickly is that if I can do something for myself, I will do it for myself and hate asking for help. So, I end up laying there for a good 15 minutes slowly working out how to take a pee, in the end I just cut my losses and press the call nurse button. She eventually brings me two of those card board bottles to pee in and I filled them both. Even she was a little amazed.
Now since I hadn’t vomited or passed any more blood, I was taken to an isolation ward while they figured out what to do with me. They still weren't sure what was wrong with me at all. Although if they had listened to what medications I was on and connected the dots I probably would have been in and out.
So now it's around 6pm and I’m in a private room on a ward having liquids being pumped in to me but nothing being done towards an actual diagnosis. Now in this room was nothing entertainment wise. Not a TV nor radio and all I had was a phone that was now on 20% battery being used to communicate with my wife when I could actually connect to the 4g or Wi-Fi network. So, I started to do what IT guys do best. I started to google. Bearing in mind that it's now 6 PM had been up since half 4 having gone to bed at half 3 and not having any of my regular pain killers since 10pm the previous night, Mr nice Uiaad is beginning to slowly disappear and be replaced with someone with no patience what so ever.
After about 20 minutes of googling I strike gold. I mean this vain of gold stretches the whole length of the mountain. 2 weeks ago, I had been put on a new drug to go on top of my other pain killers. This drug is known to cause stomach ulcers/bleeding on its own, but when it was paired with the naproxen I was also on it was pretty much a certainty when not using something to also reduce the acidity of the stomach and protect it while you’re on it... which I wasn’t.
So, I call a nurse and ask for some water and but before she leaves ask if I could talk with a Dr and she says that one should be around in a couple of minutes anyway
So, I wait and he comes around
" So whats going on?"
" We think you have a gastro bug "
" But would that really explain all the bleeding? " I turn on my phone and show him a couple of pages on the BNF (British National Formulary) and some docs from the Mayo Clinic
" but you're not on Duloxetine or Naproxen "
I just look at him blank "Ugghhh yes I do " I log in to the app that I use to order my repeat prescription and let him scroll though
The colour starts to drain from his face as realisation comes
" I gave the paramedics a hard copy of what I was on, A&E a hard copy of what I was on as well and telling countless dr's what I’m on and the doses. How the flying fuck is this news to you? "
He was silent for a minute before saying " excuse me " and leaving the room. I was then very quickly given a couple of IV bags that mysteriously started making me feel better not long after that.
At after this point not, a whole lot happened that would be considered interesting. After those two bags had run though and entered my system my blood pressure finally started coming back up and I was able to walk again and I’d arranged for my wife to bring me some clothes a charger and tablet. But she wasn’t allowed in because of covid and no one would take the stuff to me so I had to walk out IV hanger and all. And may whatever deity bless her she brought me vape too, so I hung around for 10 minutes outside before making my way back.
After all of this I was taken to a private room in a geriatric ward, I’m 37 lol but I’m pretty sure they were just hedging their bets and it was the only place they could shove me out the way. I had a camera shoved both up and down me (I’ll let you use your imaginations) which found an ulcer in my stomach which caused the bleed but seemed to be healing pretty well. So now I have been taken off the duloxetine and naproxen and it left a big hole in the pain management strategy that my GP hasn’t been able to fill. oh! and I need to go back to the hospital in about 6 weeks to have another camera down to see how things are healing over.
Anyway, thank you for listening to my TED talk, I have been Uiaad and as always questions and comments are welcome. Hopefully I will do something a little happier next time. I'm thinking perhaps a game review or something ... I have my eye on one or two games ...
So, on 29/6 I got rushed into hospital.
Early Monday morning I was just going about my business before I crawled into bed for the night, I was finishing up watching some YouTube videos while actually working on a script for a YouTube video and I felt fine. I finished up what I was doing checked my blood sugars (6.5 mmol - Perfectly normal) and I crawled into bed and drifted off to sleep about 3:30am.
An hour later I awoke to the most searing gut pain of my life. " oh god what have I eaten " was the first thing that ran through my head.
I knew I was going to throw up but at this point I was just trying to put it off for as long as I could. So, I just lay there for a good 15 minutes just holding everything back. The time came where not only was did I know I was going to throw up but the other end needed some attention too. So, I threw back the bed covers and sat up. Mistake number 1. The room started spinning and sweat started pouring off me. But not the " boy I’m really hot " kind of sweat this was ice cold and flowed off me like a river. So, I stand up and lurch over to the bathroom and sit on the toilet, the world spinning around me and manage to get there completely out of breath just in time to catch all my bodily fluids which at this point were mostly blood.
But not the nice bright red blood this stuff had been a round in my stomach/GI tract for a while and was virtually black. So with blood expelled, still completely out of breath I try and make it back to my bed. I say try to make it to my bed because I didn’t quite make it. Just as I made it into the room before out go the lights and collapse to the side of the bed.
"Uiaad? are you ok" I hear as I start coming around
" Yeah I’m fine, just fallen out of bed I’m fine " I have no idea why I said this even still. Only thing I can think of that I opened my eyes and saw the side of my bed and put 2 and 2 together and got 6. All I remember here is her almost screaming " no you haven’t no you haven’t!!!!"
So, my wife helps me onto the bed and calls an ambulance - We get a rapid responder first who comes in with his kit and checks my blood sugars and they have jumped from 6.5 a couple of hours ago to 27. something and assumes that this is Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA).
Now when I was first diagnosed being diabetic, I did have DKA I had been walking around with blood sugars greater than 20 mmol and when I was admitted to hospital that time the initial measurement was 39.4 mmol - they had absolutely no idea how I was even awake let alone walking and talking. It's not something you forget the feeling of quickly and this was nothing like DKA apart from the high blood sugars. Eventually he takes my temperature (normal) pulse (raised) and blood pressure which is through the floor. You could see the look on his face change from " this is self-inflicted " to "holy shit this guy is on the edge" pillows were taken from behind my head and placed under my feet and a full ambulance called.
So, I get taken though to Accident and Emergency (ER) where I spend the next 6/7 hours having my blood pressure, temp and blood sugars taken. Blood pressure was going up, temperature was staying the same as it wasn't an issue in the first place and sugars are coming down, but none of this was a surprise as I’m bring pumped full of IV liquids and Insulin. I also had the now famous covid test (cotton swab to the back of the nose) which isn’t as uncomfortable as people make it out to be so you know (came back negative). Now all the while I have been in A&E I have been laying, with my head lower than my heart to improve blood pressure. Well it's been a while now and I really need to pee so I find the controls for the bed and slowly tilt myself flat and everything is fine. So, I sit up and there goes the world again, spinning around me like the tea cups ride and I lay back down and things slowly go back to normal.
Now if you know me, if there are one thing you take away very quickly is that if I can do something for myself, I will do it for myself and hate asking for help. So, I end up laying there for a good 15 minutes slowly working out how to take a pee, in the end I just cut my losses and press the call nurse button. She eventually brings me two of those card board bottles to pee in and I filled them both. Even she was a little amazed.
Now since I hadn’t vomited or passed any more blood, I was taken to an isolation ward while they figured out what to do with me. They still weren't sure what was wrong with me at all. Although if they had listened to what medications I was on and connected the dots I probably would have been in and out.
So now it's around 6pm and I’m in a private room on a ward having liquids being pumped in to me but nothing being done towards an actual diagnosis. Now in this room was nothing entertainment wise. Not a TV nor radio and all I had was a phone that was now on 20% battery being used to communicate with my wife when I could actually connect to the 4g or Wi-Fi network. So, I started to do what IT guys do best. I started to google. Bearing in mind that it's now 6 PM had been up since half 4 having gone to bed at half 3 and not having any of my regular pain killers since 10pm the previous night, Mr nice Uiaad is beginning to slowly disappear and be replaced with someone with no patience what so ever.
After about 20 minutes of googling I strike gold. I mean this vain of gold stretches the whole length of the mountain. 2 weeks ago, I had been put on a new drug to go on top of my other pain killers. This drug is known to cause stomach ulcers/bleeding on its own, but when it was paired with the naproxen I was also on it was pretty much a certainty when not using something to also reduce the acidity of the stomach and protect it while you’re on it... which I wasn’t.
So, I call a nurse and ask for some water and but before she leaves ask if I could talk with a Dr and she says that one should be around in a couple of minutes anyway
So, I wait and he comes around
" So whats going on?"
" We think you have a gastro bug "
" But would that really explain all the bleeding? " I turn on my phone and show him a couple of pages on the BNF (British National Formulary) and some docs from the Mayo Clinic
" but you're not on Duloxetine or Naproxen "
I just look at him blank "Ugghhh yes I do " I log in to the app that I use to order my repeat prescription and let him scroll though
The colour starts to drain from his face as realisation comes
" I gave the paramedics a hard copy of what I was on, A&E a hard copy of what I was on as well and telling countless dr's what I’m on and the doses. How the flying fuck is this news to you? "
He was silent for a minute before saying " excuse me " and leaving the room. I was then very quickly given a couple of IV bags that mysteriously started making me feel better not long after that.
At after this point not, a whole lot happened that would be considered interesting. After those two bags had run though and entered my system my blood pressure finally started coming back up and I was able to walk again and I’d arranged for my wife to bring me some clothes a charger and tablet. But she wasn’t allowed in because of covid and no one would take the stuff to me so I had to walk out IV hanger and all. And may whatever deity bless her she brought me vape too, so I hung around for 10 minutes outside before making my way back.
After all of this I was taken to a private room in a geriatric ward, I’m 37 lol but I’m pretty sure they were just hedging their bets and it was the only place they could shove me out the way. I had a camera shoved both up and down me (I’ll let you use your imaginations) which found an ulcer in my stomach which caused the bleed but seemed to be healing pretty well. So now I have been taken off the duloxetine and naproxen and it left a big hole in the pain management strategy that my GP hasn’t been able to fill. oh! and I need to go back to the hospital in about 6 weeks to have another camera down to see how things are healing over.
Anyway, thank you for listening to my TED talk, I have been Uiaad and as always questions and comments are welcome. Hopefully I will do something a little happier next time. I'm thinking perhaps a game review or something ... I have my eye on one or two games ...
Or others 
