Friday 12th November 2010
At about a quarter past six I noticed that I appeared to be losing blood. I went off to the bathroom to investigate and found that he contents of my pouch had turned bright red. My immediate thought was that something had come apart internally and that I needed to get urgent medical attention. The level in the pouch was visibly increasing but not filling so fast that I would need to change it for a while.
My wife was already outside feeding the ponies so I went to explain to her and told her that I had a problem. I needed to get to hospital quickly. Knowing it was a Friday night and that A&E (Accident and Emergency) was likely to be busy we decided to call 999 rather than trying to organise a lift down there. I rang our neighbour to warn her what was happening and ask her to come and let the dogs out and give the ponies their late night haynets. We had no idea how long I’d be down at the hospital.
The ambulance turned up very quickly. Seven minutes from call to arrival. Once onboard the crew went through a series of tests and then we were off. No siren or blue lights. It wasn’t a very good ride in the back of the ambulance as they sway a lot and the country lanes around where we live are very twisty.
We arrived at East Surrey Hospital A&E at just after 7:15pm. One of the crew said: “we’re taking you into the Rapid Assessment Unit but don’t be fooled by the title”. His scepticism was unfounded and within 10 minutes I was laying on a bed having more tests and a cannula being inserted into my arm. I was then taken to the MAU (Medical Assessment Unit) but they were full so we had to wait in the corridor. This was probably the worst part of the experience because you couldn’t see what progress was being made in clearing the queue. I’m not sure what time I was actually wheeled into the Unit but it was probably around half past nine.
I was seen by one of the doctors and we went through my medical history and I explained what the current problem was. I got the distinct feeling that he wasn’t keen to explore my stoma himself and didn’t even suggest that we remove the bag to get a better look at it. He went off to ring one of the surgeons to see what should be done. At this point a friendly porter appeared to take me down for chest and abdominal x-rays. He remarked how busy they were and that it hadn’t been this bad since July. Surprisingly enough Friday and Saturday are not usually their busiest nights.
With the x-rays complete I was wheeled back to the MAU and it looked like I had missed my place in the queue. I was told that the plan was for me to be taken to the SAU (Surgical Assessment Unit). In the meantime the doctor came back and said that he needed to take an arterial blood sample which would probably take a couple of goes and would be very painful! Thanks for the warning. I needn’t have worried as he hit the artery first time and I had become very used to having needles, of varying lengths, stuck in me.
Rather than call for another porter the sister wheeled me down to the SAU herself. I was told that the doctor knew I was there and would be along to see me. It was now about 11:00pm and I’d still not seen anybody so my wife went to find out what was going on. The doctor was seeing another patient but would be with me shortly. A few minutes later she appeared and apologised that it would be necessary to ask me all the questions again. I had remembered to bring a copy of the discharge letter from St.Thomas’ which explained what the surgeon had done. As we had been unable to understand it completely, due to the long, medical terms, the doctor gave us a translation.
As she specialised in surgical cases she had no fear of removing the pouch. She then examined my stoma, inside and out, and came to the conclusion that the bleeding was external but I was right to have come down to the hospital. I asked her if she was considering giving me a blood transfusion but she said that unless my blood count was getting worse she was happy for me to be discharged. She did give me the option of staying in overnight if I was concerned but I decided that I would be OK. Other patients needs would be far greater than mine.
There was a short wait whilst the nurse removed the cannula and then I could get dressed. I rang my sister who very kindly came out and picked us up. We were home just gone one o’clock. Not what we had planned for our Friday evening. I was famished as I hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since 5:30pm. I grabbed some toast and a coffee and then went to sleep sitting up on the sofa.
What went wrong
When I saw the stoma nurse the following day she gave me a thorough examination and announced that I had developed an abscess below the stoma which I had not been able to see. The abscess had burst but “luckily” the blood had made its way into the pouch not my clothing.