How it all begin? Not how you'd expect.

Ambulance


Main headings in this article:

  • The Stroke
  • Why I hesitated? (Not all strokes look like stroke)
  • Stay in your NHS area.


The Stroke

Alison was a bit off. A bit "weird".... She was looking at me funny. 

She's been ill a lot. She's quite weak already. But this was ummmm odd.

We sat for a while. I was exhausted. I kept micro-nodding off. I'd ask, "What's up?", "How are you feeling now?"

In the end it dawned on me that this wasn't going to stop. And it was serious. 

"I'll call 111", I said.

And then Alison mumbled, "No...999".

I went into shit-my-pants mode. I'd never called 999 before. "Seriously?" I was thinking. "For real?"

Luckily, I did as I was asked....

Why did I hesitate? Why did we wait so long?

So, first off, it turns out that when someone has a stroke, it doesn't look anything as obvious as how they show on the TV. Alison's face didn't 'droop'... it kinda 'numbed'. A bit. Sort of. She could speak alright. Although a bit mumbly. She just seemed over tired. I thought anyway. And, luckily she was strong enough to say "No. call 999" or I would have probably just called 111 and delayed things even further.

It wasn't "OMG. She's having a stroke". It was more like, "Why have you gone a bit quiet and looking at me a bit weirdly?".

And we'd had a rough year!

Alison helped out with rescue horses. And, previously, she had been mown down by some of those horses. That was bad. Like way badder than we realised. She may as well have had a car crash. It took weeks and weeks to get her back on her feet.

But it didn't stop there. Once recovered (and coming back from looking after the horses), then she slid down a (very) small slope just outside our house and broke her leg. Properly. In 2 places.

More weeks immobile in hospital. 11 days without moving.

She got a blood clot in her lung

So... back to the stroke. She was already on blood thinners. Why would anyone have a stroke/clot whilst already on blood thinners. It just didn't occur to me.

So, that's how it begun. Why would you get a stroke when on blood thinners? Because you have Pancreatic Cancer. And, it turns out, that means it's advanced pancreatic cancer too.

And the horrible rollercoaster began.

Stay in your NHS Area

OK, so this wont apply to many people. But some extra information. We are based in Hampshire. North Hampshire, right on the Berkshire border. When the ambulance came, they informed us that Basingstoke (our nearest hospital) does not have a Stroke unit. Make a choice. Now. Quickly.... Do we go to Reading or Winchester..? Either one. Which one? Pick a hospital.

So, I picked Reading. Geographically, it's nearer. Get to the nearest hospital, right?

Wrong!!!

Get to the nearest hospital in your NHS area. We're Hampshire NHS. Reading is Berkshire NHS. Bad decision. Very bad decision. Because it's not really a National Health Service. It's competing geographical cost centres.

I will do another blog post on why but,  needless to say, although the Reading Royal Berks Stroke unit is awesome... they wanted us out of their cost centre. And Hampshire weren't in any rush to take on a new patient. 

So, we ended up in limbo.

I'll explain more in another post but, needless to say, this was far from ideal.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What happens in what order? What can you expect from Pancreatic Cancer and Stroke?

Image
First off, everybody's journey is different. And that's the problem. Our experience is that this is the standard answer for "everything". We had no "this might happen" or "look out for these symptoms" or "Here's what to do when X happens". Nothing. No pre-emptive information "just incase it causes distress". Well, I'll tell you what causes more distress - spending days on end worrying and not knowing and trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who to call and what do to. So (and I am sure I will say it again and again) but the system and the journey is broken. Very broken. I can only give you what happened to us. But, I suspect it's pretty typical. This could be a long long article. Apologies in advance. Pre-Symptoms Catching Pancreatic Cancer early Forget it. 99% chance is you haven't. It sits there for years (10... 15+ years) growing really slowly. And then boom! It explodes. There is no good prognos...
Read more

Pancreatic Cancer Cook Book

Image
  It's amazing just how little information anyone provides. Whenever we spoke to doctors, nurses or hospice staff, they always are saying "Don't Google anything?" but, quite frankly, if they wont provide anything more than the bare bones of information, you're going to start Googling.... And, hopefully, find this blog and (hopefully) it will help you. Food is a major issue when it comes to both Stroke and Pancreatic Cancer. My partner lost the sense of hunger from the stroke. Whilst in the stroke ward no one really 'made' her eat. She lost a lot of weight way before the Pancreatic Cancer started chewing away. Then, when she came out, food became this big issue. Big drama. https://pancreaticcanceraction.org/booklets/cook-book/
Read more

I started this blog too late. Better late than never.

Image
My first blog on this topic. "Coping with someone that has had a stroke from pancreatic cancer." And helping others not have such a dreadful time of it. Damn, I wish I'd diarized everything from Day 1. Why why why didn't I start writing as soon as it happened? Now it's all a big blur.  But there is so much I want to say and get off my chest and, most of all, help other people (like you?) who are having an end of life experience like us.  No one should go through this!!! It's hell. Is it a blog??? Mmmm maybe. More of a rant probably. Or maybe just a way to brain dump thoughts that might help others. Maybe it's just a big blob of headtrash I need to spew or I'll go raving mad. I didn't have a stroke. My partner did. I don't have Pancreatic Cancer (well, not that I know of). My partner did (does... for now) The cancer causes the strokes. Who knew!? I am here. On this day, some 5 months in, and I am so badly smashed and bruised and wrenched and wre...
Read more