Autonomic Neuropathy ......... What ever that is ........

It was the end of April this year when John was complaining that he felt strange, dizzy, zoned and had been for days. As usual he left it until the weekend to say anything so I rang the out of hours doctor, and spoke to a nurse, who took my details. The doctor rang back and although all I was after was advice John was given an appointment at the surgery they run out of the hospital. So we trooped off to the hospital, John and I. I think the children must have been away as I don't remember have to sort out care for them, although my next door neighbour has stepped into the breach many times and may have this time too.

Well as it was quiet we were seen right away by the doctor who did the normal - what is the problem, how long have you had it, what are your blood sugars like etc.Well John's blood sugars had been a bit low that morning (which is an absolute miracle that man always had high sugars) so the doctor said ahhhh that will be it he is suffering a bit of a hypo and he will be fine. Well I wasn't going to accept that - John had been feeling like that for a couple of days and one low blood sugar reading didn't explain it. well the doctor checked John's blood pressure and got an odd reading in that it was a bit low, so referred him to the EAU (Emergency Assessment Unit).

As I said earlier the doctor's surgery is in the hospital on Saturday's and Sunday's so it was just a walk upstairs and then a new waiting room to sit around (or in John's case lying around). Now the thing with hospitals is they tend to check you over while you are reclining and John felt fine as long as he didn't have to stand up or sit up so we spent some time as a fairly low priority, then I am not sure why probably me moaning on, the nurse decided to do a standing blood pressure test.

John's blood pressure dropped really really low and his heart raced, so they quickly got him to lay down again, and the nurse went to find a doctor. This is when we realised that we weren't just wasting time (cos to be fair we thought we were), and that John was probably looking at another hospital stay. So they found him a bed and moved him from the waiting room onto the ward proper and we got to wait around for doctors some more.

I don't know what the service is like in the rest of the world, but I must admit that my experience of hospitals in the UK is a lot of rush rush followed by a lot of waiting, often for a doctor to tell us what happens next.

So there he is all wired for sound, and every time he moves an alarm goes off to say his heart beat is too fast, and I am reading everybody else's machines and comparing them to John's. The doctor looking after John rushes over when the alarm goes off because he sat up to have some soup and says he needs to see the consultant. Then that doctor disappears, probably on a long overdue rest period, but I don't care by this stage, because the consultant is on the ward and he is seeing other people, but not my husband. The other junior doctors are taking him round, our doctor reappears and disappears again. John doesn't realise it but I am really worried that the consultant is going to leave without seeing him.

Finally the consultant comes over with our doctor and says turn off the monitor and of course John has a high heart rate it is the stress of being in hospital (now that might explain a slight rise, but a heart rate of over 170 when you sit up is more than the stress of being in hospital). John is to be kept in overnight (so that means I can go home and get something to eat - I think we have been there about 6 hours at this stage).

I escape the hospital relieved that he is in safe hands and narked off with him because he wants me to go home and get him some bits and pieces, and go back that night with them. I do run his errand (like usual) but I wish he would think about how tired I get, and I still have to sort out our girls.

Now according to him every time they took his blood pressure they had someone standing behind him to catch him just in case he passed out, and they stopped his high blood pressure medication and swapped it for a mini steroid, but even so they discharged him the next day with a diagnosis of Autonomic Neuropathy, and referrals to a dermatologist and a cardiologist, and obviously a change in medication.

Now the next bit will have a bit of a crescendo tomorrow, because tomorrow he has an appointment at the hospital and hopefully we will find out more, so from hospital discharge to that appointment will be the next blog.