New diagnosis and meeting with Psychiatrist

Thursday 16^th January

Some members of the Orthopaedic Team paid me a visit to see how things were going, I said that I was OK apart from the old faithful (top of the tibia). They told me the referral to the Psychiatric Team had been done and someone should be over to see me at some point. They have a new team who deal specifically with people who have spent long periods of time in Hospital, which is exactly what I need. This is really new as they didn’t exist the last time I was in here, let’s just hope they can help me feel better.

When the Infection Team came round they told me that my Iron levels were low and asked if I’d recently had a heavy period, blood in my stools or urine, reflux etc., which I hadn’t. After a small discussion it was decided to send me for an Endoscopy, where they will put a camera down my throat to see if there is any internal bleeding. I was started on Iron tablets but could suffer some side effects, if I do they’ll swap to intravenous, although I’m not sure how that would stop side effects.

In the evening the Psychiatrist came to see me for the first time and I was surprised he came across here so quickly. He was OK, asked me questions about all sorts of things including my medical history and time in Hospitals. He’s offered to see me twice a week while I’m here to talk about what’s going on, give me some techniques I can take away with me (because I’ve done Martial Arts he thinks I’ll pick it up quite quickly) and would increase the dose of the antidepressant if needed. He mentioned the fact I was in a bay of four and asked that if there was anything they could do for me what would it be? I said that I know they can’t put me in a side room but if bed space B in bay one became available I’d asked to be moved there if possible. We finished there and he left, no specific day or time had been set for our future meetings. A few hours later the pain in my knee was immense, was it from sitting out in the wheelchair? Maybe it was because the cast was loose where the swelling had gone down, or a combination of a few things. All I knew was it was really bad and a bad night was bound to ensue.