Saturday 6 February 2016

It's Stacy ...

I know it's been more than a couple of weeks since I last shared but Stacy has not been doing well.  She has had migraine after migraine and hasn't really felt at all well.

It finally dawned on me today that, against what she has said, she has gained weight and I remembered, finally, that she wasn't meant to gain more than 1lb and she was supposed to weigh herself daily.  I so bet she hasn't even though I have given her my brand new scales.

I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle with her determination to do what she wants despite the facts of this illness.  I have made her promise to call the doctors at Hammersmith Hospital first thing Monday morning and no excuses tolerated.  She is a woman and not a kid and I shouldn't have to phone up for her but if I have to I so will.

That's all really.  No much else to say for now and no photos that's for sure.

I hope she starts listening to somebody soon or .....

Love
Pxxx

Thursday 21 January 2016

The Latest on Stacy ...

Stacy was in Watford General again, but you know this from my last posts.  In their infinite wisdom they moved her from the ward she was on, in the main hospital, to this other word in what was Shrodells Hospital which was built as a workhouse in the 1800s and changed into an Insane Asylum in the 1960's.  A couple of people have said it was a maternity ward but I only heard about it as what it was, but I could be wrong as I so often am.

I have to tell you it was the worst and dirtiest place I have ever seen in my whole life.  She was put there for at least two weeks and was discharged from there a couple of weeks ago, only to be readmitted to AAU two days later with a blood infection she had picked up in Shrodells in which her legs really hurt her.  She was put in isolation for a week and finally got out last Friday.

So she's home again now.  Thank g-d for that and small mercies. They weren't allowed to let her out until some kind of care package was in place.  So that's in place and now she is back in her little flat I'm delighted to say.

She has an appointment with her new Crohn's specialist at the beginning of February and we are going to go with her and see if there is some way when she is taken into Watford General they will transfer her to St. Mary's Hospital in Praed Street which is where Professor Orchard is based.  Yes it it a much longer journey there but we feel that she will be so much better off there.

I have tried, without success, to get a no win no fee firm of solicitors to sue Watford General for all the crap that has happened to Stacy over the years but was told by two firms this week that there is nothing they can do.  So, that's the end of that.  No suing.  No nothing.  Surely they owed her a duty of care.  But apparently that isn't enough and too much damage has been caused over the years.  I would have loved to have sued that hip surgeon who left her hipless for 9 months and the Crohn's doctor who everybody raves about but it's not to be and I have enough stress without any more.

At least last night and the night before I slept all night despite having long naps in the afternoon.  Guess I can blame the MS for this. But I'm sleeping again which is a plus and getting up at a really reasonable time - like 7:30 or 8:00!!!  Yay me!!

Well that's all the news on Stacy for now.  But at least it's way better than it was even a week or two ago I'm delighted to say, though nothing has really changed other than she is out of hospital but everything is the same insofar as her diagnosis is concerned though I really don't want to believe it.

Hugs

Patricia xxx

Tuesday 12 January 2016

I know it's been a while but ...

.... Stuff sucks!!!

Stacy was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in her small bowel over 20 years ago.  Because of the ineptitude of both Watford General Hospital and some of the doctors and a surgeon there she has so much more wrong with her it is untrue.  Every time she was admitted whether it was a Crohn's attack or a viral infection she was immediately put on intravenous steroids. They just did it ad lib and never told any of us what the downside of this wonder drug could do.



Pat,

That is horrible!  I am glad you are suing.  We are suing too, for the birth injury.  We are suing the hospital that we went to for non-stress test to make sure baby was ok.  I hope that by taking a suit it will at least create change, even if we don't win.  I bet you hope for the same.

So sorry your dear one has to suffer so.  With Eleni I also wonder about if it would have been better for her not to live this life of suffering.  I feel it has never been my choice, but it will be our choice someday, perhaps, if we choose to let her go when all hope is truly lost.  Sigh.  I do pray that God would take my girl quickly and without fear for her when the time comes.  The other night when she almost died, she looked so afraid.  It was traumatic for both of us.  I hope for an easy passing for yours when the time is right.  Please don't be offended.  Sorry if I speak inappropriately.

Best,
 
Rachel

Stitched in Color
MAKE. handmade. do. Good.

On Tuesday, January 12, 2016 8:08 PM, Patricia Lessell <patreeshal@gmail.com> wrote:


Rachel

I am so sorry. I had no idea that Eleni won't live for many years. Do you know what caused it? Is there any way of this not happening? I know from what you've written that you are doing everything possible that you can for her. I just feel so bad for you and your family. It's so very hard. The only thing I can tell you is I had a step-sister who had a son and he was born with something wrong with him. Jackie (step-sister) said that had she known he was going to die she would never have put him through the pain of all the operations he had. 

Stacy came out of hospital for 2 1/2 days last week. She had been in there one day short of 8 weeks. They transferred her from the main hospital to a very old wing that had been built in the 1800's as a workhouse and was converted in the 1960's as an Insane Asylum a couple of weeks ago. To say it was bad in there is putting it so mildly it's untrue. 

It appears that she caught an infection in there and was admitted again on Saturday with terrible pains in her legs. They say that they don't know what has caused this but have taken loads of blood samples. She could only have caught the infection in there because she wasn't out long enough to have caught it anywhere else. 

I was so angry that I called up a legal firm yesterday that does no win no fee. There have been a complete catalog of screw ups by the local hospital and doctors from that hospital, that have caused so many other illnesses that were totally preventable and she should never have got. 

The person to whom I spoke yesterday at this law firm said someone would call me back in a couple of days. They called back today and they said they will take her case on. It is very hard to win anything against doctors in this country. A lawyer is calling me next Wto discuss it all.