General Medical issues thread

[drron]

The Equimed power Cruiser is top of my list. Trying to organise a test run.

 

[Quickstatus]

Trying to organise a test run.

They are an online only brand, but some chemists have them on display.

Perhaps they have a no questions asked money back guarantee?

 

[tgh]

no questions asked money back guarantee

More fun than buying a new car...

 

[Seat0B]

Once again, I probably should have posted on Saturday when mum was is fine form. Finally finished with both IV and oral antibiotics, and quite her normal self. We had a lovely family visit with our daughter and granddaughter. Little Miss 5 is the light of her life and I got some lovely snaps of them enjoying each other’s company. Yesterday, my sister wheeled he to the hospital canteen for an ice cream. Today marks one month since the stroke and it’s been a long month. But things were looking up quite nicely.

So I was pretty surprised to visit her today at 1230 and find her very sleepy, slurring speech, quite confused and generally not herself at all.

In the first 2 hrs that I was there mum went downhill quite fast. I reported it to the nurse, who took it seriously bless her and came for a look. They know mum quite well now as she’s been in this hospital for 3 full weeks. She noted this was not usual in her experience of mum and so she got the RMO. He was a very good young doc - calm, thorough, decisive and explained things very well. He ordered a lot of things to be done quickly, which they were. Outcome: high temp, low oxygen sats, tachycardic and high white blood cells from morning blood test. Now very slerpy, slurring and confused. They suspect UTI again. A lot of people doing a lot of things. He decided to start sepsis protocol straight away. Bravo to him. Then he called her specialists to confer and they agreed with his call on IV antibiotics and then fluids. Had to insert a second cannula as the first one blew out almost immediately after insertion. She’s on blood thinners so there was blood everywhere. But despite that, they had a lot of trouble getting enough blood (one tube coagulated before it was filled) for her tests but persevered for almost 20 minutes to fill 2 vials. Ordered a chest XRay, swab of all her pressure injuries, urine tests etc. The first blood tests came back very quickly with high lactate and high blood sugar. It must have been very high because they injected her with insulin straight away - she’s not diabetic.

Then he gave me the warning “we will do our best for her but at her age and state of health please be aware that this is very serious. But at least we are onto it quickly this time.”

What a wretched roller coaster this is.

 

[Flyfrequently]

Thank you for taking the time to update @Seat0B
Just know you, your Mum and family are in our thoughts

 

[Quickstatus]

she’s not diabetic

Sorry to hear about the rollercoaster. It must be very hard..

Yes - stress induced hyperglycaemia. Not psychological stress but physiological stress due to sepsis/infection.

This causes the body to produce a lot of stress hormones which increase the production of glucose because the body thinks it needs energy to fight the infection. As glucose levels go up, the body produces insulin to promote the absorption of glucose into the cells. However when unwell, the cells become resistant to insulin and become inefficient at absorbing glucose.

So the net effect is the glucose levels stay up.

Hospital acquired infections are unfortunately a constant and serious problem. Minimising hospital stays is always the aim but can be very hard in practice.

 

[ellen10]

Sorry to hear the latest roller coaster of health issues for your precious mum.
It was nice to hear that you had some lovely family pockets of joy on the roller coaster.
Thinking of you

 

[love_the_life]

So sorry to hear of this setback. It was fortunate you were there and could alert staff who acted quickly. Thinking of you.

 

[Seat0B]

Thanks everyone, this is a hard time, but one that is very common towards the end of life. We will get through it.

 

[Seat0B]

Hospital acquired infections are unfortunately a constant and serious problem.

To be fair, she has had a lot of bowel incontinence and that is likely the culprit for the UTIs.