Thursday 17 August 2017

Guess where I am

yes in hospital again. I went to a and e as my Hickman line had an infection.Got antibiotics but was feeling worse the next day.Went back and got admitted. I thought it would be a simple in and out stay. I was wrong.

Saturday I was sooo unwell with a temp of 39.4. I was in agony and begging the nurses to help me. I cried my eyes out. Eventually a doctor came and I got pain relief. I had to be checked on every half hour as I was so unstable. My tpn was stopped.

Sunday a doc decided to put saline through my line an again my temp went up. Changed antibiotics.

For the past few days I've had more antibiotics running through my line.Sadly it turns out my site and line is infected with Mrsa so it has to come out. We tried our best to save it. I haven't eaten since my tpn came off so I might be a size 0 when I come out.

On the up side I am in quarantine with my own room and tv and it's nearly Christmas.


Wednesday 9 August 2017

Happy flowers


     As it's very dark and gloomy today, I thought I would post some pictures of flowers I drew. Hope it makes you all happy x


Tuesday 8 August 2017

The reality of living with a Hickman line


                                      PLEASE DON'T READ IF SQUEAMISH















I apologise that this might be a depressing post but sometimes it just helps to get my thoughts out. If you've read my previous posts you will know that I have a Hickman line. It goes into my chest and stops just above my heart. I connect it to tpn (total parental nutrition) which is essentially my food and goes into the bloodstream bypassing the organs.I have gastroparesis which means my stomach is partially paralysed. Tpn is a last resort.

My line has been ok up until about two weeks ago. The nurse thought it had a scab on it so scrubbed and scrubbed. It was not to bad until the nurse came yesterday. This is the result.



Seeing it like this just brings home how fragile and important my line is. If it gets an infection then it can lead to sepsis which I have fought once already. Also if your temperature goes above 38 degrees then you can run tpn as it feeds the infection. There's also a risk of losing the line. The reality is you can't keep having new lines as you run out of access. No access means no more Hayley. 

So fingers crossed if it's just left alone it will heal.

Depressing post over and you can now open your eyes.

Sunday 6 August 2017

Growing veg and baking bread

I can finally show you some fruits of my labour. Well veg of my labour anyway.

Here are the last of my potatoes. I loved digging for these, it was like a lucky dip. They also tasted lovely


I have now planted some more potatoes ready for Christmas dinner. Next are my Shallots. Not sure they are supposed to be this small. I planted them to close together. Oops. I didn't realise they don't like being friends with other shallots. They tasted nice anyway. I haven't washed them all yet so I'm showing you a pic of the unwashed version.



Next up I made some bread with my carer. Ok she did the work and I supervised. So thrilled with how these turned out. As I can't eat them, they all went to my parents and they loved them.








And just to finish off my post. Here is a random photo of a chicken I took on holiday. I suppose it does fit into the food vibe. Sorry chicken




Have a good evening. 

Hayley x