Loving the mulled wine, it's not exactly festive in critical care so it's nice to be reminded that its December in the real world.
Rant warning:
This broken body that I inhabit is my very much my broken body and I quite like to be in control of it, that includes what goes in (and comes out)
My admission was planned, with the involvement of all of my consultants:
Mr Dishy the spinal consultant
Dr M the respiratory consultant
Miss J the consultant anaesthetist
Mr A the pain consultant
My health passport was signed off by all of them and copies attached to my notes, both physical and electronic. My prescription is complex, contains six doses per day, as opposed to the normal hospital four. My "home" HDU is used to this and are very happy for me to use the blister packs supplied by Boots (other pharmacies are available). They always have a "self medication form" attached to the front page of my notes ready for me to sign when I return to hospital.
This admission was always going to be different because I would be going to surgical HDU first, so I met with my pain consultant and head of pharmacy to ensure that decisions about my medication weren't made by pharmacists, especially out of hours.
The front page of my health passport contains the following statement:
Clinical decisions about Mrs Seafour's spinal condition must be made by Mr Dishy alone, he can be contacted at any time, day or night on 07xxx xxxxxx
Decisions about Mrs Seafour's respiratory condition must be made by Dr M or the on call Respiratory Consultant in his absence. The settings on her ventilator an only should only be changed changed in an emergency situation and preferably after consulting the Lung Function Team.
Clinical decisions about Mrs Seafour's normal prescription (those medications which were prescribed before she came into hospital) should only be made by Mr A the Pain Consultant. Mrs Seafour's normal medications do not fit within normal prescription guidelines but they are considered safe for her and Mr A has been fully involved with her care for a number of years.
So.......... how do my bus passengers think I reacted about three hours when the ward registrar told me that drug X has been removed from my prescription on the advice of the pharmacist because it's not effective or safe when taken with drug Y.
A) I said "fine, I'm sure they know what's best for me".
B) I said "oh but I've been taking X & Y together for years" shrugged my shoulders and accepted it.
C) I said "please refer to the front page of my health passport and ask the pharmacist to do the same, I can be reached on my mobile when he or she is ready to discuss my prescription with me.
I was seen by the pain team today, as I expect to be every day before I'm surgically fit for discharge.
Well the positive side of this is that the adrenaline rush it's given me has allowed me to write this post, make some phone calls to the dc's and catch up on your lovely posts.
The downside of this is that the adrenaline rush it's given me has been hugely triggering and probably means I will have real difficulty sleeping tonight.