Hello Tom Again

Well I spoke to soon!


Steve is back in hospital and this time in London at St Barts under Toms care.

Steve pain came back with force on Saturday and included a few more things this time! Namely uncontrollable shaking, high temperature and low blood pressure!

We took Steve to St Peters, our local hospital, as he didn't want to get an ambulance and after a few heated discussions with the admin staff at A&E we got him seen by a doctor.

The thing is, Steves now has a fairly complicated medical history and explaining this to a new person, takes time and they need to then speak to their boss and come back with a plan, which is only based really on what they see and hear from us, as they don't have access to all of the past records.

The first priority was to get Steve stable and deal with the temperature and low blood pressure. After that they started to run tests, to see if he had an infection. It was at this point I thought I should call Tom's mobile number.

I didn't want to do it, as I know their is a system and calling a consultant on the weekend is probably not part of the protocol but I needed and wanted the best for Steve.

Tom was his usual self, answering the phone straight away and putting me at ease, asking me questions. He told me to say to the A&E doctors to call him on his mobile and tell them "its complicated!"

Which I promptly went off to do...... This didn't go down to well, as apparently its not hospital policy to ring another doctor and I was told this by the A&E doctor, when I tried to explain "its complicated!" I was told "well why didn't you take him straight to St Barts!"

I'm a strong person but I could feel the tears in my eyes. Surely they would want to speak to a consultant who knows Steve and understands better than anyone and that I needed to bring him here as St Barts is over an hour away and I was desperate. Why when you need things to be easy they aren't. Well as I've said I'm strong and in my best work voice convinced the doctor that Tom was expecting his call!

Tom called me about 10 mins later to explain what they were going to do, which in a nutshell was stabilise him and then arrange for him to be moved to St Barts where they could get his pain under control and also get to the route of the problem. Ironically about 40 mins later the A&E doctor came and told me the same thing :-)

So with a plan in place and multiple x-rays Steve was moved to another ward, which was an assessment ward, where he stayed for the night.

Steve didn’t have a good night but at long last we got some luck and he was cared for by an amazing nurse called Gemma, she had all of the qualities that you would want in a nurse, she was compassionate, caring, organised and she helped Steve all through the night, dealing with the pain and making sure he was as comfortable as he could be.

On Sunday Steve was moved by ambulance blue light and all! to London. 25 minutes!! Wish I had one I could stick on my car!

The journey was terrible, Steves pain was so bad and he started to shake and sweat again. He was given some gas and air to help with the pain and must have nearly used the whole canister!

By the time we got to the ward Steve looked and felt terrible, luckily we were greeted by all of the old familiar faces. All rushing into action to get Steve comfortable. They had been expecting him and Tom had been on the phone, with his instructions to the doctors on duty.

Whilst all of the x-rays and tests showed Steve had constipation, the doctors here were just not convinced that this was all of the problem and they were running tests and x-rays / CT scans and MRI all afternoon and today to find out what else is going on.

They think they may have the answer but are waiting for some results. They think that the tumour where Steves kidney was, is pressing against some nerves at the base of Steves spine. Which is causing immense pain, which is radiating around his body.

With this thought in mind, they set about ensuring Steve was out of pain!

Several morphine shots and a sedative and Steve finally was asleep and out of pain.

I've been lucky to not have been in extreme pain but seeing someone in that amount of pain, you can almost feel it. Wanting it to go away and go away quickly.

Steve slept all night and when I came up this morning looked and sounded like his old self! You could tell the pain was better controlled by the colour on his face and his desire to eat and bossiness!!! :-)

Tom came and saw us today and spoke Steve through the plan. Basically get the pain under control, get his bowls working on their own, set meetings up to talk to the private consultants about next steps for treatment and then home!!!! Oh and possibly some radiotherapy on the tumour which is causing the most problems!

Fingers crossed Steve will be out on Wednesday for the football! But if not then at least we are in the brand new ward at St Barts with a flat screen TV in the lounge area! I'm sure that will be a popular place for the patients! And wouldn’t be surprised if Brian comes up as well!!

Well I'm still set to do the bike ride, as Steve really wants me to do it. And luckily with the support of great friends and family, they are rallying round to get all the tuff  I need. Lets just hope I have the energy to do it!!!

I will update tomorrow on Steves progress. Thank you for all of the lovely messages and help, it so much appreciated and as they say it’s the small things that make the difference.