My lovely careful and caring GP was trying to work out why I was breathless. He said 'we'll do a blood test to see if there are any clots in your blood'. So the test was done last Thursday.
So there I was buying some last minute Chanukah presents on Amazon last friday when the phone rings. It's doctor Gold. Apparently the test was borderline positive. I had to go AAU ( that's the acute admissions unit) at Watford general. Go now. Do not pass go. Do not collect £100. They are waiting for you
A quick search on google showed a few interesting things
1 a positive D-Dimer test is a strong indicator of a pulmonary embolism (PE)
2 there are various things that can give it a false positive result. These include inflammation, liver disease and a raised bilirubin. Sound familiar?
So off I go to WHG having abandoned children left right and centre (thank you JF for picking up the pieces). I arrived at 3.30.
I then learnt a lot about AAU. It's a way of taking the load of a and e and hospital admissions. It's a pleasant waiting area where you sit and wait. Occasionally you go off for tests or talk to a dr or a nurse. But otherwise you wait for results. The notice on the wall said I would be there for 4-6 hours. Actually the whole experience was one of reasonable efficiency and very pleasant staff - especially when they bought tea, biscuits and sandwiches.
They repeated the blood tests. The sent me for a chest X-ray.
Then the SHO said she'd spoken to the consultant and that I should have a colour contrast ct scan to diagnose. I explained about my swelling after the last one I had. They rang the radiographer - no I shouldn't have one.
They could do a VQ scan instead.
A quick search on google showed that this was a nuclear medicine X-ray. They would inject me me technetium (i tang jacob to check where it is on the periodic table)and I would breath in krypton gas (sadly not kryptonite!!).
In the mean time they needed to treat me as though I had a PE. That mean injecting myself with Clexane. It hurt.
The scan was due to happen on Wednesday.
I left AAU after 4.5 hours.
Bless him, Andrew had made a complete Friday night dinner!
I had the scan on Wednesday ( another trip to AAU for a cannula ) - no krypton gas as its too expensive. - £2500 per patient. If they want to see airways I would have to have a ct scan!
It took 2 days to be reported on - and lots of hassling by me to get it to be done and I had to keep ringing them to get the results. Whilst waiting for the report I ran out of clexane - despite telling them this would happen - so had to pop (not that easy!) back to AAU for an injection!
So surprise surprise when I got the results today - the scan was NEGATIVE!
There is no PE!
So I have learnt a whole new branch of medicine and can push around some new words!
I do commend the doctors for being precautionary. The system though does beggar belief. I am good a hassling. What do you do if you're not, or old or ill or don't understand the system?Scary
And of course I still don't know why I'm breathless. Maybe I won't mention it again ........
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