An Aspie in hospital

Two weeks ago it was my turn to be admitted to A&E. I suddenly got terrific pain in my left side, with a fever, feeling faint and being sick. It was a kidney stone passing down my kidney to my bladder that caused the pain (found that out last Friday) and a kidney infection. It was my first time in hospital knowing I have Asperger's. Here is how I coped or not.

In A&E I didn't think it was as noisy as I expected it to be. There was lots of people and light. From there I was taken to Urgent Care. I was in pain still and hot. There was a lot of people waiting. A couple of times I came over faint. When I was finally seen in triage, I was taken to Majors in A&E. And put into a cubicle. Comfort at last. And privacy as the staff closed the curtain. This helped shut out noise and lights. I saw staff go to and fro outside. I was mainly focussing on myself. Trying to feel comfortable with a dull pain, trying not to be sick and having to cope with nurses trying to get blood out of my right arm. Having been sick a lot, my blood had dried up and was too thick. I had to be put on a drip to get more fluids in. That was my left arm.

Then in the early hours of the next morning (just after 1.30am) I was wheeled into Clinical Decision Unit. What a difference! Even though it was early morning, it was darker and quieter, and I could only see one other patient there. I liked this, even though I was still not right and had a drip connected to me. The quiet calmed me down.

A couple of hours later I went for a CT scan to find out what was happening. I hated this as the corridors were dark then bright. Had to shut my eyes most of the time. The scan wasn't too bad.

My mum finally left about 6am as there wasn't any transport before that to get home.  A few hours later I went home in a hospital cab in one of their nighties and a blanket over me. Not very warm but was so pleased to get home.

Thankfully I am slowly on the mend now, and am back on my feet. I am taking painkillers to keep pain under control. I finished the course of antibiotics last week and was told that I don't need any more. I am limiting any foods with calcium and oxalates in as they are the two things that mostly form kidney stones. So nut products are limited as well as celery and berries.

An Aspie overcoming new experiences

In my last post, I wrote about eating out on a yacht hotel. I mentioned that I would post about what I had to overcome that day, so here I am. As an Aspie, meeting new people and going to new places are out of our comfort zone, but I wanted to meet Rebecca and Lynda, so was determined I'd get there and reach my goal. I'd already Googled how to get to Excel London, so knew which lines to take to get there, it was finding the yacht that end that would be the problem.

The journey there was quite easy. I am a visual person when it comes to directions, so all I did was to look at the signs on the underground and DLR to tell me which way I had to go to get to the right platforms and trains. I got to Custom House station and found my first hurdle. I had to go through a glass covered walkway, and you could see out the sides to down to the street, to go out the other end. I told myself, look ahead not sideways. In a way, it was good for me that I had the distraction of Rebecca being on the other end and waiting for her phone calls to let me know where she was on her way to me. I managed to get out of the station, only to find another hurdle - steps going down. When I have to go down steps I need to hold on with my right hand as I'm right-handed, otherwise I feel awkward and might fall. The railings I went to had left-handed railings on it. I couldn't do it. There were there steps on the other side but they had gaps in and I didn't think I could do it. All this time, Rebecca was being v patient on the other end and being v encouraging. Knowing she was on her phone, waiting for me to reach the yacht, I knew I had to do it. So, I went to the other steps, took a deep breath, that first step and went down them to the bottom. I had done it. Now to get to the yacht, which I couldn't' miss. It was right there to the left of the steps, huge. Rebecca told me that when I got to the yacht, to pass my phone to the staff and she'd tell them that I could order whatever I wanted (within a reasonable price, of course) and they could put it on her room tab. This is what I did.

At 7.30pm that evening, I finally got to meet Rebecca. And found that she is just as nice in person, even more so, than on-line and over the phone.

So, I overcame going to a new place, getting down steps on my own and going into a yacht hotel and waiting on my own (which couldn't be helped), all in one day.