Day 2 in the Big Hospital House

As you can probably tell from my title I’m already going stir crazy!

5am.

It’s day 2 but I feel as though I should be carving lines into the wall marking at least a week. So I’ve been moved and I’m now in isolation room 1. Rooms 2-5 all have coronarvirus patients in. That’s less than 20 metres away! Not scary at all… Other than that nothing too exciting happening, hence why time is passing so slooooowly. I’ve read for a couple of hours, watched some things on Netflix (if you aren’t on the ‘Love is Blind’ hype where have you been- seriously?! It’s so bad but it’s oh so additive) and made shapes from the clouds out of the window. I mean I’m super lonely so any tips of things to do when you’re stuck in a room with literally NOTHING to do to stop me going crazy would be appreciated.

11am.

The only excitement was when a nurse came in and said I was having a PICC line fitted (an IV line straight to the heart). I freaked out, cried a little and refused as it seemed unnecessary, only for her to go away and then come back and tell me she got the wrong patient. PHEW! Imagine if I would have just let her go ahead and do it! Other than that I’ve had a few more tests done this morning- 10 vials of blood to be exact and have just basically been super lazy bored. My consultant expects me to be in at least until early next week so it’s just a waiting game.

1pm.

After a visit from a dietician I have been moved from a liquid diet to a high protein and high energy one. This means plenty of meats and dairy products and even a few sweet treats! (I would have never thought that chocolate milk would become an essential part of my diet but I’m definitely not complaining). Lunch, however, was a disaster. Moroccan lamb curry. Sounds delicious… other than the fact I don’t eat lamb. Forcing myself to eat as my dietician has said it’s super important I keep my calorie intake up I just could not stomach it. Dessert of ice cream and custard went down a whole lot easier though! And I also snuck some of the snacks Pihla had brought me, oops!

3pm.

I normally hide the pain and discomfort pretty well as it’s become the norm for me. In honesty I can’t remember a time when I actually felt perfectly ‘normal’. Today, however, the pain has returned with a vengeance. I’ve tried multiple times to try and describe it to my friends and family but it’s indescribable. It’s severe abdominal pain which makes you feel like you could pass out, coming in waves and contraction-like motions. It takes your breath away. A lot of people do not know what UC is and I get a lot of people ask if it’s contagious (no) or tell me they think they have had it once (I am certain that you have not had it ‘once’). It’s hard to explain to people because I look well and healthy. But I’m not. UC controls your life, although I’ve battled to make sure it doesn’t as much as I can. It are these moments when I’m sick of being sick. I feel like I’m never going to get better. It drains me not only physically but emotionally. I wish daily at 11:11 or when I have an eyelash fall out that I didn’t have this disease. People I love have told me they wished they had it instead of me but I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. I hope that by me writing this post it will help more people understand the disease and more importantly, talk about it.

This afternoon I just have to wait for more observations and tests to be done before I get started on a new treatment this evening – thrilling times. Honestly, please send me some ideas of things to do when you’re stuck in a room alone – book and film/TV recommendations, games, even just drop me a message for a chit chat!

One more thing- apparently plasters and heart monitoring patches will remove tan – both fake and natural. So, I will most definitely have to stay in Australia once discharged if only to make sure I don’t go home with white circular patches all over my body. I haven’t endured 9 weeks of tanning and burning for that!

I’m off to have my 5th cup of tea and by the way, mum, if you’re reading this (which I know you are) please try and get some sleep. It’s 3am where you are. I promise, I. am. fine!

Update 1: 5pm.

Starting to feel hungry but no dinner has been brought yet 😦

Update 2: 6pm.

So 6pm is dinner time! For starters; pumpkin soup, for mains; chicken dijonnaise with rice and then dessert; jelly and ice cream! All washed down with a chocolate milkshake- yum! And then also.. yep you guessed it.. a cup of tea. Do you think it’s because I’m British or something?

Annabel x