Who cares

@AlwaysMyself

Still in emergency waiting room

Just caught up writing yesterday's poem

Now going to write today's about today's hospital experience

Ack, ye ol' ED waiting room. Hope they don't have many incoming higher-triaged patients, so that you get seen soon. *hug* I guess the upside is free aircon? (I assume every ED would have to have airconditioning for summer!)

@AlwaysMyself

The aircon here is struggling

But I was brave and approached the nurse and my oxygen has gone done

@avant-garde Oxygen gone?

Is there anything I can do to help whilst you wait?

Keep you company via chatting? Or shutting up and letting you have peace instead? 😅 I never know which is needed!

@AlwaysMyself

97% down to 95%

I got through in the next batch of calls

Oh, yikes. Glad you approached a nurse @avant-garde - hearing how hard that was and how brave your were in that action. 😊

Hope the ED staff can help provide some breathing/oxygen support, education on how to treat and what to expect from the heat exhaustion, and give you the space to ask all the questions you have about it.

@AlwaysMyself

I hope so too.

My anxiety levels are very high

Talking helps

I'm still shaking

@avant-garde Would it help to chat about what you're worried about? I might be able to provide some additional perspective or thoughts to your anxious-mind? But of course if writing out your thoughts will make them more intense then that might not be the best thing for you, and please do what is best for you.

Sitting with you.

What has helped calm you in the past? do you like the feel of any specific materials? Or is there a song on your phone you can listen to?

or perhaps a 'grounding' exercise like the "5 things" you can see, hear, and feel? (you could even describe to me what you see around you at the ED 🙂 What colour is the front desk? What colour are the walls?)

@AlwaysMyself

That they'll send me home again with nothing like yesterday

I feel like something is wrong and that they won't hear me

The amount of times I've been readmitted because they didn't listen to me is ridiculous.

Checking my vitals only shows so much you know?

I want to know my electrolyte levels are normal, sodium, potassium, the things that help my body recover

That is understandable @avant-garde , wanting to know and be sure that your body is improving and not declining. I had never considered whether they could test for electrolyte levels - but it makes sense that a blood test could. I suppose they're only supposed to do tests when they are suspecting a poor result or ruling out something?

I know it's "cold comfort" but when a patient re-presents to the ED within 3 days and also when a patient is discharged from an admission and is then re-admitted within a too-soon timeframe -- they are statistics that hospitals report for review and benchmarking and can impact their funding. So every time they stuff up and it ends in a re-presentation/admission, they're also hindering their own report card. Cold comfort, I know. 😢 But, it is something that the hospital standards/governance do care about - it's an important indicator of patient care quality.

When I think of electrolytes I think of orange Hydrolite 😋. That's what I was always given when at risk of dehydration (or of course, water and with a little sugar if possible to help absorption - lemonade yum!)

What are the symptoms of low electrolytes? Is there a way you would be able to guage your wellbeing yourself I wonder?