Battling Infections

2 weekends ago, I tried to visit Rowden House as normal. When I arrived there, there was a sign on the door informing visitors that they had had an outbreak of Norovirus in the home, and no visitors were allowed. The following weekend, all was back to normal, but some of my favourite residents were still suffering the after effects of this infection. I’m aware that Norovirus is common in the community but younger people usually recover quickly. At Rowden House, many of the residents are over 90 and it took them a long time to recover. This showed me how important it was to control any infections, especially in very communal areas. The residents were very pleased to see me, and enjoyed their sing-a-long to my saxophone playing even more than normal.

Over £5,000 for CHSW!

It’s been almost 5 years since I started fundraising for Children’s Hospice South West, and have just reached my £5,000 milestone (most recent total is £5,528.44)! As you can see from the photo, I was quite young (that explains the silly look!) when I started. I have visited one of the hospices – the one near Bristol – twice and it has never failed to impress me. It’s amazing how such a fundamentally sad place is kept very cheerful and homely, despite all of the specialised equipment. Just before Christmas I did another collection outside the local farm shop and raised £245.20, bringing my total for 2011 to over £1,000. Now I need to start planning my fundraising for 2012!

Visiting a Pathology Department

Over the Christmas holidays, I spent some time in the Pathology Department at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton. This is often an area of medicine that is forgotten, but most hospital patients and many who visit their GP will have tests done that find their way to a Path Lab. Getting quick and accurate results from these tests is a key part of quick and effective diagnosis. The team I met were very proud of some recent work they had done to dramatically speed up the cytology process. They had done a step-by-step assessment of their process and removed bottle-necks and delays, so that now, patients and their doctors can get their test results much faster. I was also given the opportunity to look down a microscope at some disease cells and compare them to healthy ones. The differences were often obvious, but some weren’t, showing the skill required to interpret the results. I’m looking forward to going back for a longer visit soon!

Charity Work

About a month ago, my mum and I had a stall outside a parent’s evening at my school trying to raise money for CHSW, the charity we support. After selling some CHSW merchandise and forcing unfortunate teachers to donate, we raised £108. Also for CHSW, my family recently did a 7.6 miles sponsored swim (as we are the Frome and Warminster friends group, and the distance between the towns is 7.6 miles). We were swimming 2 at a time for about 2 and a half hours, each of us swimming between 150 and 200 lengths of our pool. Between eating the Jaffa Cakes (for energy of course), it felt good to be doing something beneficial for charity. We raised about £645 which we were all very proud of.

Another CHSW Collection

A few weeks ago, we did our third collection outside the local farm shop for CHSW. Like other collections there (and this being Britain), the weather wasn’t very good and we had to stand outside all day. Yet again the farm shop and their customers were very supportive and we raised £208.

Rowden House 1 Year On

It’s now been a year since I started visiting the residents at Rowden House, a residential home for the elderly. At first it was a bit awkward as I didn’t know any of the residents and I was uncertain of how to talk to them and what about, so I took my saxophone in and have played every time ever since. I go in most weeks, and they sing along to their favourite songs. It’s strange how most can remember all of the words to the songs, but can’t remember a conversation you’ve had a few minutes before. Most of them are women, most likely in their 90s, who, as well as memory problems often walk with Zimmer frames or sticks. They appear to be well cared for and happy there, which is nice to see especially due to articles I have recently read in the paper about poor care in homes for the elderly. After a year, they now know me well and are very pleased to see me with my saxophone (even the cat!).

Referrals

Recently, I have been having a lot of stomach problems, so I went to my local GP, who thought that it might be a gall stone. He then referred me for an ultrasound at one of the nearby hospitals, so, a few weeks later, I went for one. It was really fascinating! I saw things like my liver, gall bladder, stomach, spleen and kidneys, after the doctor has applied a pre-heated jelly, which made it much more comfortable than it would have been if it was cold, although it did tickle a lot. However, they concluded that I did not have a gall stone, so I was put on Lansoprozole to try and calm my stomach. Initially, this appeared to work, until the stomach ache reappeared after about a week. Upon returning to my GP, he then referred me to a paediatrician at Yeovil District Hospital. I went up to floor 10, and was weighed and measured by a nurse, then sent through to see the paediatrician. He was very friendly and immediately put me at ease, although he too could not see what was wrong with me. I then had to have a blood test. Unfortunately, when the nurse put the needle in my elbow after applying cold spray, the vein moved around the needle, then, when the needle was in the vein, the vein collapsed. Next, she tried the other elbow, and it went well in the beginning, until the blood stopped and we didn’t have enough for a blood test. Upon returning to the other elbow, the vein decides to be unhelpful and moves again, so the nurse tried another part of my elbow, and we finally got enough blood. Luckily, I don’t mind blood tests, and made jokes to show that I didn’t mind and I knew that it wasn’t their fault. Now I’m just waiting for the test results to come through to see what’s wrong with me!