Bulletin from Forges-l’Evêque

On Friday, Martyn awoke with some symptoms consistent with his having had a TIA in his sleep.  No crooked smile, no slurring, no trouble holding both arms up, but trouble getting his left hand to type or play what it was told.  NHS 111 ran through the usual diagnostics, and advised seeing the doctor within the hour.  The doctor had gone to lunch, and we got an appointment for a couple of hours later.  The doctor rang back within minutes, asked a few questions and dispatched us to A&E.  Cutting a long story short, we spent over five hours at the hospital, where he was thoroughly assessed and scanned, then discharged, told to take aspirin and a blood pressure pill, and referred to the TIA clinic.  First thing on Monday, the hospital rang, calling him in for a 10:30 appointment.  We were there for just under three hours, during which Martyn had a preliminary consultation, an MRI, an ultrasound examination of the blood vessels in his neck, an ECG, a blood pressure check and a talk with a consultant.

It transpires that he has had a small stroke.  Although he is a bit shaken by the turn of events (moi aussi, d’ailleurs...), he seems to be functioning perfectly well, with only some very slight weakness on his left side.  He seems to be using his computer keyboard normally - problems in that respect were among the first signs of trouble on Friday - but I think he’s reluctant to try the piano for the moment.

We have nothing but praise for the way the NHS swung into action.  True, there was a bit of hanging around in A&E: thank goodness we didn’t arrive six hours later, it being Friday pm.   The hospital’s free Wifie allowed us to watch some of Martyn’s favourite TV programmes on the iPad while we waited, and that was a great help to us both.  

If there’s one criticism, it’s that the prescription he was given on Friday could only be dispensed by the hospital pharmacy, which by then was closed to outpatients until Monday morning.  Fortunately, the blood pressure prescription is identical to mine, so we could get him going on that straight away.  The hospital gave him a first dose of aspirin, and the local chemist fixed us up next day with dispersable aspirin for the princely sum of 55p.  Parking at the hospital has made a small dent in the housekeeping, but that’s a small price to pay.  

Reducing the blood pressure is now the priority, and he has also been prescribed a statin, again identical to my prescription, but this time provided by the hospital on the day.  We are reviewing the diet, and in due course will step up the exercise.