On the 24th of November I was summoned to the MES unit at York District Hospital for my glucose tolerance test.  I didn't even know that units like this were open on the weekend but it was good, my husband could come with me.  We got the bus in and made our way up to the MES unit, we were really early so we did have to wait a bit.  I was absolutely terrified.  Ever since a health scare when I was 14 and a week long hospital stay where I was constantly pricked and prodded by needles, I have been deadly scared.  My veins are particularly shy and some people have a terrible time finding them.  Mark was trying to comfort me but to be honest, nothing would have comforted me at that point.

A male nurse invited me into the suite where another man was already cannulated.  The room was really nice, there were seven or eight large squishy armchairs with cushions and the radio was on a casual station.  We took a seat at the end of the room and Mark sat opposite me.  The room even had it's own coffee machine so Mark grabbed a drink while I had to go thirsty!  I had fasted since the evening before and just had a few small sips of water when I woke so my mouth was like cotton.  A young female nurse handed me an admission form which I signed and then the male nurse came back with a bottle of Lucozade.  The medical trolley was wheeled over to me and then panic set in.  First my blood pressure was taken, it usually reads about 120/80 taken by ear but these electronic machines always either can't find a reading or give me a ridiculously high reading.  Today it was the latter, reading at about 160/100.  I explained to the nurse that my BP is usually much lower but I don't think he believed me and he recorded it anyway.

Now the search for veins could begin.  A tourniquet was tightened around my arm and he peered at my arm, prodding here and there and shaking his head.  Then the other arm was tried with the same result, he could feel something on my right arm but wasn't sure if it was a vein or sinew.  He could see how scared I was and so he asked another nurse to come and give a second opinion.  The nurse was called Rosie and she was such a gentle woman.  Again the search continued and she shook her head at the male nurse, it looked like the search was fruitless.  She agreed that she could feel something in my right arm but also wasn't sure.  I burst into tears out of fear and they suggested maybe I should come back another day when there are other doctors around to have a look.  I shook my head and asked them to give the right arm a go.  I laid my head back on the headrest and tried to take my mind off everything.  I felt a tiny scratch and then it was over, Rosie thought she had a vein but she needed to try and get blood out first.  When she connected a syringe to the end of the cannula I prayed that I would bleed and thankfully I did!!  I was so overwhelmed with relief, it was almost painless, I was scared for nothing!

They drew blood for a baseline reading and then I was instructed to drink the Lucozade within ten minutes, I was so thirsty it wasn't much of a struggle.  Every half an hour they came to draw blood until two hours had passed, then the cannula was removed and I was free to go!  An MRSA swab in the nose was the only other thing they needed from me and then I was handed a bottle containing two dexamethasone tablets which I needed to take and then have a blood test the next morning before 9am.  On Sunday night I took the tablets at about 11.30 and then in the morning I got my blood taken at ASDA.  It was so weird, after all the panic on Saturday about the needle something had changed in me.  I was no longer afraid of the needle, I knew that people COULD find my veins and that the pain was minimal, I felt cured!

A week later I called up Dr. Wong's secretary to see whether my results were back but she couldn't give results over the phone.  I also had decided to give the York support group a whirl so I called David Locker, the surgical nurse, to check dates and times.  The next meeting is on the 14th December so I think I will give it a go and hopefully meet like-minded people.  He was able to give me results from the blood tests, apparently my GTT was fine and the dexamethasone suppression test had come back normal.  When he was looking through my other blood tests he noticed that I was significantly deficient in vitamin B12 and vitamin D but that it was normal for people "like me" to have these deficiencies.  Nevertheless, he is writing to my GP to start some treatment.  Thankfully it is something that can be corrected and nothing else is wrong with me.

As I said in my last post, my gran was coming to visit and we had a really good time with her.  And yes, I did manage to break the news to her.  She wasn't shocked and said after seeing all the hospital appointments I'd been going to she had realised what was going on.  I also told my grandad and he was also supportive.  I think that's where I'm going to draw the line though, I don't think I'm going to tell anyone else.  When I start to lose weight and people notice I will have to decide whether they are the kind of people I want to confide in but at the moment I can't do it.  Now all I am waiting for is another appointment to see Dr. Wong and then for a date to be set for surgery.  I've had a few sleepless nights recently worrying about whether I'm doing the right thing and fear about being in hospital.  I know everything will be okay and these are just wobbles.  I've just got to keep focused.