Norma Duval

On March 6th 2022, I was in bed about 9pm, when I started to shake uncontrollably and as I live alone, I was concerned as I did not know what was happening to me. So I called my ex husband to come over. When he came he stayed with me for a while, but when I started to vomit and lost complete control of any movement, and kept slipping off the bed and couldn’t get up again, he wouldn’t leave me.

It was very hard for my him to keep picking me up and trying to hold me up getting to the bathroom as I was a dead weight. He stayed with me during the night and at 4am on March 7th he called the paramedics. He called them a couple of times after that and was told they were very busy. He was very concerned as he could see I was very sick. The paramedics eventually came at 11pm that evening, which was 19 hours after the first call. When they arrived they could see how bad I was. I had a temperature of 40.2. They gave me oxygen in the ambulance and took me to hospital, where we had to wait in a queue of ambulances.

Once we were admitted, I had to wait in a wheelchair in the corridor for quite a while before being treated. When eventually I was seen by doctors, I remember asking the time and was told it was 2am on March 8th. I was sent for scan and it was shown that I had a blocked kidney due to a 14mm stone, which had caused an infection and sepsis. (Sepsis and Kidney Stones) They were too busy to remove the stone so they put a drain through my hip area into my left kidney and I was put on a drip and antibiotics and admitted me to a ward and I was there for 10 days.

I had to go back 3 days later to have a stent inserted, and sent home again, where I remained for 2 months before they could bring me back to hospital to have the stone, drain and stent removed. This was a great relief as I was very uncomfortable for the 2 months I had to have them. Some of the doctors told be I was fortunate to have survived as I was very sick when I was admitted. I must add that I am a 90 years old, but very young at heart and my ex husband is 95.
I am still suffering fatigue and dizziness most days together with depression and frustration that I cannot do many things I used to do. I understand that it can take time, but sadly I don’t really have time to look ahead to anymore. Still, I am lucky to have survived and that is a blessing.