My bedroom at various times over the last 12months has become my very own exam room for the ' Hospital at Home ' nurses that visit me 3 X daily to carry out my obs , IV administering and my chest physiotherapy for the Cystic Fibrosis.
At first I was kind of shy and embarrassed that they were coming into my home , my bedroom , getting to see and know so much about me . Now they are more like friends and I feel very comfortable in their care and they are relaxed in my home . They help themselves to hot drinks and anything else I tell them too whilst we are waiting for IVs etc to run through .
The first three visits they always come in pairs . After that unless specifically required they come individually . There are male and female nurses. I get a mixture of both. I can request that I only have female nurses , but that makes it hard for them to sort their rota and visits . Too be honest I really have no preference as to whether my nurse is male or female . I've become comfortable with either carrying out the various tasks.
Each visit lasts around an hour and half and goes a bit like this ;
7:00 - 7:30am - they arrive . I'm usually the first call of the day in the morning . We chat for 5 minutes to check I'm ok , then they wash their hands and prep my IV antibiotics . These are prepped on a sterile trolley in my ensuite in my bedroom . Once they are mixed , set up and connected to my port and running smoothly they carry out a full set of observations . This includes blood pressure check , temperature , oxygen saturation levels and recently blood sugar levels . They also carry out a urine dip from my catheter . They also do any blood tests , cough swabs etc ordered by the hospital and take them away to the lab .
The IV's are then left to go through whilst the nurse fills out the paperwork , writing down IV batch numbers and recording my observations . They also record what I've ate and drank since they left the night before . This takes around 25 - 30 mins . Whilst this is happening I'm usually lying or sitting propped up on my bed relaxing . Mostly I'm still in my pyjamas at this point too .
Around 8:00am I'm disconnected from the IV and my port is covered . I then remove my top half pyjamas and get comfy on my Physio bed . I've only recently purchased this and I must say it's easier than having chest percussion on my own bed . This tilts for better drainage and makes my life easier . The nurse has cleared all the IV stuff by this point and washed their hands .
Physiotherapy usually starts by them having quite a long stething session whilst they listen for the areas that need extra percussion or for any new crackles or wheeze that may indicate infection starting . They then carry out chest percussion clapping on the chest or back for 3 - 5 mins each time followed by vibration over the same area so I can cough to unclog the airways . Each session lasts between 25 & 40 mins . The length depends on which nurse is on and how I am .
Once this is finished the nurse clears everything away , finishes writing in my notes and off they go . They then return again around 2:00pm and again at 8:00pm. Sometimes visits are shorter as my Ivs are not due or they do a shorter Physio session . It's become part of my life now . When I'm well again I will miss these visits in one way , but in another be glad that I'm able to do what I want again .
I'm so grateful that this service is available in the area where I live . It's not available in all of the UK. It keeps me out of hospital and able to stay at home with my girls .
Nikki