Day clinic and admission

Up bright and early and over to Beaumont for my angiogram. After being met and greeted by the nurse it was time to begin the day with a cholesterol blood test, then changing into a hospital gown and waiting for my turn to have the angiogram done. A really pleasant member of the cardiologist's medical team went through a bit of an interrogation about lifestyle and so on, and told me I should be first on the list for the day. As it happened, I wasn't, but I didn't have too long to wait anyway.

I'd heard that it was possible to see on a monitor what was happening during the angiogram, but part of the machine (a sort of remotely controlled mechanical arm) kept on obscuring my view. At one stage I was asked to take some tablets, there was a bit of coming and going on the part of some of the medical gang, a bit of mumbling went on, and then the cardiologist gave me the bad news: all my arteries were badly blocked, I was to be admitted yo hospital right away, and I'd probably need to have a bypass done!

Back in the day clinic there was a bit of a wait for a bed to become free. Meanwhile I was plied with tea and toast to beat the band, the medical team member I'd been with earlier came back for another question and answer session, Carl had to be told that he wouldn't be coming back in a couple of hours to bring me back home, and I was whisked away for an ultrasound test and then a pulmonary function one. In between, the day nurse asked if I was taking any medication for cholesterol, I said No and she said 'you are now'. The result of the blood test had shown that my cholesterol count was 9.2!

I was transferred to a cardiac ward at 4.00, Carl came in for the first of what was to turn out as many visits, and I finally settled down to my first night as a hospital patient.