Health

I had my first day at work in the Bone Marrow Transplant unit (BMTU) last week, which turned out to be quite eventful in the end!

Things started off well; I was introduced to Paula, the Occupational Therapist that I was going to be covering for and she showed me around the OT department before taking me onto the BMTU. I must admit by the time we reached the ward I was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed by the shear amount of information I had to take in; wash your hands in this way before entering the unit, make sure you wash your hands again before you go into the isolation rooms and double check if you need to wear a blue gown; meet Rosa she's our Dietian and here is Kay our social worker and this is Graeme; he's the charge nurse and this is our Clinical Psychologist (didn't get her name), oh and remember it's really important that you wipe any equipment down with chlorohexadine before taking it into the isolation units....and so it went on.

After about 20 minutes Paula turned around and asked me if I was feeling o'k, because I didn't look o'k! At that point I couldn't really hear very well and I could feel myself getting quite short of breath and before I knew it I was on the floor and my new "collegues" were asking me if I was on any medication and if I'd had any lunch! I cringed as I heard one of the Dr's say; "I think we should get her to accident and emergency" but I wasn't able to sit up and protest because I felt so unwell and so before I knew it I was being wheeled out of the ward on a hospital bed with an oxygen mask attatched to my face...when my new flat mates heard about this one they couldn't quite believe it and suggested that I didn't leave the house again except in an absolute emergency!