OKAY! So Hubby had his PET scan on Monday .... in Newcastle. We had to be there by 10 so instead of driving down with an early start on Monday (about 7am) I decided we would spend the night there at one of the 'lodges' on the hospital grounds & then just walk to the Nuclear Medicine in the morning! I'd had a wonderful 4 weeks at the Port Macquarie Rotary Lodge during my 4 weeks of Radiation ..... so thought this would be similar! WRONG!
It took us nearly an hour just to FIND the place (lugging our gear with us everywhere) as the instructions/directions weren't really clear and even people working on site couldn't help us find it. Finally one person went with us from door to door (trying our key every time) only to find that the swipe card was for the front door & the key was for the room! I'd been told the opposite!
There are 2 'lodges' at Calvary Mater Hospital in Newcastle - the Telethon Lodge and the McCauley Centre Lodge. The Telethon Lodge is purpose built - the McCauley Lodge is the old Nurses Quarters! Both has a shared kitchen. The Telethon Lodge has nice rooms with ensures, TV etc ..... the McCauley Lodge has plastic covered mattresses and pillows, a wardrobe and a bedside table - and is on the 6th floor. That is it! And only 2 cotton blankets (in winter conditions!) so we wore long sleeved tops to bed, as well as tights and socks (no heating either - only in the corridors.) It is a shared bathroom too - where hubby got lost at 1am going to the loo as he couldn't remember where our room was, so I had to go hunting for him in the corridors to bring him back to bed! (It was very similar to my old boarding school! VERY basic rooms!) Luckily he found his own way back the 2nd time, as I slept thru that one! There is only one lift servicing the whole floor and there would be in excess of 30 rooms ...... and it broke down shortly after we got to our room! So there was a continual CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK as the doors tried to shut ..... and a monotonous voice saying 'Going Down', 'Going Down', 'Going Down' ... also ad nauseam! After 1/2hr, the alarm started - a loud continual high pitched droning noise ..... along with the CLUNK and 'Going Down'! And our room was RIGHT OPPOSITE IT!! It was driving us mad!! I'd rung the Lift Company at 4pm advising them of the breakdown & they said they'd contact reception & get a work order & come & fix it. I also rang reception to expect their call .... and they said they'd send a security guy up (not too sure what he would do tho!) But I DID ask him for another room tho, if they couldn't fix it before bed time! I am now calling it Fawlty Towers!
7pm and it is STILL going CLUNK, 'Going Down''Going Down', HUMMMMMMMM .... so i ring the Lift company again! They say it's the hospital's fault as they hadn't sent a work order thru until just now. A technician was on his way! (The reception had said they hadn't heard from the Lift company!) In the mean time, new residents had to lug all their gear up the way up all the stairs! The technician finally arrives and manages to turn all the noises off .... but the lift is still stuffed!!
The plastic beds creaked all night every time you turned over but luckily we'd brought our own pillows! Next morning, we found spare cotton blankets in the 'laundry' off the bathroom! grrr
So next morning we had to lug all our stuff down all the stairs, 68 of them, to get the stuff back to the car & then go on to Nuclear Medicine!
Hubby is a diabetic and had to go off his tablets as it can stuff the PET scan readings ..... so his bloods were 12! Same level as the PET scan in Jan. So we had to go walkies to try & lower the level to 9! 1hr later & it had jumped to 13! grrr Another 1/2hr walk & it came down to 11.1 .... and they went ahead with it anyway! Neither of us had eaten since 5.30 the previous evening & we were both starving! I was feeling ILL I was so hungry and nearly passed out (I thought it unfair to have breakfast when he couldn't!) So I grabbed some fruit salad from the cafeteria whilst they were preparing him for the scan and felt much better.
We were never so pleased to be back to our own home & bed that night!!! RANT OVER
We should get the results next week as our Onc is on a well earned 1 week off to celebrate her 40th birthday!
