A New Monkie

Everything went well and I was allowed to go home five days afterwards. Now I have a new routine. I have to get up by 6am and take my anti-rejection tablets and then get to Auckland Hospital by 7:30am every morning for blood tests. I also see the doctor to check if the kidney is working as it should and that there is no rejection. The tests will get less frequent as time goes on and presuming everything goes well. The doctors are very happy with my progress so far.

The doctors and nurses at Auckland Hospital have been magnificent and very friendly. They actual talked to me and explained everything. Unfortunately there was one exception. This nurse came on to the afternoon shift. Straight away she was right in my face talking to me like I had half a brain. Of course this got my back up. She took my blood pressure which was a bit high. From then on she hounded me, taking my blood pressure frequently at the most inopportune moments she could. She took my blood pressure in the middle of having my dinner, when I went to the toilet, she would be waiting outside the toilet to take my blood pressure again. I got stressed and I couldn’t handle her anymore. So I asked my Support Person to talk to the Head Nurse to change my nurse. The Head Nurse agreed. The funny part was that my new nurse only checked my blood pressure twice in next 12 hour period. When the doctors did their rounds in the morning they weren’t overly concerned about my blood pressure being high. Apparently this is quite common because of the anti-rejection drugs. They just put me on some blood pressure tablets.

The day before I went home I had a visit from the Social Worker, after a bit of a talk she thought I could do with a bit more help at home. She was going to ring Taikura Trust my (Needs Assessment and Service Co-ordination Service agency) (NASC) to see if they could arrange something. I thought to myself “Good Luck”. A few days later I saw the Social Worker in the clinic. She said, she had rang Taikura Trust and they told her, because it was a medical issue it was up to the Hospital to provide the extra help. So I would have had some strange person come into my home for half an hour at a time. I said thanks, but no thanks. I have Individualised Funding so I just wanted to increase the time my experienced staff do which is a lot more efficient, they know me and know my needs, I don’t want some stranger who I have to train & try explaining what I need done. They need to fast track this so people, get the correct amount additional good quality assistance they need from the first day of going home. At the end of the day both lots of funding comes from the Ministry of Health, maybe from different pots. The Social Worker said she would ring Taikura Trust again to see if they would do a review of my needs. Well, I’m still waiting to hear from Taikura Trust or the Social Worker and I have been home for two weeks now. Having talked with others this appears to be the norm, which is a sad indictment of the system.