Jump to content

Not Great News


Candy

Recommended Posts

Hugh's left arm swelled up over the weekend so I took him to the ER on Sunday. He has an "extensive" blood clot in that arm. Yet another thing to worry about. We were at the ER for over 6 hours which to me is really unforgiveable. I know they are busy (but I have to say yesterday they only had about 3 other patients come in while we were there) and I try to be understanding, but they spent probably less than an hour actually treating him. We got there at a little before noon and never got home until 7:30. At one point I went out to find a doctor to tell him Hugh had meds he had to take and was overdue for and they were meds he had to have food with. Their response was to order Hugh a tray of food at least. They wheeled him down for an ultrasound and we waited in that hallway for almost 1 and a half hours for the technician to come in. I guess he was home and on-call. The orderly came back a half-dozen times to see if Hugh was finished before the technician even got there. THEN the technician scanned Hugh's leg by mistake. Hugh didn't say anything because he has never had an ultrasound before and he thought he was going to scan his left side for some reason. Someone else popped into our cubicle to set Hugh's ankle (whoops wrong person) and then they sent some poor woman in who thought she was going to see her husband. They just led her to our room and said "right there" with a hand gesture and left. You should have seen the look on that woman's face. At one point a nurse came in and said she was going to start an IV. When I asked her why she was starting an IV (at this point we hadn't spoken to any doctors) she got a little vague saying the doctor would be in to talk with us about the scan results but she had seen them and thought he would probably want a line started and then left without doing it which caused me to panic wondering what exactly they found with the ultrasound. I will be darned if anyone is sticking Hugh even one more time unless its necessary. Which, by the way, it wasn't because it turned out he didn't need an IV or even blood work. Another time she came in and I told her Hugh had port access and she complained that if we wanted to use the port she would have to get an IV nurse. By the end of the day we learned that his port will have to be removed because it is on the same side as the clot and now unusable. That stinks! It was just extremely frustrating. Hugh is tired from the radiation, his stomach is totally messed up from the steroids and he is irritable from them as well, his arm was uncomfortable and he had to sit in that room for most of the day.

So, after hours of them trying to decide if they would admit him or not. At one point they said yes but they called our Onc who said it wasn't necessary so we ended up going home. I have to give him 2 shots each day of blood thinner (in his stomach) and he is taking Coumodin (spelling?) 1x/day. We have to have his levels checked on Wednesday. We had the option of either going to the ER to have the shots 2x/day (FAT CHANCE), having VNA come in (Hugh wasn't thrilled about that at all) or teaching me to do it. I am not really uncomfortable with it so I thought I would go ahead and do it because it was the option Hugh was the most comfortable with. We went to the ER (Express Care Unit) for a lesson today and they let me give it to him. Its not so bad.

Thank you for letting me vent! You really know how much this board helps when circumstances make it so you can't get here daily!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow Candy - what one MESS of a day for you and Hugh. I don't know how your even managed to keep your emotions in check. I'm afraid I might have exploded even after a couple of hours.

I am glad you are able to give Hugh the shots at home. At one point Bill was giving himself shots in the stomach for blood clots. Now he just takes a pill orally each day and has his blood checked regularly.

Prayers are headed your way and to heaven right now.......

Better days ahead.....you are certainly overdue......!

Blessings to you both,

Peg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Candy that is AWFUL!!!!! where does he go??? (since i know we are massholes) Dear god i would have started ripping some heads off, people are so amazing sometimes, this is health care know your shi_!! As far as the shot thing...my mom was the same way and they told her she was going to have to how is this do and iv too.....ummm what home iv kits what??? no medical training they i am assuming were going to set up a line BUT so much can go wrong with that!!! it is so so dumb, and health care has gotten so lazy for the little things. like sure we can do a spiral ct scan of your whole body but oh a themometer reading....oh here here is one if it over a certain level wait 3 hours for me to come back and i will tell you to repeat since i have been gone so long and the temperature MIGHT be different now. it is just so sad. honestly. sorry you had to deal with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Candy,

I think that we are conditioned that the medical profession are several steps above us. That because they have been through years of training and have the potential to heal us they are somehow better then us. I do believe they they deserve respect but so do we. Making a patient wait a very long time is not being respectful to them. I think some places do this just bacause they can.

I hope that you will never have to go through something like that again.

My very Best Wishes, Shelly

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Candy, what an awful and incredible day you and Hugh had to spend. I'm glad you were watching over him and keeping the wolves away. I keep saying each patient needs an advocate, and you're a great one for Hugh. Here's praying that things get better around there for you two. Don

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.