Timprov update

[mrissa]

My father and I have finished dinner, and I'm just starting to wind down. Pretty soon I will fall over.

timprov was admitted to the hospital this afternoon after a bunch of waiting, a good MRI, and various other tests we don't know the results of yet. The ER nurses are every one of them Heroes of the Revolution, and I have high hopes of the regular nurses as well. There was a fairly bad moment when the doctor had mistaken the main problem and wanted to send a mostly-immobile timprov home with some pain meds and a bunch of appointments to drive around to (??!!), but we made the mobility problem clear, and they're going to have him deal with some specialists there in the hospital. We still have no idea when he will come home. It could be tomorrow, or any day thereafter. But it will not be tonight.

(I know ER doctors have a lot to take care of. But a few bits of information seemed to have fallen between the cracks that were not really optional bits of information. So we repeated them as necessary.)

Other than the ER nurses, Heroes of the Revolution include porphyrin and CJ.

Dad is walking the bop. I am going to take some deep breaths and maybe write an e-mail or two and then have dessert with Dad and try not to fall asleep in my ice cream.

Comments

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

"There was a fairly bad moment when the doctor had mistaken the main problem and wanted to send a mostly-immobile timprov home with some pain meds and a bunch of appointments to drive around to (??!!)"

You see now why I was obsessing over your trip to the ER? They try so hard to get rid of you. *sigh* I'm glad you finally got the process started.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understood this from the beginning, trust me. But we did not see any other immediately available options in our conversations with our doctor.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

There are a number of things going on here, including doctors being afraid of being prosecuted for the DEA, all of which results that if you come into an ER for pain, you are quite likely not to get the treatment you need. I was worried he'd be injected with morphine and sent home with some wimpy pain killer like vicodin and told to "follow up" with his "regular doctor" later. That's not what happened, but it tried to. You did good in explaining that the boy can't walk and he needed more tests. The hospital is *not* allowed to toss immobile people out on the sidewalk, but some of them will if there's a friend or a family member who can be intimidated into taking responsibility. You did good.

I also think there's a certain amount of disrespect for pain complaints. I even saw it when I was in L&D with my son, and their disdain of my pain prevented me from getting effective pain relief when I could have used it. ("Take a warm shower," I was told. My hair was still dripping from having spent the *whole night* in the shower.) My aunt is an ER nurse, and she didn't question my mother being sent home from a different ER twice when she went in for back pain, because they get a LOT of people with back pain and there's really nothing that can be done for them. The problem in my mother's case was that at first they didn't do the MRI that would have told them something was going on, and then, when they DID do it, they ignored the giant cancerous legion that the radiologists helpfully pointed out for them, and gave her a diagnosis of arthritis and sent her home with wimpy pain meds anyway, which, again, led to her feeling ashamed and not seeking any further help for her illness until it was too late.

Anyway, I think there's a doctoral dissertation in this somewhere, for someone. Bottom line, you did what you needed to do to get him past the pain gatekeepers and get the tests he needs. I hope something useful comes of it.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

I was actually very happy with how seriously they took the pain. They were all over the pain, which was actually the problem -- they kept excluding the other problems in favor of dealing with the pain, as if if they stopped me hurting everything would be OK.

I'm sure it helped that we were in ER at 8 am on a weekday. But the ER nurses were extremely fabulous, and the doctor was quite good as well. Once they had me try to walk across a hallway (with two helpers) I think they got it.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting M'ris. Was thinking of you all lot today, and it is easier to go to bed here now. Hope you do get some rest tonight, and *cuddles* to the Bop as always.

(As odd things happen, I spent a fair amount of time on the MNA website, your nurses assn. I can't tell you how often I hear this sort of thing, and if you don't mind, I'd like to pass it on, just in very general terms.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Sure, go ahead. I'm going to be passing it on in very specific terms in a letter after T is home. I will even try to make it googleable: Fairview Ridges nurses are excellent. Fairview Ridges nurses rock. Fairview Ridges nurses give very high-quality care.

[ladysea.livejournal.com]

I have found that to be true also.

And lets now count the number of times I have been in Fairview Ridges hospital for one thing or another. =}

I am glad the nurses are taking good care of him. Let me know if you need me for anything. *hugs*

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you had good ER nurses - mine were really good, too, and I was a flood of gratitude. I got lucky and had a good ER doctor, too...although the surgeons I saw /after/ the ER needed prodigious thumping to pound them into a human-like shape.

I'm also really sorry all of this was necessary, and am thinking of you and, well, holding my thumbs for luck for you, and thinking that February seems to be a hospitallish time of year, somehow.

Take care. You make really good plans under stress. I'm glad you have this skill, but hope you don't have to practice it too much further.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

thinking of you

[ammitbeast.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking good thoughts for you guys. Hang in there.

[ckd]

Hooray for the nurses! Hooray for porphyrin! Hooray for CJ! And hooray for mrissa who has been doing all that stuff and then letting us know how timprov is doing.

Oh and hooray for ice cream.

Thinking of you all and hoping for good news, and very glad to hear that you are taking care of the mrissa with food and such. Is important.

[pameladean]

Whew, glad that worked. The times I have been in the ER I've been thinking all the time, "No, don't admit me, you don't need to admit me, really you just don't." Maybe it's harder to get done than I think.

My ER nurses have been stupendous, and I've also had some really good doctors.

I hope, continuously, that Things Can Get Figured Out Now.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is harder to get done -- if they don't feel you're going to make them liable by going off and dying or something. Falling and injuring yourself. Etc. Once they think you could go off and do something they could get sued for, then they might try harder to keep you.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

A couple of times we had to make it clear to people that "and then you'll get to go home" was not a positive thing for my circumstance. I'm sure most of the people they deal with are like you, deperately hoping they won't end up in the hospital. I was terrified they were going to kick me out without doing anything useful. That almost happened anyway, but at least it was two days later.

[pameladean]

I think you got my postcards and I got yours. Nobody ever told me "and then you'll get to go home." Both times, I found out because they don't lower their voices when they are doing the shift change.
The last time I was there as support staff for somebody else, they did say zie could go home, but then there was a shift change and the new ones wanted to do more tests. Communication, communication, communication -- it's not just for poly any more.

P.

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Good thoughts.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

When my mom had her recent surgery (before she had the surgery) the doctor wanted to send her home, too, and probably would've if not for the nurse.

They found out during the surgery (which also almost got postponed, and the doctor [not sure if the same one or not] was awesome and it didn't) that she might've died if they hadn't operated Right Then.

Good nurses and doctors are the very, very best.