Off The Cuff

Once More In The Hospital

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, Health Topics on Aug 16 2008

Welcome back!

I cannot believe after only a couple of weeks, I am sitting in the hospital again. Sigh. Last time it was a spider bite. This time, it’s a blood clot in my left leg. I have no idea whatsoever how that came to be that way. And, of course, things are going about like I knew they would….rolling and screaming. The ambulance took me to the ER. They evaluated me and found that, yes, I did have an infection and yes, I did have a blood clot. They did a doppler on my leg. Big clot. Very dangerous. Glad I decided not to stay home and take pain killers all weekend. Did anyone notice that it was Friday yesterday? In our very rural area of Arkansas, that means that the doctors are not available again until Monday. My trip to the ER was over 60 miles in an ambulance. Yippee!! Not.

The ER was pretty good. They got me out of there in a couple of hours, actually it was 4 and a half, but that’s not bad for them, trust me. I got admitted at somewhere around 11pm making it closer to 5 hrs. Once in the room, the RN showed up to take my info. He looked like he was ready to be admitted himself, he looked so tired. We figured out later that he must have been on his third twelve hour shift by then. The info he took included all the meds I take and when to take them. I have one that is pretty specific with the diuretic part. Today, we found out just how tired that nurse really was.

Besides anything the hospital doctors dream up for me to take, I have two blood pressure meds. One is to be taken three times a day and the other once but it has that little note about diuretic on it. They did a shift change at 7am, not long before my first meds of the day needing to be taken. Experience has taught me not to expect them to be on time in the hospital. I also take a stomach med due to acid reflux. It needs to be taken before I eat anything for the day. Uh huh. Breakfast trays were given out at 8am. The meds showed up at 9am. I took them and said nothing because the last time I did say something, some smart mouth told me that they always had a “two hour window” for meds. Uh huh.

At 1pm, the day nurse came in with my blood pressure med. I was a bit fuzzy and had been sleeping so I did not think about it. I took it. Somewhere around 4pm or so, it hit me. I took a med at 1pm that was not due for several hours. Should have taken it at about 5pm or so. I called the nurse in about this. And now we enter the “Twilight Zone”. The nurse told me that if it is not written down that it is to be taken every 8 hrs. the pharmacy sends it out on this schedule…..are you ready for this??? I wasn’t….They send it out at 9, 1 and 5pm. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????????????????

Seems the guy last night was so tired that he wrote three times a day and nothing else. The most ridiculous hospital on the face of the earth then sends them out on that schedule no matter what it might or might not do to the patient. In my case, had I actually done it the way they were scheduling it, I would have had a very dangerous blood pressure drug in me triple strength for a part of the day and absolutely no coverage of it at all during the evening, night and next morning until 9am. I would have been in a lot more trouble than I already am with the blood clot. My goodness. Does no one at this place have an actual brain????

You are now wondering why I would do something so stupid as to be in this hospital again after the last time, right? No idea at all except in my fuzzy head, I thought that this might have something to do with a certain spider bite and they already had the records for it. Go figure.

So, here I sit just having had the latest meds that were, by the way, over a hour and a half late….you knew that was going to happen too, right? There is no telling how well I can sleep tonight. In the past, when the meds were like this, I had a bad night. Oh did I forget to tell you about the fight I just had? Of course I did. The night nurse, actually subbing for someone else, came in and wanted to take my blood pressure. Now, you know that my last one was at 1pm and they are for every 8 hrs. I am now sitting at 10 and a half hours since the last one. Wanna guess what was happening to my blood pressure?? Up, up, up and away in my beautiful balloon. Well, you get the idea. When she put the machine on me, it got really tight and hurt a whole lot. I took it off of my arm. The nurse got mad at me for doing that and started to fight with me about it. I told her I was not going to fight with her. I will NOT have that take my blood pressure if it’s going to hurt that much. She tells me I can’t have my meds until they get a blood pressure. It’s to see IF I need it. EXCUSE ME?????????????? I think my bp was about to head through the roof as we speak. She finally left…no bp tonight.

The head nurse came in and wanted to know the problem. I told her the whole story. She decided to give me the meds anyway. Uh huh. That was in the form of a gift or so she wanted me to believe. Uh NO! The meds you are taking that have nothing to do with what you are in there for are to be given as they were prescribed unless the doctor changes it for whatever reason. No doctor had changed anything at all.

This is a nightmare. More tomorrow.

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