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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Hospital for Chuck |
| 2005-09-23 |
| I'd been having some GI problems for about two weeks. At first I thought I had some food poisoning. Sharp yet non-radiating pain in lower right quadrant, and other symptoms. It went away, then came back last Friday. Sunday I was a mess. Decided at work on Monday that the pain meant something so I called Dr. Cutey. 7:30 am Tuesday, I saw her. 8:30 am I had a CAT scan, and not the kind I get at home from any of my five kitties. I hate have procedures sprung on me and I went to the scan unaware that I'd have an IV for dye and an enema. Yay! Before I left the scan site, I was called to the phone to talk to Dr. Cutey who informed me that I had a hot appendix and I needed to go the the E/R at Hxxxx hospital ASAP. Ran around, made arrangements, and the lovely wife, my darling sister, and I went off to the hospital. Let's just say that there are qualitative differences in hospitals and leave it at that. When the E/R attending and the triage nurse personally have to come and find you in a hallway in the x-ray department, you know things are a little awry. That would be after spending an hour or so in x-ray just lying there. Six hours in the E/R, two visits by the surgical resident, signed consent for surgery. Then I was taken to a room... not to surgery. Well, it turns out that the surgeon wasn't certain what I had. And... they lost the CAT scan films that I had hand carried to the hospital. IV and IV antibiotics. No food. Wednesday dawned hungry and messy. My GI problems were extreme. Wait for the GI consult. Wait for the GI consult. Pound on tray. Call Dr. Cutey. Pound on desk. GI guy shows late in afternoon. Refugee from "Saturday Night Fever". Open shirt. Chains. Attitude. Too dangerous to do colonoscopy, due to inflamation and such. Yay! Surgeon says too dangerous to operate, too dangerous to send me home. OK to have clear liquid diet. I ate jello, lots of jello. 12:30 am Thursday. Wake up. We have to move you into quarantine!!!!!!! You have GI infection you got in hospital!!!!! WTF?????? Thursday dawns in noisy room directly across from nurses' station. Surgeon? Surgeon? I want to go home. Liquid diet isn't enough. Pound on tray. Pound on desk. Nurse says resident hints I may go home. Let lovely wife know. Hey, moved to low residue diet at lunch. Got to eat two lunches, the clear and the low residue. Low residue contained wheat product and milk, odd since my chart clearly shows I am lactose and gluten intolerant. OK, definitely going home. Need orders. Call lovely wife. Orders written. Call lovely wife. She is coming in cab. IV removed. Shriek like gurly girl at pain [not really, very pain free. Nice nurse.] Pack up my troubles and go down to the lobby in my slippers and scrubs. Look like homeless bum but don't care. Driven home by Arab on cellphone. Cats all ask "Who are you?" I'm home! I'm home! |
| Posted by:Thromoter Clase7083 |
| #4 apparently, tray pounding should be a recognized therapy for this malady |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-09-23 20:09 |
| #3 So...are you sick or aren't you? (Good luck either way, and sending waves of support to the lovely, and patient, wife). |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-09-23 19:48 |
| #2 There is a difference in the quality of Hospital care. He just found out about it. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2005-09-23 18:21 |
| #1 God.... rundown the various "deviations in standards of care". Too many. Hope you're ok! |
| Posted by: Mark E 2005-09-23 17:58 |