Typical Luck
Had an appointment at 9:00am this morning over at the hospital (yes, three days after being released for the lengthy surgery stay... this was scheduled before the surgery was even mentioned) to see the "primary care doctor" they had set me up with. First of all, didn't actually ever SEE "Dr. Burkette"... saw his male nurse practitioner. The practitioner seemed concerned about my blood pressure (which was low) and my heart rate (which was high). So, instead of setting up the basis for my ongoing appointments there at the "Med II" clinic, he contacted the emergency department, whe came over and wheeled me over in a chair (I could have made it FINE on foot... I an doing SOME better after the surgery after all).
Nurse in the ER and I had some discussions, and figured the symptoms just MIGHT be the results of dehydration, brought on by the directions one of my discharge doctors left for one of my meds, to take two softgels twice daily. That medication was Colace, a stool softener. In the meantime, she took some blood to be tested. Mom, who drove me (since I'm still not supposed to drive until given the "Okay"), was starting to get hungry (it was closing in on noon, she hadn't ate anything yet today, and has type II diabetes). Nurse suggested she could go ahead and go to the cafeteria and get something to eat, so she did.
After that, I was hooked to a rather fast dripping IV fluid bag, and left alone in the room. A few minutes later, I was surprised to see two of the "surgical team" members involved in my surgery walk in the door. Dr. Kim asked, "Mr. Sims, what brings you to the emergency room today"?". I proceeded to explain the circumstances I posted above. She wasn't the one who wrote the prescriptions on the day I was released, but told me to just take the Colace on an "as needed" basis.
While there, she and the other surgical team member there wanted to look at how my chest incisions were healing, so I unbuttoned my shirt. First thing the other doctor said, "He's still got his chest drip attached.", to which Dr. Kim replied, "Yeah, that should have came out the day he was discharged". Only saw a Dr. Nyguyen and the male nurse who I was on his shift that day/afternoon. Dr. Nyguyen was the one who wrote the prescriptions and removed the PICC line. The nurse gave me instructions for dressing/emptying the chest drip that day, no mention of it being removed.
So, anywho, Dr. Kim left the room a couple minutes, came back with some large gauze bandages/tape, and pulled out the chest drip apparatus. That's the last thing that was "hanging out of me" I was currently having to deal with. Will still have to deal with the chest staples at least until my January 23rd "post-op" appointment. Luckily, those are getting less sore by the day.
A little later, mom made it back from eating. She said she had shrimp scampy. A little later after that, the IV drip finished, and started beeping off the wall. Mom called the nurse on the intercom, and she came back, turned it off, and removed it. Nurse told me that the surgical team doctors weren't notified I was in the ER, they just happened to see my name on the board and came down to see what was going on.
All this, and I still never got "properly" set up with who was supposed to be my new "primary care physician". 9AM appointment, which I thought wouldn't take long, ended up, after the ER stuff, lasting a lot longer. Mom and I made it home a little after 2:30PM. If it hadn't been for those stoopid Colace directions (which were keeping me up most of the night on the toilet), this MIGHT have been a routine visit!
Nurse in the ER and I had some discussions, and figured the symptoms just MIGHT be the results of dehydration, brought on by the directions one of my discharge doctors left for one of my meds, to take two softgels twice daily. That medication was Colace, a stool softener. In the meantime, she took some blood to be tested. Mom, who drove me (since I'm still not supposed to drive until given the "Okay"), was starting to get hungry (it was closing in on noon, she hadn't ate anything yet today, and has type II diabetes). Nurse suggested she could go ahead and go to the cafeteria and get something to eat, so she did.
After that, I was hooked to a rather fast dripping IV fluid bag, and left alone in the room. A few minutes later, I was surprised to see two of the "surgical team" members involved in my surgery walk in the door. Dr. Kim asked, "Mr. Sims, what brings you to the emergency room today"?". I proceeded to explain the circumstances I posted above. She wasn't the one who wrote the prescriptions on the day I was released, but told me to just take the Colace on an "as needed" basis.
While there, she and the other surgical team member there wanted to look at how my chest incisions were healing, so I unbuttoned my shirt. First thing the other doctor said, "He's still got his chest drip attached.", to which Dr. Kim replied, "Yeah, that should have came out the day he was discharged". Only saw a Dr. Nyguyen and the male nurse who I was on his shift that day/afternoon. Dr. Nyguyen was the one who wrote the prescriptions and removed the PICC line. The nurse gave me instructions for dressing/emptying the chest drip that day, no mention of it being removed.
So, anywho, Dr. Kim left the room a couple minutes, came back with some large gauze bandages/tape, and pulled out the chest drip apparatus. That's the last thing that was "hanging out of me" I was currently having to deal with. Will still have to deal with the chest staples at least until my January 23rd "post-op" appointment. Luckily, those are getting less sore by the day.
A little later, mom made it back from eating. She said she had shrimp scampy. A little later after that, the IV drip finished, and started beeping off the wall. Mom called the nurse on the intercom, and she came back, turned it off, and removed it. Nurse told me that the surgical team doctors weren't notified I was in the ER, they just happened to see my name on the board and came down to see what was going on.
All this, and I still never got "properly" set up with who was supposed to be my new "primary care physician". 9AM appointment, which I thought wouldn't take long, ended up, after the ER stuff, lasting a lot longer. Mom and I made it home a little after 2:30PM. If it hadn't been for those stoopid Colace directions (which were keeping me up most of the night on the toilet), this MIGHT have been a routine visit!