family illnesses
My Uncle in Birmingham collapsed a few days ago. They found him the next day, and his blood sugar was 1300. I have never heard of blood sugar that high. The docs in the hospital decided he must have had a "massive" heart attack.... plus his kidneys are completely shut down. So they couldn't do the angiogram because the dye needs to be processed through the kidneys.
So they put him on dialysis and took 3 liters of fluid out of his lungs. Now that he is responsive (a little bit) and his blood chemicals are a bit more stabilized, they said he didn't have a heart attack, but a stroke.
The problem is that he is on medicaid. They are taking good care of him now, but since they don't cover insulin or glucometer test strips, he has been doing a lot of guesswork about how much insulin to take. He could never afford to go to a doctor about the diabetes, and was never able to get tests to see how his kidneys are doing and stuff. (Medicaid will pay a certain amount for doctor visits, but the docs want the remaining amount up front.... you have to pay before you ever see the doctor.) So the docs in the hospital have no clue if his kidneys shut down because of the 1300 blood sugar, and maybe will start functioning again, or if the kidneys have been shut down for a while.
He is still in the ICU, and his situation is still very iffy. The few times he was conscious he was well and truly pissed off about the entire thing. I don't know when I may have to drive off to birmingham. I haven'd done so because I may still be contagious... I don't want to give my uncle (or other family members) this plague on top of everything else.
My mother is practically hysterical and I HATE it when she gets upset and cries. Then I start crying, too, and it's just a snotty mess.
A friend of mine lost his brother a few days ago.... seemingly due to random violence in this shithole of a city. Uncle Wookie and I couldn't even go to the memorial service because we're both still on antibiotics and feverish and probably contagious. I feel so bad for the family.
I finally dragged Uncle Wookie off to the doctor because he was feeling worse and worse. The doc said he had a secondary bacterial infection and "either acute bronchitis or pneumonia". So he is just now starting to feel a little perky. I am on a second round of antibiotics - same diagnosis. I still am feverish at night.
The flu viris this year is fucking brutal. I encourage everyone who gets it to see a doc in case of the old secondary bacterial infection. Antibiotics are a big help in this situation.
So they put him on dialysis and took 3 liters of fluid out of his lungs. Now that he is responsive (a little bit) and his blood chemicals are a bit more stabilized, they said he didn't have a heart attack, but a stroke.
The problem is that he is on medicaid. They are taking good care of him now, but since they don't cover insulin or glucometer test strips, he has been doing a lot of guesswork about how much insulin to take. He could never afford to go to a doctor about the diabetes, and was never able to get tests to see how his kidneys are doing and stuff. (Medicaid will pay a certain amount for doctor visits, but the docs want the remaining amount up front.... you have to pay before you ever see the doctor.) So the docs in the hospital have no clue if his kidneys shut down because of the 1300 blood sugar, and maybe will start functioning again, or if the kidneys have been shut down for a while.
He is still in the ICU, and his situation is still very iffy. The few times he was conscious he was well and truly pissed off about the entire thing. I don't know when I may have to drive off to birmingham. I haven'd done so because I may still be contagious... I don't want to give my uncle (or other family members) this plague on top of everything else.
My mother is practically hysterical and I HATE it when she gets upset and cries. Then I start crying, too, and it's just a snotty mess.
A friend of mine lost his brother a few days ago.... seemingly due to random violence in this shithole of a city. Uncle Wookie and I couldn't even go to the memorial service because we're both still on antibiotics and feverish and probably contagious. I feel so bad for the family.
I finally dragged Uncle Wookie off to the doctor because he was feeling worse and worse. The doc said he had a secondary bacterial infection and "either acute bronchitis or pneumonia". So he is just now starting to feel a little perky. I am on a second round of antibiotics - same diagnosis. I still am feverish at night.
The flu viris this year is fucking brutal. I encourage everyone who gets it to see a doc in case of the old secondary bacterial infection. Antibiotics are a big help in this situation.