Update. (WARNING: gross medical stuff follows!)
My grandma went back in for a second round of surgery on Wednesday, February 22nd, during which they took out and cleaned her knee replacement thing and put it back in. The damn thing was water-tight, and they still found a bunch of pus and blood and disgusting infected stuff inside it. This time when they finished the operation they put a wound vac on her knee which is supposed to help keep it cleaner and less likely to become infected again. My fucking question: why the FUCK was that not done the first time she had surgery? Additional mistake #1.
The doctor told us that she developed a serious hematoma, which was the huge gross black area under her skin that he told us would "fall off" (HA!), and there was a bunch of necrotic tissue around the area which did end up coming back testing positive for infection. Any braindead fucking idiot with no medical training whatsoever could've glanced at her knee and known it was infected without even needing tests. When she was waiting in the surgery prep area on Wednesday there was so much blood and pus leaking from her knee that it had completely saturated her bandages, and soaked through TWO blankets that were placed on top of her. We showed every single nurse and medical staff that came through that door her wound, and almost every single one had the same reaction upon seeing it: widened eyes, shock, disgust, disbelief that it was so bad after such a 'simple' procedure. Yet her doctor waited weeks to get her back into the hospital to treat it and kept assuring her it was normal. Additional mistake #2. They put her into the surgery prep room at 11:30 AM. She was finally wheeled into surgery at 6:55 PM. It took that long, with no explanation, to get her back under the knife - meanwhile the rude as shit nurses treated both her and the family like shit, acting like we were overreacting when we voiced concerns over the wait, or more serious things such as her severe nausea. Additional mistakes #'s 3 and 4. She was sitting there for over 7 hours while this infected, necrotic wound was working its poison deeper into her extremely weak body. Seven fucking hours. They kept saying "oh, she's next, I think he's working on another patient now but she'll probably get bumped ahead, we'll give her something in the meantime." Bullshit. It's all just bullshit.
She began getting sick and vomiting about 4 or 5 hours in. She threw up normal stomach acid and the like, and also threw up phlegm, both yellow and clear, nearly choking on it. They gave her several medicines for this, all of which made her very sleepy, but none of which fully stopped the nausea or vomiting. My mother was so angry at the lack of care and urgency the nurses were showing, coupled with the long and unexplained wait time, that she left the room for a while so she wouldn't explode. When she did my grandma got very, very sick and also said she "saw a black line like barbed wire" across her vision. That was when I got really scared, and I was so glad my mom wasn't there to see that. Ultimately we asked the nurses about 4 times to give her something for the nausea, which they ignored, and 2 different doctors told the same nurses to give her something for it. Finally they did, after hours of misery, and then claimed the order from the second doctor instructing them to medicate her got misplaced momentarily and that caused the delay. More lies and bullshit. Additional mistakes #5+... who can even keep count anymore.
She's been in the hospital since then, and today they're going to perform another bout of surgery. Originally she was supposed to get a skin graft - yes, a skin graft on an 82-year-old woman who bleeds extremely severely from a minor scratch whose surgery incision hasn't even healed, they were going to cut a chunk of her skin off - but now they're just going to go in and take the entire knee replacement out and put in a temporary thing. She'll supposedly have mobility but it won't be a fully functional knee like what's in there now. Then they're going to go and do THE ENTIRE ORIGINAL KNEE REPLACEMENT SURGERY ALL OVER AGAIN IN 6 WEEKS. They're going to try to repeat the exact same procedure that has already failed. And not just failed, but has nearly killed her.
There are no words for the stupidity, irresponsibility, and recklessness of this. Nothing we say gets through to these people and it's clear the people in charge of her care don't give a shit that what they're doing, and NOT doing, has a very high chance of killing her. There's a chance they'll eventually have to fuse her leg together, which will mean she won't be able to walk anymore. But there's also a chance she won't survive. She may not live through today. She's been in and out of it for days now, sometimes she doesn't even seem to know we're here or know where she is.
I don't know what else to do or say. Everyone is exhausted both physically and mentally. If you pray, please pray for my grandma. If you don't, please keep us in your thoughts. I don't know what's going to happen and I'm very scared. We've got to leave now to get to the hospital for her third surgery, the one that she may not make it through. Thank you for any help and good vibes you can provide. I'm trying my very best to keep it together.
The doctor told us that she developed a serious hematoma, which was the huge gross black area under her skin that he told us would "fall off" (HA!), and there was a bunch of necrotic tissue around the area which did end up coming back testing positive for infection. Any braindead fucking idiot with no medical training whatsoever could've glanced at her knee and known it was infected without even needing tests. When she was waiting in the surgery prep area on Wednesday there was so much blood and pus leaking from her knee that it had completely saturated her bandages, and soaked through TWO blankets that were placed on top of her. We showed every single nurse and medical staff that came through that door her wound, and almost every single one had the same reaction upon seeing it: widened eyes, shock, disgust, disbelief that it was so bad after such a 'simple' procedure. Yet her doctor waited weeks to get her back into the hospital to treat it and kept assuring her it was normal. Additional mistake #2. They put her into the surgery prep room at 11:30 AM. She was finally wheeled into surgery at 6:55 PM. It took that long, with no explanation, to get her back under the knife - meanwhile the rude as shit nurses treated both her and the family like shit, acting like we were overreacting when we voiced concerns over the wait, or more serious things such as her severe nausea. Additional mistakes #'s 3 and 4. She was sitting there for over 7 hours while this infected, necrotic wound was working its poison deeper into her extremely weak body. Seven fucking hours. They kept saying "oh, she's next, I think he's working on another patient now but she'll probably get bumped ahead, we'll give her something in the meantime." Bullshit. It's all just bullshit.
She began getting sick and vomiting about 4 or 5 hours in. She threw up normal stomach acid and the like, and also threw up phlegm, both yellow and clear, nearly choking on it. They gave her several medicines for this, all of which made her very sleepy, but none of which fully stopped the nausea or vomiting. My mother was so angry at the lack of care and urgency the nurses were showing, coupled with the long and unexplained wait time, that she left the room for a while so she wouldn't explode. When she did my grandma got very, very sick and also said she "saw a black line like barbed wire" across her vision. That was when I got really scared, and I was so glad my mom wasn't there to see that. Ultimately we asked the nurses about 4 times to give her something for the nausea, which they ignored, and 2 different doctors told the same nurses to give her something for it. Finally they did, after hours of misery, and then claimed the order from the second doctor instructing them to medicate her got misplaced momentarily and that caused the delay. More lies and bullshit. Additional mistakes #5+... who can even keep count anymore.
She's been in the hospital since then, and today they're going to perform another bout of surgery. Originally she was supposed to get a skin graft - yes, a skin graft on an 82-year-old woman who bleeds extremely severely from a minor scratch whose surgery incision hasn't even healed, they were going to cut a chunk of her skin off - but now they're just going to go in and take the entire knee replacement out and put in a temporary thing. She'll supposedly have mobility but it won't be a fully functional knee like what's in there now. Then they're going to go and do THE ENTIRE ORIGINAL KNEE REPLACEMENT SURGERY ALL OVER AGAIN IN 6 WEEKS. They're going to try to repeat the exact same procedure that has already failed. And not just failed, but has nearly killed her.
There are no words for the stupidity, irresponsibility, and recklessness of this. Nothing we say gets through to these people and it's clear the people in charge of her care don't give a shit that what they're doing, and NOT doing, has a very high chance of killing her. There's a chance they'll eventually have to fuse her leg together, which will mean she won't be able to walk anymore. But there's also a chance she won't survive. She may not live through today. She's been in and out of it for days now, sometimes she doesn't even seem to know we're here or know where she is.
I don't know what else to do or say. Everyone is exhausted both physically and mentally. If you pray, please pray for my grandma. If you don't, please keep us in your thoughts. I don't know what's going to happen and I'm very scared. We've got to leave now to get to the hospital for her third surgery, the one that she may not make it through. Thank you for any help and good vibes you can provide. I'm trying my very best to keep it together.