Update on Mom.
I owe everybody an update. You've all been so kind in keeping her in your thoughts and asking about her--now it's my duty to inform you how she's doing.
Short and not-so-sweet, she's still in pain. Nothing as gripping as the pain she experienced before she was taken to the emergency room, but the pain she's been enduring for the past 2 months has not gone away. One of the main reasons why I'm pretty darn-tootin' angry.
The longer version: Now that I read over my first blog post, I realize I'd said she was in a very good hospital. I still maintain that, but I'm going to insert a couple of important qualifiers: The nurses are fantastic. I can't say enough good things about them. The doctors are horrible. They don't give a crap about you. Simple as that.
When I left her, it was 9:00 that evening. She was still in that little bay area all the way up until about 10:30, 11:00 at night. Then they moved her into a real room (which means the person beforehand either died or was moved to a more serious wing, like the ICU). She did not sleep well. The IV they'd put in her was in her upper arm because she and I both have really bad veins for that kind of thing and that is the only vein they could find to support an IV. And every time there was a crimp in the tubing, the machine next to her would go off. So not only was she uncomfortable, she was exhausted. Sleep at all was rare.
The next day, she was told by another nurse that a second shift of doctors had taken a look at her CT scans and could tell nothing from them (we did ask about cancer and they said if she had been having that much pain, they would have seen a malignancy. So that rules that one out). Somehow she got confused at some point and thought she was having her gall bladder out, but the nurse came back and cleared that up.
So now for the stuff that makes me mad every time I think about it.
She was supposed to be scheduled for an upper and lower GI, but that never happened. She had to wait for the internist to come to her room while he was on his rounds and give her an insight into what was going on and maybe help explain things to her a little bit. He comes in and tells her that she's not going to have a cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) and that her CT scans were inconclusive (which we already knew). Then he says he's going to examine her when the phone rings. He says he has to take it and proceeds TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ON THE PHONE while examining my mom. When he gets done a few minutes later (first having gotten done with the phone call that didn't seem to be very important at ALL), he tells her it's muscle spasms. He says he's going to write her two prescriptions and that if she was still having problems, she needed to see her primary care physician in 2 weeks and then if they can't help her, she should go see a close, personal doctor friend of his who works with spinal anesthetics. FIRST of all, she's been to see about 4 different doctors INCLUDING her PCP several times over. Second of all? I'm real glad you're good friends with a spinal whosy-whatsis, but there is no way in hell I trust your diagnosis enough to send my mom to one of your friends who wants to stick needles near her spine. Thanks, but no thanks asshole. Additionally, the prescriptions he ended up writing for her consisted of a muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory. She's taken both of them and says the muscle relaxer doesn't work for her at all. Which leads me to believe he's full of shit and gave her a quick and easy diagnosis so that he could free up a bed. It's amazing how 2 groups of doctors couldn't tell what was wrong with her, but in 5 minutes while he was talking on his cell phone, he could give her a diagnosis. Magic, I tell you. Effin' magic.
She didn't end up having any more tests and basically beyond the CT scans, the whole stay in the hospital was a giant waste of time. She didn't have anything to eat after midnight because she was supposed to be going through more tests the next day. So she starved all evening long and was basically miserable until she was released to go home. And now we're back at square one.
We still don't know what's going on with her. Right now we know the anti-inflammatory helps, but she's not supposed to be taking that forever. Not to mention it's just treating her symptoms, not actually taking care of the real problem. The one we still don't know about.
Short and not-so-sweet, she's still in pain. Nothing as gripping as the pain she experienced before she was taken to the emergency room, but the pain she's been enduring for the past 2 months has not gone away. One of the main reasons why I'm pretty darn-tootin' angry.
The longer version: Now that I read over my first blog post, I realize I'd said she was in a very good hospital. I still maintain that, but I'm going to insert a couple of important qualifiers: The nurses are fantastic. I can't say enough good things about them. The doctors are horrible. They don't give a crap about you. Simple as that.
When I left her, it was 9:00 that evening. She was still in that little bay area all the way up until about 10:30, 11:00 at night. Then they moved her into a real room (which means the person beforehand either died or was moved to a more serious wing, like the ICU). She did not sleep well. The IV they'd put in her was in her upper arm because she and I both have really bad veins for that kind of thing and that is the only vein they could find to support an IV. And every time there was a crimp in the tubing, the machine next to her would go off. So not only was she uncomfortable, she was exhausted. Sleep at all was rare.
The next day, she was told by another nurse that a second shift of doctors had taken a look at her CT scans and could tell nothing from them (we did ask about cancer and they said if she had been having that much pain, they would have seen a malignancy. So that rules that one out). Somehow she got confused at some point and thought she was having her gall bladder out, but the nurse came back and cleared that up.
So now for the stuff that makes me mad every time I think about it.
She was supposed to be scheduled for an upper and lower GI, but that never happened. She had to wait for the internist to come to her room while he was on his rounds and give her an insight into what was going on and maybe help explain things to her a little bit. He comes in and tells her that she's not going to have a cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) and that her CT scans were inconclusive (which we already knew). Then he says he's going to examine her when the phone rings. He says he has to take it and proceeds TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ON THE PHONE while examining my mom. When he gets done a few minutes later (first having gotten done with the phone call that didn't seem to be very important at ALL), he tells her it's muscle spasms. He says he's going to write her two prescriptions and that if she was still having problems, she needed to see her primary care physician in 2 weeks and then if they can't help her, she should go see a close, personal doctor friend of his who works with spinal anesthetics. FIRST of all, she's been to see about 4 different doctors INCLUDING her PCP several times over. Second of all? I'm real glad you're good friends with a spinal whosy-whatsis, but there is no way in hell I trust your diagnosis enough to send my mom to one of your friends who wants to stick needles near her spine. Thanks, but no thanks asshole. Additionally, the prescriptions he ended up writing for her consisted of a muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory. She's taken both of them and says the muscle relaxer doesn't work for her at all. Which leads me to believe he's full of shit and gave her a quick and easy diagnosis so that he could free up a bed. It's amazing how 2 groups of doctors couldn't tell what was wrong with her, but in 5 minutes while he was talking on his cell phone, he could give her a diagnosis. Magic, I tell you. Effin' magic.
She didn't end up having any more tests and basically beyond the CT scans, the whole stay in the hospital was a giant waste of time. She didn't have anything to eat after midnight because she was supposed to be going through more tests the next day. So she starved all evening long and was basically miserable until she was released to go home. And now we're back at square one.
We still don't know what's going on with her. Right now we know the anti-inflammatory helps, but she's not supposed to be taking that forever. Not to mention it's just treating her symptoms, not actually taking care of the real problem. The one we still don't know about.