Saturday, May 14, 2011

I'm not going to stay down and out

After the last post I ended up going to the ER in adrenal crisis from a seizure from earlier that day, they stabilized me and sent my home telling me to make an appt. with my primary care doc in the next couple of days.  So the next day I called explained what happened in the ER and they made an appt for that afternoon and this is a doc who usually has a long wait even if you are sick.  Tom drove me there and while waiting for the appt I had a seizure.  It's amazing how you can upset people even in a doctor's office when you display symptoms in front of them, the receptionist got this deer in the headlights look and had a hard time collecting herself to get the nurse, who then came out saw me shaking, got a wheelchair and rush me into the back and got the doctor; who by the way came immediately; they accessed my condition as best as possible; some vital signs were not able to be taken due to the tremendous tremors and sent  me directly to the hospital across the street.  Now I'd been seen in this office many times since the tremors started last fall and had complained numerous times about the tremors and seizures and he knew that I was going to a neurologist so he wasn't to awfully concerned and he knows I do seek help when I need it, but I really don't think he believed me when I tried to explain how bad the tremors and seizure had become until he actually saw one.  But as everyone knows seeing is believing and guess what? doctors are people too, so sometimes it holds true for them too.
Then on to the second most horrid hospital visit I have made and I spend a lot of time in hospitals (one year I was that hospital off and on for six months of that year) so I have many experiences with which to judge it by; First they left me in the waiting room for over an hour, even though the doctor had called ahead for a direct admit and I was still having tremendous tremors. If my doctor had known they didn't have a room he would have sent me to the ER to receive treatment as he has done in the past.  Finally in the hospital I saw two other specialists with two different ideas of how I should be treated; one wanted to keep me on the same meds and just adjust the dosage, the other wanted to take me off some meds and replace others.The second major communications error started here with the first not writing down to leave me on the same meds, but the second writing new orders.  Then the pharmacy there decided that some of the new meds were to dangerous for me to take and refused to send the meds up.  The nurses were informed but not any of the doctor, gee they had three to choose from, but they didn't choose to inform any of them so I got to go through withdrawal and return or worsening of symptoms.  Then at midnight they switched to a completely different computer system for which they had  been poorly trained for- they had only been shown how to use it not taught to use it.  I heard more swearing out of the nurses over the next couple of days.  It really slowed down the patient care as they tried to figure out the system got frustrated and finally doing what needed to be done and writing it down to be input later.  Not a good thing to have happen.
Because I had been sent directly to the hospital I did not have time to go home and pack so I had none of my comfort items with me except my computer, but when we tried to hook up to the hospital Internet we got an unsafe warning notice.  We tried a couple of different ways to hook into the system, we kept getting different ways to hook up when we asked and finally gave up.  So I tried to do other things with my computer and couldn't get it to work right and I thought it was because I wasn't thinking straight so I sent it home(Jeremy could not get it to work right  at home so it was not really my fault).  Now I had nothing; not even my stuffed lion who goes with me every time or my music (more on how I cope with hospitals later as this getting long).  I was put in isolation due to past MRSA infections (don't they know that isolation is a form of punishment they use in jails for naughty inmates) and on top of that while I slept the they put an alarm that went off if I even sat up too much.  It scared me to death well almost cause I'm still alive. I was just miserable the whole time with one problem after another.
However now that I am home and I have ranted and raved and told the world how horrible things have been for me and am once again gaining strength and am lucid enough to think and I may have to use my husbands computer and some of my older pics because my computer  ( my main contact with the outside world especially now- no driving and basically housebound) is down and out for awhile  I can now stick out my tongue at all my troubles

and once again see the BEAUTY ALL AROUND ME.  I have picked out a few of my favorite older pics that were on my husbands computer or on backups and I hope that you will enjoy the beauty that I have seen.

ENJOY ☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺


PS Sorry about the spelling&grammar I'm still not thinking good enough to go back and edit my errors.

2 comments:

CorvusCorax12 said...

holly cow , what an ordeal...i hope you feel better real soon. The pictures are gorgeous

Serena Lewis said...

OMG...that IS an ordeal!!! I sure hope you feel better soon too. I've been going through some medical issues myself this past month though not as severe as what you've been dealing with.

My eldest son and his Aunt both were hit suddenly with neurological conditions out of the blue last year. His Aunt was a lot worse and ended up being classified as disabled because of it...she was fighting fit prior to the condition. The only common factor between my son and his Aunt was that their symptoms started within a couple of weeks after getting the swine flu vaccine. Doctors won't acknowledge that though. In the Aunt's case, they tried to say it was all in her head and tried to stick her on anti-depressants.

She started seeing a Naturopath/Homeopath and there has been a vast improvement.

Anywhoo, I'm glad you are focusing on the beauty around you...that is good medicine too. :)