Wrote this post once, damn Blogger ate it!
Ok, let me start with a little medical background refresher for my family for the last month...
August 14th... my sister has her knee put back together from a complete ACL and partial MCL tear.
August the next week... she passes out and convulses in her bedroom - double pulmonary embolism.
August/September... my brother-in-law (sister's hubby) winds up in the hospital with some sort of bladder issue *and* viral meningitis.
Two days after that... my dad is diagnosed as needing a (basically) immediate hip replacement.
Today... my parents arrive in CT from NY. Dad gets sick with vertigo, nauseau, and chills.
Also today... my sister-in-law is diagnosed with Lyme Disease and sky high BP.
Also today... my youngest has been running a high enough fever all day that we've been crisscrossing the ibuprofen and acetaminophen - no other symptoms.
As you can see, we've got some pretty damn nasty medical/bad luck cooties floating around.
So, here's my problem. I'm having major abdominal surgery Wednesday morning and, of course, it's not like they can put it off. Katie turns 4 tomorrow. We're supposed to be having my folks and John's mom over for dinner tomorrow. Also, my parents are supposed to be babysitting my children at 5 a.m. on Wednesday whilst I go have the aforementioned major abdominal surgery. I do not have any urge to catch whatever Dad's got right before said surgery. I have no urge to have my children catch whatever Dad's got when I won't be around to take care of them. I have even less of an urge to have a newborn exposed to this shit. Do I disinvite Dad to the birthday celebration? Will Mom be carrying enough exposure to expose us? Should I be finding an alternate sitter for Wednesday a.m. (pretty damn difficult to find someone for that early on such short notice!)? I don't want to cause a family rift here... maybe I'm overreacting?
Got The Suitcase just about packed - one thing I learned from the last 2 stays is that what you really need most is stuff to do, decent shampoo, and toothpaste. It gets boring lying around in bed, particularly when you're still attached to a catheter and can't move around. Also, when you're finally allowed to shower, you really don't want to use the industrial strength bar soap provided. And, of course, toothpaste isn't provided. Worse to worst, you can always use your finger if you don't have a toothbrush but it's not the Ritz... they don't have a front desk to keep you stocked.
In other news, got my hair cut - yay! Now sporting a very Tasha Yar-esque 'do. Good thing is I like it. Bad thing is I like it... I'm supposed to think it's too short. I, unfortunately, don't. And the shorter my hair is, the more often I have to have it cut, which gets expensive.
Any advice out there on the family medical situation?
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medicine. Show all posts
Sep 13, 2009
Aug 19, 2009
If Today Was Your Last Day...
Today was perilously close to being my sister's last day. She dodged a big time bullet.
She had reconstructive knee surgery (completely torn ACL, partially torn MCL, extra long something'r'other that involved drilling into the bone) last Friday. She was 911'd to the hospital today after passing out and convulsing. She just managed before she passed out to click the button on the walkie-talkie and whisper "help, help".
Fortunately, my mom's house (next door) was quiet; she heard the whisper and went next door where she found my sister unconscious and, then, convulsing, in her bedroom.
And, for once I'm not going to save the whole lesson for the end, here's the first part: LISTEN when other people tell you about what they're going through. Even if you don't care that it's what friends do, you never know what you'll learn that may be useful later. For example, I learned from one of my best friends about pulmonary embolisms awhile back.
So we pushed for the ER staff to check for that. The ER doctor rather arrogantly dismissed the idea because my sister didn't recall having a hard time breathing. We pushed some more. (Ok, I pushed my mom via phone, she pushed my sister's husband via phone, my sister's husband and my dad pushed the ER doctor - it was kind of a chain event thing.) The doctor pushed on my sister's leg, it hurt. They did an ultrasound. Yep, a clot. They sent her up to get scanned all over. She does, indeed, have a clot in the upper lobe of each lung.
So here's the second part of the lesson: DEMAND to be heard. Unfortunately, we can't rely wholly on the health care system to know what's wrong with us and, in the end, we are responsible for our own health care. If it doesn't make sense in your gut, ask questions. If it still doesn't make sense, ask more questions. Keep asking, keep pushing.
If we hadn't, if we'd just accepted the codeine allergy theory, my sister would've been sent home from the ER with nothing more than "you just fainted" and a pat on the head which would have, most likely, killed her.
Scared the shit out of us all but she'll live. My sincerest thanks to that friend - I am so sorry you had to go through what you did to learn that but what you learned and shared saved my sister's butt. You know who you are and you're one of my best friends for many, many reasons.
She had reconstructive knee surgery (completely torn ACL, partially torn MCL, extra long something'r'other that involved drilling into the bone) last Friday. She was 911'd to the hospital today after passing out and convulsing. She just managed before she passed out to click the button on the walkie-talkie and whisper "help, help".
Fortunately, my mom's house (next door) was quiet; she heard the whisper and went next door where she found my sister unconscious and, then, convulsing, in her bedroom.
And, for once I'm not going to save the whole lesson for the end, here's the first part: LISTEN when other people tell you about what they're going through. Even if you don't care that it's what friends do, you never know what you'll learn that may be useful later. For example, I learned from one of my best friends about pulmonary embolisms awhile back.
So we pushed for the ER staff to check for that. The ER doctor rather arrogantly dismissed the idea because my sister didn't recall having a hard time breathing. We pushed some more. (Ok, I pushed my mom via phone, she pushed my sister's husband via phone, my sister's husband and my dad pushed the ER doctor - it was kind of a chain event thing.) The doctor pushed on my sister's leg, it hurt. They did an ultrasound. Yep, a clot. They sent her up to get scanned all over. She does, indeed, have a clot in the upper lobe of each lung.
So here's the second part of the lesson: DEMAND to be heard. Unfortunately, we can't rely wholly on the health care system to know what's wrong with us and, in the end, we are responsible for our own health care. If it doesn't make sense in your gut, ask questions. If it still doesn't make sense, ask more questions. Keep asking, keep pushing.
If we hadn't, if we'd just accepted the codeine allergy theory, my sister would've been sent home from the ER with nothing more than "you just fainted" and a pat on the head which would have, most likely, killed her.
Scared the shit out of us all but she'll live. My sincerest thanks to that friend - I am so sorry you had to go through what you did to learn that but what you learned and shared saved my sister's butt. You know who you are and you're one of my best friends for many, many reasons.
Jul 7, 2008
Panic!
Don't worry, everyone's fine.
We just had a little bit of a scare tonight. I got off the phone and it was strangely quiet in the house.
"Katie, where are you?"
Silence.
"Katie??!"
thump thump thump of footsteps.
"I drinkin' medicine, Mommy!"
The child drank 3/4 of a bottle of children's ibuprofen that I thought was safely out of reach. Needless to say, I called 911 and we spent our evening in the ER of Connecticut Children's Medical Center. First time I've ever been in an ambulance. They took Mommy's pulse to show Katie the finger clippie thingie was nothing to be scared of... 115. Yeah, Mommy had a little adrenaline going. Just a wee bit.
I can't say enough about our town's first responders - they were there within probably 2 minutes of when I picked up the phone - or the children's hospital. They were very good either her and got us all packed up (because, of course, I was home alone with the kids - John was at a wake in New Haven) and in the ambulance quickly.
She showed no ill effects at all, thank God. And we're all home now several hours and much adrenaline later.
We just had a little bit of a scare tonight. I got off the phone and it was strangely quiet in the house.
"Katie, where are you?"
Silence.
"Katie??!"
thump thump thump of footsteps.
"I drinkin' medicine, Mommy!"
The child drank 3/4 of a bottle of children's ibuprofen that I thought was safely out of reach. Needless to say, I called 911 and we spent our evening in the ER of Connecticut Children's Medical Center. First time I've ever been in an ambulance. They took Mommy's pulse to show Katie the finger clippie thingie was nothing to be scared of... 115. Yeah, Mommy had a little adrenaline going. Just a wee bit.
I can't say enough about our town's first responders - they were there within probably 2 minutes of when I picked up the phone - or the children's hospital. They were very good either her and got us all packed up (because, of course, I was home alone with the kids - John was at a wake in New Haven) and in the ambulance quickly.
She showed no ill effects at all, thank God. And we're all home now several hours and much adrenaline later.
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