The Long, Long Day

Yesterday was quite long, as we drove to Baltimore to pick up #1 Son and then back home.  The first thing I noticed upon entering the hospital was the smell.  I'm not sure if I liked or disliked the smell but it was different.  Jack was in the old part.  The building did not lack character.  My surroundings caused my mind to wander ... I'd been swept back in time...  placed in the middle of a 50's movie of some kind.  It was interesting.  Jack wasn't ready, so it was a waiting game in his room as nurses and doctors trickled in to remove picc line, tubes, etc. and go over orders with him before going home.  Our plan was to visit the Jesus statue and to stop by the pharmacy to pick up his meds on the way out.  

Is that a thermometer taped to the door?  That's one way to remember to take a temp.  Ha!  

We did the pharmacy first.  The line was long.  So we waited.  Finally at the front of the line we found that his script was not called in.  So we contemplated on what could have possibly went wrong.  Where to go from here?  The hospital is huge!!!  We searched the hospital map and found another pharmacy in another part of the hospital.  It was the correct one.  Only one person in front of us.  This lady talked for a good twenty-five minutes to the pharmacist.  Laughing.  Asking questions.  Telling stories.  Asking more questions.  Ignoring the poor boy hunched over in pain with a bag hanging from his side, barely able to stand up.  She didn't even get a script.  

I felt horrible for Jack.  I could tell it pained him to walk and that he was really weak to stand there.  I told him to go sit and I would take care of it but he wouldn't.  All the walking and standing.  Big mess with the insurance and scripts.  After a couple of hours of trying to get his meds we ended up leaving without them and without seeing the Jesus statue.   According to my IWatch we walked a total of 2 1/2 miles inside John's Hopkins Hospital yesterday. Jack moved slowly and I could tell, he pained with each step.  The car was parked in a garage somewhere in Timbuktu.  Don't ask.  But finally we made it there and sure enough on our way out of town the pharmacy called to let us know that his prescriptions and insurance had cleared and everything was ready for pickup.   Jack told them to call the script in to Frostburg and thanked them for their trouble.  He goes back to get the drain out in 2 weeks and then he will need to gain weight and strength for surgery that is planned for early January for a resection of the intestine.  Please continue to pray.

The drive out of there was a piece of cake.  We followed the GPS and she did not disappoint.  We were easily on 70W and heading towards home.  We stopped at Golden Corral in Hagerstown.  Jack wanted bread pudding to take home and both Gary and he wanted to go inside to eat.   Jack had to tuck that drain bag inside of his pajama pants and shuffle into that overly busy restaurant through the thick crowds of people in order to stand in lines to get food and it was so busy!! He must have been pretty hungry for some real food.

After dinner, homeward bound.  It had been over two weeks in two different hospitals.  I am thanking God for getting him through this and for our safe travels and his return to home and family.  

We had left home at 10:30 AM (a 2 1/2 hour drive) and returned home at 8:00 PM.  The drive total = 5 hours.  Lots of sitting and waiting and walking.  An exhausting day.  

Jake is glad to have his dad back home.  He fell asleep in Jacks arms last night while they watched a movie together.  

Ginger, his golden girl was happy too.

I'm Tired

The Western Maryland Health System.  A beautiful place.  It looks more like a hotel than a hospital.  They even have valet parking!  But you don't want to come here if you have an...

 EMERGENCY!!

I brought Lindsey here on Thursday, after she'd spent several days hemorrhaging - the side effects of the pill the doctor put her on after the baby was born.

4:30 PM.  The waiting room was empty.  I took care of the baby and Lindsey was called back to a room.  This shouldn't take long.  We were the only ones there.

   Soon the waiting room was becoming full, so I gathered up the baby and her stuff and went back to Lindsey's room with her.  She was weak and in a lot of pain.  They took blood from her arm and it bled like crazy, even after they bandaged it.  They took a urine sample, then told her they'd be taking her back for a sonogram.  We waited.

And Waited.

And waited.  

Not a person came back to say, are you doing okay?  Do you need anything?  

Nothing.  They acted like we were not there.

There was not even a chair in the room for me to sit on.

The baby started getting fussy and needed a new bottle.  I walked out to the nurses station.  The half a dozen nurses looked at me like I was from another planet when I asked,  "I was wondering if someone could please rinse the baby's bottle out and fill it with clean water so I can mix her formula?"  

"There's a sink over there..." one nurse said.  Yes, there was a sink in the hall.  Where the doctors washed their hands after taking care of patients.  I was reluctant - this seemed unsanitary to me.  But the baby was hungry.  (am I being too particular?)  So I fed the baby, and we waited some more.

  The nurse comes in to take Lindsey back for her sonogram... afterwards, they forgot about her being there. 

  Finally back in the room.  Waiting.  

Finally, Summer is asleep.

It's after 9 PM and there are doctors scurrying about up and down the hall...  

lots of laughter...

chit chat...  

I go out to the nurses station once again.  The doc is sitting, looking at a computer.  My back hurts.  

"Could you give me an idea of how long it will be before Lindsey sees the doctor?"  I was nice.

"She is next." he says, but with no idea of how long it would be.  I explained to him that I had a baby back there and wondered if I should take the baby home and come back for Lindsey.

"If you leave, your wait will be that much longer..."  He says  arrogantly.  

He must not have understood what I said.  I just shrugged my shoulders and returned to Lindsey's room.

Soon I'd had enough.  I went to the nurses station.  "I've been waiting since 4:30...  it is now 9:30."  

Nurse:  We are waiting on sonogram results.  She gets on the computer.  Lindsey's was lost.  She thought she was someone else.  Mistaken identity.  blah, blah, blah.  

Lindsey asked the nurse why her urine sample was still sitting in the room.  She was given 2 different stories.  Either one was true and one was false or they were both false -who knows.

Finally, the doctor.  He and I had a small conversation. It went something like this:

Me.  Sorry, I guess you misunderstood earlier when I said I may take the baby home and come back for Lindsey.  The baby is not the patient... Lindsey is.

Doc.  BLANK STARE.  I guess he didn't remember the conversation from 45 minutes earlier.

Me.  (I point to the baby in her car seat on the floor)  This is the baby.  The patient, Lindsey, is in the bathroom right now.  She will be right back.

Doc.  Yea, I don't know why they separate the mothers from the babies like that.  They should let them be in the same room.

Me.  blank stare.   

Meanwhile...  back at home ...  Pop pop and Marissa played school.  And Marissa decorated the entire house in sticky notes.

  Lindsey is doing better today...  *Yawn* and I'm going to bed soon.  I'm tired.

Hospital Horror ~ Part 2

Hospital Horror ~ Part 2

Last night was crazy.  I think I was still coming off of that nasty anesthesia.  My blood pressure was 180/127 at one point and I told Hubby I must be having a heart attack since my throat was hurting so bad.  The paranoia from the anesthesia had followed me home from the hospital.  (Thanks for the advise Sharon.  I would have never thought of getting the name of it... I didn't know you could do that)

While I was in the hospital I kept hearing the intercom saying: "patient walking" and "patient coughing".  Every time I'd move my legs ...  there it would be.  "Patient walking".  What the heck.  How did they know every move I made?  Every time I'd cough it was "Patient coughing".  LOL. I came to find out later that it was something else entirely.  

But I wasn't imagining that I was about to burst because I needed to go to the bathroom.  It was a 'kink' in the catheter bag...  If I wouldn't have finally said something it would have been ugly.  That happened 2X.

Last night while falling asleep I was jumpy and jittery probably from coming off the paranoia anesthesia (maybe that's its name). And also, my sister said my sore throat is because of the breathing tube.  

So much I don't know.

Today I'm trying to get myself organized so that Hubby doesn't have to keep bringing me stuff.  Though I feel okay, I don't want to break open any stitches.  Gary asked doc how many stitches.  "A lot" was his answer.  

Being dependent on someone else is the pits. I now understand why some elderly people get grouchy when they can no longer take care of themselves.  I'm thankful though, for a great guy who does nothing to make me feel this way...

But on the bright side...  

Beautiful flowers in January...

Candy and Cakes....

Special Cards...

And homemade chocolate chip cookies...

I'm hoping to get caught up on blogs tomorrow. I really miss knowing what's going on in your world.

Much thanks and love to everyone!

Dear Diary,

My routine has been interrupted by Mom sleeping in the back room.  I guess I'll just curl up at her feet till I figure this one out.  Gracie.

Oops- Wrong Room.

Ok, I'm home.  Lying in bed, not the best at typing in bed but  bear with me.  No photos... though hubby took a horrible one of me in the recovery room and sent it to all family members. i could have killed him.  but since he is taking such good care of me and even spent the night sleeping in a rickety old recliner in my room, i will spare his life.

I was nervous going in, and hoped for some of those good drugs Sharon talked about to calm me down.  (I hate taking those types of drugs, but it was the lesser of 2 evils).

A nurse walks in the room eyeballing her clipboard.  "Phyllis?"  "no, Bobbi."  Oops. wrong patient.  A long wait and a million of the same questions over and over again from a half a dozen different white coats.  I'm thinking, I wish Sharon were here, she'd get me good drugs.  Finally the anesthesiologist. He said he'd set me up.  A half hour later and ten minutes past scheduled surgery I asked the nurse if he was going to bring me something.  It was too late. 

 Then i was wheeled back to the big white medicine-smelling room and everyone stood over me saying, "everything is going to be alright".  I knew what they were about to do to me and i wanted to run away.  But there was no turning back.

Now, i've had surgeries before under general anisthesia and i woke up nice.  ahh.  But this time i was nauseas and still afraid.  There wasn't a lot of compassion there, just workers going about their duties.

In my room later the nausea  meds kept me whoosie for quite some time.  "For pain, push the morphine button" the nurse said.  I am thankful to say i didn't have to use it, and that once the surgery was over i had  little pain with no meds.

Last night Gary witnessed the nurse giving me the wrong bag in my IV, then changing it about ten minutes later.  They said it was just a change the doc ordered, but after what i saw there im not sure.  One mistake after another after another.  I had to tell them what i should do most of the time.  Yesterday was liquid diet, this morning solids.  After I ate my breakfast this morning the nurses assistant came in smiling and handing me a cup of jello telling me I'd graduated to a liquid diet.  Oops.  Wrong room.  The list goes on and on....  but what really put the icing on the cake (there's that cake again)...  was this morning the nurses assistant took me for a long walk down the hall.  Doc came in later saying I wasn't supposed to walk outside of the room.  Then when it came time for me to go home...  I asked my nurse (her name was Hazel) what do I do?  Just leave?  "yep, you can go." she said.  Okay, so the doc doesn't want me to walk down the hall... yet it was okay for me to walk down four halls to the parking lot and then to my car???    I remained patient, but I was feeling pretty badly and hubby was sick as well... and... we just wanted to get in the car for our 1 1/2 hour drive home.  "Can I have a wheelchair?"  I asked politely.  Hazel looked puzzled.  Like she wasn't quite sure what that was.  Turns out there was a wheelchair alright... but someone else was using it.  Go back into bed and wait (with long robe, slippers, and winter coat on). 

The hospital is new just last month.  Brand spanking new hospital and only one wheelchair per floor?  They told us from the get-go that they didn't have all the bugs out yet.  HUH?  I hope they're not talking about bed bugs.  And by the looks of the old sheets and hospital gowns that they drug from the old hospital, I was thinking they might be talking about just that.  

Now, don't get this hospital confused with our new hospital here in Cumberland.  It is awesome.

Good to be back.  Thank you so much for your prayers, well wishes, good thoughts, and cards.  

You are very much loved and appreciated.

A Four Star Hotel?

Well, I was right.  My PCP forgot to check that I was supposed to have a chest X ray, so that meant I had to wait around another half hour until they faxed a new order.  It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't had to fast and my stuffy head and sore throat needed coffee and orange juice.  

Here are just a few reasons why I think it's time I find a new PCP:  

1. My Wednesday visit to PCP last week was fruitless because PCP forgot to call for my orders.

And they were rude, making it look like my fault.  

2. They hurried me through yesterday...  and called me a half an hour after I was gone to find out if I got someone else's April appointment.  I did.  

3.  Forgot to check 'chest x ray' on my orders for the hospital.  

Three strikes and your out. What do you think? 

  I  inherited this one after my other one retired, so no big deal.  I try not to see doc's too often...   so hopefully it really won't be a big deal.

About the new hospital.

Was I in a four star hotel?  Really.

It begins with the valet service.  Never lost, because upon entering the lobby through the huge revolving glass door, someone directs me to the exact place I need to be. Three different tests were needed.  Each one was done quickly and efficiently and then I was escorted to the next one.  At the end I was showed to the door.  I've always found hospitals to be a confusing maze.  It was comforting not to have to worry about getting lost.  

Okay.  That done. Yay!!

I made some chicken - noodle - dumpling soup to hopefully help get rid of my 'cold'.  

Dear Diary,

Last week Mom and Dad started packing bags and talking about vacation.  I knew what that meant.  They kept saying stuff like 'Gracie it will be okay, Lindsey and Rissie will be here to feed you and take you potty'  and 'Gracie, I hate to leave you'.  Frankly...  I wasn't seeing it.  They weren't sulking with their heads hung low.  They didn't have sad eyes and and a stubby tail that wouldn't wag.  But whatever.  I pulled Moms sneaker and Dad's slipper to the middle of the floor to comfort me and there they stayed until their return.  When Lindsey and Rissie came, they brought french fries and we had fun.  But they didn't stay all that long.  It was lonely.  I was starting to think Mom and Dad weren't coming back.  But then one day, there they were.  Mom said I acted like I had springs in my feet and that I've never jumped that high before.  They brought me a ball that laughs says stuff like, 'oh no!  brrrrppp', 'hot diggety dog', and 'no, don't do that!' It's very annoying and hard so it's impossible to get the little man out of the center of it.  

It doesn't matter though.  

I'm just happy they're home.  Gracie.

Touched By An Angel

Have I ever told you about my Mother's Angel?

In 1990 she suffered a heart attack that left her helpless and hopeless for three months. In the early hours of morning a group of doctors entered her Georgetown, Md. hospital room. One of the doctors was laden in white, radiant, and stood out from the rest... touching her foot... and revealing to her that she was going to be alright, prompting an immediate peace that swept over her.

The next morning her life support was removed. She miraculously began breathing and living life again on her own.

"Who were the doctors that were in my room in the early morning hours?" She asked the nurse who sat watch just outside her private room at the nurses station.

"I'm sorry Alice... but there were no doctors in your room last night."

Chill bumps would consume Mom days, months and years later when she'd talk about the angel that visited her room that night.

And as for me... I was given over three glorious years to say and do the things with Mom that I wouldn't have done had I not been reminded of how very fragile life is.

Love much. Hug often. Savor. Enjoy. Appreciate.

Hebrews 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

My Mom passed away on July 5, 1994.

I remember her today with tears and laughter.