Happy New Year Almost!

Only 4+ hrs until 2007!

I am hoping and praying that it will be a better year. This one sure has been busy enough.

Since Nov 22nd, I've been to the emergency room 6 times with various family members. I thought last night and today I was going to have to make numbers 7 and 8. Grandmama #2 had a nosebleed (wow, what a gusher!) that took a long time to stop. 3 clots, pressure to the nose for 45 mins and a cold key to the back later, it stopped. I got home from her house about midnight last night. This afternoon, grandmama #1 said her leg was hurting pretty bad. She had fallen on the step on Christmas Day. She fell rather lightly but being on coumadin, she bruised awful badly. Blaaaaaaaack and bluuuuuuuue. I feared she had a blod clot (even with the coumadin) but I don't think she does. She wants me to call the dr in the morning.

Thursday morning about 1am, I took my husband to the hospital. He had had the flu (I think??) for about a week. It morphed into a small case of pneumonia. The problem was that his chest was tight and his back was hurting very badly. He has a high pain tolerance so I knew it was a bad one. The hospital was over capacity so we spent almost 14 hrs in the emergency room until we could be sent to a room of his own. I kept waiting for him to have breathing treatments which are standard protocol (per the hospital itself) but none came. They gave him levaquin (IV), 2 shots of delaudit (sp??), 3 shots of promethizine, 4 shots of morphine, 1 shot of mucinex (in the stomach), 1 oral mucinex, 4 bags of soduim whatever (the usual fluid for dehydration), 1 shot of lovenox (in the stomach), ibuprofen and tylenol.

This hospital is supposed to be in the top 100 of the nation. They act like they are in the bottom 5 in the nation. I was sooo tired and upset. This was the first time my husband had ever been this sick. I had dealt with 4 other cases of pneumonia this year. This doesn't make me an expert by any means but I do know the procedures that need to be followed. On their Pneumonia Pathway Protocol sheet that was given to us, it clearly states that the patient will be given a minimum of 4 breathing treatments on the first day. He never got one, not even by the time he left. I felt at the very minimum, this would have broken up the crud in his lungs to allow him to breathe better and alleviate the pain. Maybe if they would have just say 'why' they wouldn't give him one, it would have made me feel better.

This hospital is on a "NO Smoking" kick. You are not allowed to smoke anywhere inside the hospital or even in the parking lot in your own car. My husband and I both smoke. We are respectful of people who do not smoke and respectful of places who do not allow it. From the moment we walked in the door of this hospital, it was "you have to stop smoking". I understand that, I really do. What I don't understand is why every person who talked to us said the same thing. Instead of focusing on getting him better, they were focused on his smoking. My thoughts were to get him better, then send him to 'smoking rehab land'. The respiratory "team" wouldn't give him a breathing treatment. They only talked about his smoking. He had no desire for a cigarette and still doesn't. He was bent over double in the ER, having a coughing fit. Instead of offering him some kind of med that would help the pain, they first offered him a freaking nicotine patch!!

Why is ok to let the nicotine soak through your skin rather than smoke it? It looks like to me that it would be just as bad. The last patch I tried cause my skin to bubble and peel.

Now lets go on to why men make horrible patients.
Let me qualify that and say that not all men are that way. My husband is a prime example. I love my husband with all my heart and then some. The only thing above my husband is my kids. I tried so hard to make him comfortable. He griped at me, insulted me and then told me to go home. Maybe I was hovering too much. Who knows. He got mad because I called his boss (his friend) and his sister (not the other 5 siblings though; I'm not completely stupid). He was livid when they came to see him. I spoke with his sister about it. She said that when they were growing up, they didn't draw attention to themselves when they were sick. Maybe that's why my mother-in-law died of a massive heart attack on the spot. She had had at least 2 other heart attacks (I'm 99% sure of it) but refused any kind of medical attention. I would like to keep my husband around for at least another 50 yrs. He is only 43 yrs old. What did I do wrong???

He is getting better now. He is still wiped out but is able to get up and move around a bit. The pain has gone away for over a day now. He only spent one night in the hospital but it was enough to scare me.

Now that that is over, I am more than ready for a new year!

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