Hospital Days
So I haven’t been posting on the blog because I spent most of last week in the hospital with my mom. On Sunday (2/2/14), she had really bad chills and I knew already that she had a UTI. I figured she had a fever. I called the advice nurse and they told me to schedule an over the phone appointment with a doctor the same day. So I waited for that call. When the doctor called, she basically told me to just schedule an appointment to see her primary care physician on Monday but she wasn’t able to make the appointment and for me to call the appointment number. Called them and she basically told me the doctor should have made the appointment for me, but that her PCP was on vacation until Thursday.
So while all this was going on, my mom got worse. I asked her where we were and she said Whittier, which is where we used to live in SoCal. I knew then that something wasn’t right. She couldn’t walk, keep her eyes open, or talk. So I got her dressed (she was in PJs), got my dad, and we headed to the ER. The doctor there said we did the right thing because she needed to get antibiotics and that the UTI she had was a highly resistant strain caused by E. coli. They decided to admit her to keep an eye on her and give her antibiotics. She finally got a room around 10:30PM and she seemed fine so I headed home.
The next day I got there and she could barely keep her eyes open for more than 30 seconds. I was worried because when I left her the night before she was talking and fine and then when I got there that morning she was completely different. I asked the nurses to check her temperature but they said she didn’t have a fever. I also asked to speak with her doctor for the day and she assured me that we just need to wait for the antibiotics to kick in. I had already started crying around 2:30PM because I knew something was off. Around 5PM, she started breathing really weird so I told the nurse and she said she was busy with another patient and she would come when she could. I went back to the room and tried to wake my mom up but she wasn’t waking up. I tried to open her eyes and they were rolling back so I went back to the hallway and started screaming and crying and they finally came in the room. The nurse took her temp under the arm (because my mom wasn’t awake enough to do it in the mouth). Under the arm it read 103.1. They called Code Rapid Response and by this time they told me to go out of the room. I was crying so hard and the nurses were trying to calm me down because I wasn’t breathing. They told me “we can’t take care of your mom if we have to be out here taking care of you” which now sounds harsh but it was what I needed to hear to calm down. I told them I need my phone (which was in the room) so I could call my dad. I called him and he came and all this time, they were still working on my mom.
The doctor wasn’t very much help and didn’t tell me what was going on, but there were two male nurses who were very helpful. One of them told me she had a temp of 105.2 and that the infection had spread to her blood (Septicemia). They got a cooling blanket and ice packs to cool her down. They finally let my dad and I in the room and my mom didn’t say much but she did say “hi baby” to me when I told her hi. They decided to take her for a CT scan to see if during the time she was out if there was any leakage in the brain (which there wasn’t). They transferred her to CCU and at around 11PM, I finally went home.
Of course, I was not able to sleep that night because I wasn’t sure how I would find her come Tuesday morning. When I arrived at the hospital that day, she was much better. She was sitting in a chair and eating breakfast on her own (I had to feed her Monday). She was talking and getting up to use the bathroom on her own so they decided to transfer her back to a regular room (at this hospital there are only 16 CCU rooms so I’m sure they needed to make room for more patients). Wednesday was pretty normal, we had a few nurses who I didn’t like but some I did like. By this time, my mom was much better and the only reason they were keeping her was to make sure her temperature didn’t rise and that she could get the antibiotics (which could only be given through IV). The doctor said if nothing changed she could go home Thursday. Nothing changed and mom was home Thursday (after waiting 4 hours to get discharged)!
The first thing my mom wanted to do when she got home was take a shower (who wouldn’t after being in the hospital for 5 days?). I was on the computer and then I heard her yell out in pain. Turns out she was reaching for her towel and fell out of the bathtub. It was like the last thing we all needed was for this to happen. Took my dad and I quite some time to get her up (she was shook up and the floor was wet… didn’t help she put on around 15lbs in the hospital). We finally got her up and in the bedroom. I think she was scared from the fall and she was having a hard time breathing. She is fine now, but sore from the fall. She was supposed to go back to work tomorrow but she’s taking one more day and will go back Tuesday so hopefully she can carpool with me (we work less than 5 minutes from each other). She has also lost all the water weight she gained in the hospital.
I will be filing a complaint with the hospital for how things were handled on Monday. The nurses should have came to see my mom when I first called them. I feel like if I was not there that day, my mom would not be here. The nurse that shift never came in to check on my mom unless I asked her to or rang the call button. I understand that she has other patients, but to not even check in once every 30 minutes (let alone every 2 hours) is not right. I am grateful that I have an understanding job that let me be off work for those 4 days.
I know this was a long post and if you read the whole thing, I thank you but more than anything this was for me. I needed to get this out. I vented to my best friend and also to my boss who has become someone I can lean on. I cried and I was scared but I’m grateful for how she is doing now.
