February 14 – “A day, no decade, in the ER"

Whew.  That was an exhausting day.  I am still feeling tired, and all I did was sit around.  Ah, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Or behind.  Let me back up. 

About 1:00 (in the afternoon this time) I got a phone call from Uncle Jerry letting me know that he was scheduled to go into the hospital for a biopsy for possible prostate cancer.  His doctor had called him Sunday at home to let him know that he had a 40% chance of that test being positive.  I loved his response to her, though.  “Well, it looks like the odds are in my favor.”  Never hurts to go into something like that with a positive attitude.  He was calling me to work out some details for a backup plan for rides in case his daughter wasn’t able to make her flight out of Baltimore.  I assured him we were pretty flexible and could work with whatever we needed to do.  As it turned out, her flight was canceled, and the soonest she can get here will be Friday evening.

After a few hours passed he called again.  This time something was obviously wrong.  He was almost in tears.  He said he had suddenly been hit with severe pain in his groin area, and he didn’t know what to do.  I quickly consulted with my private duty nurse/wife and she said, “Tell him to call the doctor and let them tell him what to do.”  He agreed.  And a few minutes later the phone rang again.  The doctor had advised him to head right to the emergency room, and he wondered if I could give him a ride.  He certainly sounded in no condition to drive.  By the time I got there he was trembling all over and could not walk.  It didn’t take much to convince him to let me call in the troops from fire station 7 to check him out.  They arrived within minutes and began their inspection while we waited for the EMS crew to get there from in town.  That was sure a long wait, too.  I found out that there is an ambulance stationed in the West End … in the summer.  Oh, and sometimes on weekends.  So don’t have any major crises of health during the week in the winter … oh, like now.  The fire fighters Jarod, Jasyn, and Stewart did a great job, though.  When they took his blood pressure it read just 90 over 50, so they were definitely concerned.  The ambulance finally arrived (it actually wasn’t that long, but any crisis accentuates the sense of how much time is passing), and they joined in on the care-giving.  A trip down the stairs in that patient chair, a transfer to the gurney, and he was in the box getting an IV.  I thanked the fire fighters and followed the ambulance to the hospital.

I finally got back into the room with him around 3:30.  It was one of those trauma rooms.  No TV.  Heavy dark curtains covering the door so you can’t see out.  Feels like you are trapped in a cave.  The sequence of events over the next hours was very strange.  I saved the texts I sent to Chris so I could follow them as they occurred.  Here’s a window into some of what was happening:

The doc was just here.  They did all the stroke tests.  They are gonna run urine and blood labs and do CT scan for stones.  Not thinking stroke or pulmonary.  Don’t want to put him back on blood thinners because of the biopsy.

Later:

He woke up for the docs but says he is exhausted.  Another nurse just came in and said they are developing their plan, so should know about admitting soon.

Much later:

CT scan showed evidence of infection in bladder.  White counts elevated but he still insists that’s normal.  It’s at 22,000 but Jerry insists his is normal up to 33,000.  The doc is gonna check his history.  No word on the blood work and they haven’t run the urine yet. 

Much, much later:

New nurse just drew more blood.  She said there was no urine culture ordered.

Much, much, much later:

New guys just showed up and is taking the urine sample to send it out.

Much, much, much, much later:

The nurse just said, “I’m trying to get you out of here.”  Jerry went off on him and said he wanted the doc to admit him.  “It would be stupid to send me home and make me turn right around and come back.”  Yowzers (that was me).

Much, much, much, much, much later:

Shift change.  Guess we’ll have to start over.  At least the desk tech brought me a bottle of water.  Great liquid supper.

Much, much, much, much, much, much later:

Mark Mahady just came in and took his blood pressure.  At least we have a fire fighter on the floor.

Much, much, much, much, much, much, much later:

Finally had a visit from one of the docs.  They are waiting for a urology doc to come put eyes on him so he can be admitted under urology care since that’s who is doing the surgery tomorrow.  They talked to them about 20 minutes ago.  Oh, and they compared the CT to his last one and they looked the same.  Urine was clear, too, so no bladder infection after all.  There were some “immature white cells” (does that mean they were misbehaving?) so they still think there is an infection somewhere.  They also saw some kidney stones that weren’t blocking anything.  Now they think he might have passed one and didn’t know it. 

Much, much, much, much, much, much, much, much later:

The urology resident came down straight from a surgery he was in.  He said he would give him some antibiotics and let him go home.  Wrong answer.  Jerry started in on him about being admitted rather than leaving and coming back for the surgery.  The resident looked a bit startled and said, “Oh, but you won’t be having the surgery now.”  Wrong answer again.  Jerry put up quite a fight again, so the compromise was, “we’ll admit you and let the doctor who is doing the surgery decide in the morning whether to continue.”  That satisfied everyone.

By that time it was after 9 p.m.  I came on home and he went back to sleep. 

I just received another call from him.  He slept better than he has in days.  They did another blood draw and depending on the results they will continue with the procedure.  I’ll just have to be on call for his call to get him back home.  Whew.  As I said.  One exhausting day.  Ain’t hospitals grand?

1 Corinthians 13:4 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.”

Father, thank you for the supernatural patience you gave me yesterday over that 8 hour work day of just sitting around a hospital room watching Jerry sleep.  Be with him and his surgeon today.  Oh, and could you lift some of that weather over Baltimore so Kristen can get here?  Amen.