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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Things have gone to hell in a handbasket

Where to start?
So much has happened in the last week or so that I want to just make a note here to help me keep track of it all.
First of all, I have two sisters. The oldest will be No. 1 and the other No. 2, I also have two brothers and I will identify them as bro.1 and bro. 2.

On the 8th the 3 of us sisters went together for No. 1's consultation after her testing and we were not surprised to find out that she had a malignant tumor in the abdomen. She has been sick along time and many tests, till she had this one which gave a confirmation. She was told that it is inoperable and that she would be terminal from it. It was decided that she would be put on hospice and she was to get her affairs in order. She is doing a very brave thing. She has done the paper work to donate her body to a medical school in Kansas City.

So we notified her 2 daughters and son, who all live in other states. Also bro. 1 lives in an eastern state. We did do a get-away trip, the 3 sisters to Branson Mo. as mentioned in the prev. post. That was the 13th. and 14th. On the 18th her "kids" arrived and were able to spend 2 days with her. On Fri PM the 19th within an hour after the last one left she got pretty sick and I went to her house and called the hospice nurse. We stayed till things were under control and felt she could rest. Sat. was so so for her, not great but not to bad. Bro. No 1 got here on Sat. Then Sun things got worse and hospice came in the morning, then later in evening a neighbor had to call them again and both of us sisters went too and it was really bad. The pain could not be relieved by any measures that the hospice nurse had so she called the Dr. and we got an ambulance called and took her to the hosp. This was around 9pm. Sis No 2 and I went up together and stayed while they did xrays, gave her "good" stuff to stop the pain and other drugs to try to get her BP down. Got her admitted after midnight. ER Dr. told us she was totally obstructed in her bowel and gave us a pretty poor prognosis. I had Sis #2 go home {she had just been in ER the night before for a bad UTI and really needed to be home in bed} I stayed the nite. Brothers and sis showed up next morning, Monday. Oncology Dr. made rounds and felt we could work on this and try to resolve at least temporary some problems. They gave suppositories, also started a med called lactulose thru her NG tube to help loosen the stool up on the upper side.

Now on Mon late afternoon her husband is in the room and shows her his finger. Find out that one of their little dogs had bitten him a couple days before and just broke the skin good. Well his finger was badly swollen and red streaks going up his arm. So he was to go to Urgent Care on his way home. About 7:30 sis no. 1 got a call from Urgent care, they were concerned about the husband as he was unsteady and was to go to the local hosp to be admitted for IV antibiotics. Sis no 1 had just gotten to sleep but she called me, I am closer to their house, Can't reach him on the phone, so I head out to his home and find him, a little bit confused and I take him to the hosp ER. {Oh, if you are still with me, it just gets better and better}

ER was slam full, {many folks use ER for their family medical needs} So I left him there with inst to have them call me if they don't admit him. Went home, exhausted, went to bed. Guess what? At 11PM the phone rang and I had trouble trying to figure out how to push the right button to answer it! ER said he was ready to be taken home!! My hubby said," stay in bed I will go get him and take him home." He had gotten a shot and sent home with a script. Grrrrrrrr why didn't Urgent care to that?? So I find out about this after I had gone to the hosp where Sis No1 is at 6 AM so I could be there when the Dr. came in. A niece had come in and Sis was doing much better this AM so I left to go help husband of No 1 with his script. I was afraid they had ordered some real expensive RX and there are many Walmart scrips that are only $4.00. So I get there and we decide he will go to his primary Dr. and then go get the scrip filled. Wellllll, he forgot to tell them he needed a 4$ scrip. I get a call, that his scrip is $60. So I tell him to let me call the Dr. and try to get another scrip. By this time I am here at my store.

So that is where we are at this moment. The brothers are headed to pick up the husband to go visit at the hospital and then pick up his scrip. I am crossing my fingers that they followed thru and got him an appropriate scrip. Finger still looked pretty bad this morning. Needs soaked I think but they didn't tell him to do anything, {he says}

Not sure if I left anything out. I probably need to go out to check on him this evening and make him soak his finger and put a dressing on it if the Dr. office didn't. Need to see what kind on instructions they gave him. {ER had sent home a nice pre printed instruction sheet on what to do for a dog bite and the signs and symptoms to watch for.} DUH! A little late for that info!

One more night's sleep and I will be A-OK Ready to face what ever is next.

2 comments:

Addict said...

I don't even know what to say that doesn't sound insanely stupid... but I couldn't leave your post without you knowing how much all of you are in my thoughts...
I'm all the way over here, and it's tough. Tougher than I thought it would be... but you are there and dealing with all of this daily, all of this at once... I can't even begin to wrap my brain around what you are having to deal with right now too.
I hope that by the time you're reading this that you've had some rest, a chance to catch your breath even if just for a few moments.
I love and respect you so very much that I can't even find the words... I wish I'd been able to tell you that while I was there, but I appreciate you so much.

Anonymous said...

What addict said, exactly. I'd like to add my thanks and gratefulness to all of you over there dealing with this. I don't worry so much knowing you're there taking care of things.