Sunday, February 10, 2008

I swear I didn't die.

Things at work are finally slowing down. I've been working 7 days a week lately. By the time you add in my family wanting time with me I just haven't had near enough time for blogging. But now I'm supposed to only be on the schedule for 3 days a week for my tax job. And now that the year is closed out at my other job it should go back to 2-4 hours a week. The truly great thing is that all of a sudden I have time to breathe again.

Donny did really well at taking care of himself while things were so crazy for me. However, as the dust settles we find the damage. Donny's in the hospital right now with pneumonia. Since we finally got his insurance changed over we thought that we'd try the hospital that our doctor has privileges at.

We got to ER yesterday and talked to registration. This ER has a nurse out at registration that does a pre-triage and decides who needs to be triaged first. She talked to Donny and assured us that he would be next to be triaged. Triage saw him and got him right in a bed.

I never realized before yesterday that when Donny's having a hard time breathing it imitates a lot of the signs of a heart attack. In no time at all he was in a bed having an EKG done. They also did blood work lookiing for signs of a heart attack. And then they gave him low dose aspirin just to be on the safe side. I asked the doctor about all this and he said that it was standard procedure for when an older person comes in with Donny's complaints.

Being in a different ER was an interesting experience. I think that I like this ER better. We had arrived right after breakfast, so when lunch time rolled around Donny was hungry. The ER tech brought him a lunch tray. After dealing with an ER that had no food that was a nice change. They also allowed us to set up his portable DVD player to keep him entertained. The only problem that we ran into was when the doctor came in ready to discharge Donny because the tech said that Donny had said he was ready to go home. I was in there with Donny and I know he never said that. The doctor left the room and the next doctor that came in was the one who admitted him.

This hospital is okay, but I still haven't learned the lay of the land. I never could find the caffeteria last night. I did find some vending machines that had food in them, so I had a burrito from a vending machine for dinner. I think that today I'll figure out where things are.

And then this morning Donny calls me and tells me that I need to come get him. He says that he'll go tothe other hospital if needed, but I need to get him out of there. When I asked him why I just had to laugh at his answer. Last night a man in his 80s who has dementia was put in Donny's room. This morning that man decided that he didn't want to wear any clothing. So this guy keeps getting up, stripping, and then wandering around the room. Apparently the staff is having a really hard time keeping this guy clothed. I told Donny that he can't sign out AMA and that I'd see him after church. We'll see how this goes.

1 comment:

mielikki said...

I hope he stayed and got treatment. Glad to hear you are doing okay, Jamie!