On January 7th I posted a blog with the title “First trip to the doctors this year,” well I’m here to tell you, she just couldn’t stay away. That’s right on Tuesday, January 14th me an mom went to a normal follow up appointment with moms primary care physician (PCP) to have him check out several issues, foremost was her gaining 16 lbs in just under a week, which also came with severe swelling, labored breathing at times along with other side affects. Second was what looked like a pimple right behind her lower teeth and directly under where her bridge sets (Ouch!). At one of mom’s PCP appointments in September of last year mom was put on a heavy dose of Lasix to aid the body in removing excess water and the weight that follows. The issue with this is that your body will store the excess water and as it fills up (your body) eventually it comes to rest directly on the heart. Once in mom’s PCP determined that mom was holding onto 30-40 lbs of extra weight of which her PCP is saying is water weight. I have been grocery shopping with and shopped for mom many times and everything she buys is either “No Salt or Low Salt.” Of all the times this has happened which I can think of 5-7 total, I’ve never seen her this bloated.or even this heavy.
Mom’s PCP is sending mom down to Travis AFB, Emergency Room (ER) so they can perform a Lasix via IV and possible being admitted to do so. With regard to the pimple or whatever it is, mom recently saw her dentist and he seems to think it is a piece of bone and by applying pressure “should” cause it to pop (Disgusting Sounding), but due to her being on coumadin he wants her PCP to handle it. Her PCP took a look at it and said he would try taking care of it. He turned, grabbed his surgical gloves, placed them on his (as mom says) sausage finger hands and places them into moms mouth, as he proceeds to press on both sides of the “Bone” sweat begins beading up on his forehead as if he were in the process of performing heart surgery. I in turn pull out my other than sterile pocket knife open the total 1.5″ blade and say, “I’ll take care of it.” Of course how could you not laugh. The doctor then tells mom that he’s just not comfortable doing it there in the office and that when he calls Travis to let them know we’re heading down, he will also tell them he would like Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) to take a look because it may require a slight nick to get it started. We also needed him (or his staff) to fill out some more forms from the travel insurance company who still has yet to reimburse us for the cruise in November which mom could not go on due to her breathing and depression issues. They are actually asking for “ALL Medical Records for the period of 1/1/2013 to 11/15/2013.” Seriously, All the records? This is the 2nd or 3rd pile of paperwork we’ve had to fill out for this and we paid to have the insurance in case mom was unable when the trip care around.
We make it down to Travis AFB Hospital (Travis) in which felt like record time. The ER was ready for us and once we checked in and before we could sit, they were calling us into the back room. WOW, they’ve totally upgraded the ER with walls separating the patients and not just curtains and they’ve moved into the technology age, what they have matches or is real close to that of UC Davis’s ER. OK back to the issues, they re-evaluate mom which is normal, EKG’s, X-Rays, lab work (if they can get a vein) CT scan (see previous note) and more. Within 2 hours of arriving they are moving mom upstairs to a room. Mom then goes through the same process of checking in all over again, I understand why, it just so repetitive. Mom has now been stuck with needles 11 times in under 3 hours, her veins either collapse or they can not get a needle into them. The doctor confirms that mom will need to be admitted to perform the Lasix IV. In moving up to the room and performing the intake I noticed that I am now more of a family member for mom instead of a Caregiver. I keep trying to provide answers and keep telling them “She Forgot Her Hearing Aids, You May Need To Speak Up.” When it came to her dictionary size list of medications I quickly was the techs best friend, I have it right on my phones word processing app., Thank you RainbowNote. If you don’t carry a list with you of all you caree’s medication, insurance information, allergies, etc. I suggest downloading a app and put it into your phone, which you usually have with you everywhere you go. Mom is now settled in and they are going to do all of the test that were just done in the ER, again, this means they need to hunt for more veins which their still looking for the original veins.
Tuesday quickly rolls out of view and in route back to Travis I call mom to see how things are and I get a Senior Airmen answering with, “Hello,” I explain who I am and that I was looking for my mom. He responded’s with, She with the doctor right now, she had a heart attack, call the nurses station. CLICK” Excuse me, my mom’s with the doctor and I need to call the nurses station? Wait, did he say heart attack? Arriving at mom’s room I find her eating breakfast and breathing heavy. Apparently when she rolled over earlier, she felt a major pain in the heart area and call the nurses, the doctor provided mom with three doses of nitroglycerin and several other meds and they were calling for a CT scan, another needle. She is not up to 18 sticks and only 2 of them usable. Unable to see the doctor who’s already left the floor, so I put in a note with the nurse asking him to call me to discuss everything. Another day of tests now for the original problem and the heart attack. The day comes and goes and so do I, need to get home to get Robert off the van, life moves on. Wednesday comes and I make to the hospital in time to see mom leaving to go get a nuclear test done using dye to track the flow. Approximately 45 minutes later they come back and were unable to perform the test because they could not get a vein to insert the dye into. More vampires sticking mom, of course they spend more time looking for a good vein and when they find it their ecstatic until they lose it. One tech actually had a vein, doctor is speaking with mom on her right, the tech is on her left searching mom arm and hand for a vein, finds one, goes through the steps and you can hear her say “Yes.” Just then another tech tells mom to hold still and in jest mom says what like this and shakes her body in the process pull the needle out of the vein, Mom turns to the tech and says, “What your still here?” What I thought was a joke, it wasn’t, mom was serious and had forgotten the lab tech was there trying for a vein. When I explained she pulled it out when she moved around, her face turned about 20 shades of red. As well it should have.
Alright I’ll bring this to a close, jump forward to Saturday, mom now has been poked by 11 different tech’s, 26 times, with only 5 of them being used, two for emergencies only and three where they were able to do blood work. Her arms, I kid you not look like a couple of Connect the Dot puzzles. They were actually talking about going into either her legs or feet if they could not find a vein the next time. Mom’s “heart attack” actually turned out to be arthritis in the rib cage from when they broke her ribs to perform the heart valve replacement surgery they have to wire them down during surgery and then wire them back in place to heal, all of this causes arthritis which in fact does feel like a heart attack and can cause the left arm to go numb (Enter me wiping sweat off forehead here.) Her potassium is very low again so they have to put her another four bags of it via IV, which if they have the flow rate up it causes mom immense pain in the elbow near where the IV is located. This is now the second time in four days she has had this done and it takes about 5-6 hours. After the second bag was completed they took some labs to see where she was compared to the first labs. Lucky her numbers came back way up so they are going to stop the IV and Yes, Yes discharge her, of course we all know this can take 4-5 hours to get through the discharge process, NOT!! Travis has started their discharge process on intake, yes you heard me right. They take any and all information one may need for intake and discharge at the intake interview and during the time your admitted they are already filling out the paperwork for your discharge and they even stop by every room, every day and check to see where you are in your stay and obtain any information they may need. This process reduced mom’s discharge from a normal 4-5 hours process to where we were out in 45 minutes and if mom had been a bit faster in the restroom, dressing and collecting her things that time would have been 20-25 minutes. In fact they told her right when she received her lunch and they had her signing off 2 minutes after she was done. I must say Travis AFB, California has been awarded the 2014 Military Hospital of the Year and this visit has proved to me that they deserve this standing. Thanks to all the Doctors, Nurses, Technicians, Staff and Cooks for everything they did to help make mom’s stay a comfortable one and for putting up with her sons. “I give you all ‘s
– Richard
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PickYourPain@att.net
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