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Busy days.
Sep. 17th, 2010 08:49 pmthey day started about an hour before my alarm clock was supposed to start annoying me. It's my mom. She needs me to get up and help my dad, who is having severe abdominal pains. When I get downstairs, dad is already on the phone to our health plan hotline, and they schedule him for a first thing appointment. but since the appointment is not for over two hours, and it's less than an hours drive to the clinic, I watch a little TV and have some instant oatmeal for breakfast.
Drive my dad over to the clinic, wait for a while. Dad gets called in to the doctor and is diagnosed with a hernia, told to take tylenol for the pain as needed and her is your appointment for evaluation by the surgery center for next week.
Bring dad back home to my anxious mom, turn around and head off for work. I'm, not surprisingly, two hours late for work. But my boss is cool with that, so no problem.
I'm driving home from work this afternoon and just about to pull into the parking lot for some shopping. Cell phone rings. It's my mom, calling from the emergency room. As it happens, i'm only about 2 miles from the hospital, so I get there pretty fast.
dad is in the ER, waiting for xrays and Mom, while waiting in waiting area, doubles over with abdominal pain. So mom gets booked into the ER also. So I get there, dad is in a room in major pain from his hernia. ER doc orders morphine and tests and calls in a surgeon to come in and see my dad.
While we are waiting, they check my mom into the room next door to my dad. So I am hopping back and forth between the rooms, helping keep them happy as I can. ER doc sees mom, orders some tests and when those come back, orders a cat scan. Of course, for the cat scan mom has to drink a quart of nasty glop called contrast media, so they can see the stomach and intestines better in the cat scan.
While mom is working on drinking the glop (this takes two hours, it's so nasty) the surgeon gets in, and looks at my dad. hernia repair is pretty straightforward, the only real question was gonna do it tonight or do it in the morning.
Surgeon says, lets do it now. this triggers an avalanche of forms to be filled out and then dad is wheeled up to the OR prep area. I walk with dad and chat with dad and the OR team while they are prepping him. when dad is premedicated, they take him to OR and I head back down to mom.
Mom is still working on the glop and we basically sit and wait for a couple hours. Surgeon comes down and says surgery all done and no problems. We wait some more, mom finally finishes the glop around midnight. But a couple of car wreck victims take priority and mom doesn't get to the scan until almost 1am.
they find the problem, and write the prescription, and mom and I finally escape the ER a couple minutes after 2am. I had drunk some cola to keep me awake for the drive home, so I don't actually get to sleep till around 4am.
Alarm goes off at 0730 friday I reject the alarm and try to go back to sleep. This fails. I call work to tell them I'm not gonna be in today. Call my brother and he drives me to the hospital. My other brother is already at the hospital with my dad. We visit and wait for the doctor. And wait, and wait some more. Both brothers head off to work and dad and I wait a few more hours. finally the resident comes in and lets us know that they are gonna keep dad another night.
I head back home and hopefully I'll be able to bring dad home tomorrow. I guess my plans for going to maine this weekend are poofed.
Drive my dad over to the clinic, wait for a while. Dad gets called in to the doctor and is diagnosed with a hernia, told to take tylenol for the pain as needed and her is your appointment for evaluation by the surgery center for next week.
Bring dad back home to my anxious mom, turn around and head off for work. I'm, not surprisingly, two hours late for work. But my boss is cool with that, so no problem.
I'm driving home from work this afternoon and just about to pull into the parking lot for some shopping. Cell phone rings. It's my mom, calling from the emergency room. As it happens, i'm only about 2 miles from the hospital, so I get there pretty fast.
dad is in the ER, waiting for xrays and Mom, while waiting in waiting area, doubles over with abdominal pain. So mom gets booked into the ER also. So I get there, dad is in a room in major pain from his hernia. ER doc orders morphine and tests and calls in a surgeon to come in and see my dad.
While we are waiting, they check my mom into the room next door to my dad. So I am hopping back and forth between the rooms, helping keep them happy as I can. ER doc sees mom, orders some tests and when those come back, orders a cat scan. Of course, for the cat scan mom has to drink a quart of nasty glop called contrast media, so they can see the stomach and intestines better in the cat scan.
While mom is working on drinking the glop (this takes two hours, it's so nasty) the surgeon gets in, and looks at my dad. hernia repair is pretty straightforward, the only real question was gonna do it tonight or do it in the morning.
Surgeon says, lets do it now. this triggers an avalanche of forms to be filled out and then dad is wheeled up to the OR prep area. I walk with dad and chat with dad and the OR team while they are prepping him. when dad is premedicated, they take him to OR and I head back down to mom.
Mom is still working on the glop and we basically sit and wait for a couple hours. Surgeon comes down and says surgery all done and no problems. We wait some more, mom finally finishes the glop around midnight. But a couple of car wreck victims take priority and mom doesn't get to the scan until almost 1am.
they find the problem, and write the prescription, and mom and I finally escape the ER a couple minutes after 2am. I had drunk some cola to keep me awake for the drive home, so I don't actually get to sleep till around 4am.
Alarm goes off at 0730 friday I reject the alarm and try to go back to sleep. This fails. I call work to tell them I'm not gonna be in today. Call my brother and he drives me to the hospital. My other brother is already at the hospital with my dad. We visit and wait for the doctor. And wait, and wait some more. Both brothers head off to work and dad and I wait a few more hours. finally the resident comes in and lets us know that they are gonna keep dad another night.
I head back home and hopefully I'll be able to bring dad home tomorrow. I guess my plans for going to maine this weekend are poofed.
