Oh What a Night

I am finally home, well at my moms.

It was quite the challenge to get out of the hospital.

(Warning the blog you are about to read is extremely long. Sorry in advance. )

The night before

10PM-- the nurse came in and checked my blood sugar. It was 293. I was like holy crap when I came in here it was 85 (normal). Why now is it so dang high? They weren't sure exactly, but they believed it had to do with the tube feeds. The nurse said I would be in the hospital until they could get a hold of my doctor. He may decide not to let me go home. I was about ready to cry. Brandon was there and calmed me down a little before he went home to get some sleep.

11:30PM--They gave me some insulin (that is how quick they were) and told me they would check on me a little later. They were worried that my blood sugar would drop to low and I would go into a coma because I had never had insulin before and they were unsure of how I would respond to it.

1AM-- they woke me so I could take the medicine for my ulcer. 11:30 was to soon to give it to
me yet by 1 they were giving it to me late, go figure.

2AM-- woke me to test my blood sugar again. It was 275.

3AM--another shot of insulin. I was unable to go back to bed. I was so sure that they would keep me. I called Brandon talked to him for a few before he had to get ready for work. I was getting to be a very agitated patient. After talking to him I calmed down a little and fell back asleep.

5AM-- lab tech woke me for some more blood tests. Being poked in the foot is a lot worse than the hand by the way. Extremely tender.

5:30-- respiratory therapist came in made me do some breathing treatments. Was falling asleep during the treatment and kept being told to open my eyes.

5:45-- done with treatments. Start falling asleep again, but nurse comes in for another blood test. Blood sugar 251.

6AM-- More insulin and other meds

7AM-- machines start beeping and going crazy. I called for the nurse, noticed the time and swore to myself. Go figure everything goes out at shift change. Aide comes in notices the beeping and says I will send the nurse in as soon as they are done on report.

7:05-- machines beep again. I put them on mute no nurse yet.

7:30-- got tired of the machines beeping at me every 5 minutes so I turned them off myself.

7:35-- a different machine goes off. I look and notice that the food they were giving me through my tube ran out. I turned that machine off too and went back to bed.

8:15-- Night nurse finally comes in and checks my machines. She was upset with me because I had turned them off. I opened my eyes and just looked at her and thought oh well. I told her I hadn't slept all night I am tired and it was shift change so I couldn't get any help. She replaces the IV bag and the tube feed. FINALLY SLEEP!

WRONG

8:45-- Day nurse finally comes in and introduces herself. She checks my blood sugar. Not sure what it was this time. I really didn't care I just wanted to be left alone to sleep. I was so tired. She tells me I need to get up and walk around. I looked at her and laughed. I figured at this point I would not be sleeping any time soon so got onto the computer. Was on there for a little while before I couldn't take it anymore and went to bed

10AM-- couldn't have been asleep for very long and Brandon shows up. Came by during his break to see how I was doing. We both started to fall asleep shortly after that.

10:10-- woken up again for another breathing treatment. Started falling asleep again, this time I don't remember finishing the treatment.

1PM-- Finally more than just a few minutes of sleep before I was woken up again. Another poke to test my blood sugar, some insulin and my doctor shows up. He tells me my levels are still high, but he is confident to send me home. I will need home health care for the diabetes and feeding tube set up before I can leave. By this time I have completely given up on sleep. My mom shows up and I finally get a shower. The nurse asked me what my needs were earlier and I told her SHOWER. Brandon left to go back to work shortly after that.

3PM-- Social worker comes in and says they are trying to get my insurance to send home health out to me. They have to get that going before I can leave or else I will have to stay in the hospital.

3:30-- Still no luck with insurance, starting to think that I was going to have to stay

3:45-- social worker said that insurance would have someone out to the house in an hour and I could go home. Got into a wheelchair and left the hospital. ABOUT TIME!

Finally home

4:50PM-- on my way to my moms. I am so thrilled to be out of the hospital, but we haven't heard from the home health people. It had been over an hour and we hadn't gotten a phone call letting us know they were on their way out. They were supposed to call before they left and they were supposed to be at her home within the hour. My mom calls them and they tell her that they will send someone out first thing in the morning. Not acceptable. She told them I was supposed to be on a constant feed and they needed to get out there right away. If they don't get there tonight I would end up having to go back into the hospital. The lady told her to call back in an hour.

5:50PM-- My mom calls back to the home health people. They told her again that they would have someone out first thing in the morning. This time she got really mad at the lady and told her no they need to get someone out here tonight. I have been off my feedings for to long already. Again they tell her to call back in an hour.

6:05PM-- I call the home health people to check there hours. Get the answering machine. They close at 6. I wasn't very happy. The stupid *****!!!! She didn't want to deal with it so she says to call back knowing full well that they would be closed. We got an on call answering machine and left a message for them to call back.

7PM-- no call. We call and leave another message

8PM-- still no call. We leave another message this time we weren't so nice.

8:30-- we get a call from a different company saying that they just received orders to come out tonight at 7:30. My insurance company got the orders to send someone out at 3:30 It took them 4 hours to contact someone. The home health people said they would be out in an hour.

9:30PM-- haven't seen anyone yet.

10:00PM-- finally the guy shows up. But because he didn't have the orders or the resources he was unable to get everything I needed. And what he was able to get wasn't the right stuff. But it would have to do. Finally get everything hooked up I start the feeds and try to go to bed. I was extremely tired. But because the feeding stuff wasn't right it didn't sit well with my system. I was up that night every 1.5 hours going to the bathroom.

Friday- after surviving the night we were supposed to have a nurse come first thing in the morning with the correct feed for my tube. Someone finally shows up later that evening. But they didn't have the correct formula. We called the home health people and they apologized and they said they would send it out Saturday delivery. We get the formula and there are about 5 boxes. Heavy boxes no less. So because the insurance company and the home health people kept screwing up they had to send by UPS 5 boxes full of canned formula for my feeding tube Saturday AM delivery. Guess who gets to pay for that? I know the insurance wont be covering all of it. Can't wait for that bill. Not very happy about it.

In the week that I have been home the feeding tube has clogged 4 times. The last time it clogged was about 6 AM Wed morning. My mom and I tried for 2 hours to unclog it. Some stuff came out, but not much. Nothing was working. I was extremely frustrated. I had just flushed the thing at midnight. We even flushed it with coke because that helps with clogs and I was worried that it was getting harder and harder to flush. So we flushed with coke and several times with water. I had been hooked up to it ever since. Yet it still clogged. We called the doctor because we didn't know what else to do. Waited for him to call back and fell asleep. Woke up a little later and called the doctor again. Left another message. Still no call back. Tried to unclog again for an hour and nothing helped. Took the tape off my face and pulled the damn thing out. That wasn't a pleasant feeling. Inspected the tube and the last 5 inches of tube was completely clogged. There was no chance of us ever getting it unclogged. So now I am tube free and it is a curse and a blessing at the same time. I am not irritated by the tube yet I am not feeling as well as I was when I was on it. Now I am not getting the nutrients I need. Got to find some way to correct that because I don't want to go back in to the hospital.

There are many more hospital stories that I have, but this has been long enough. Maybe I will get around to posting them later.