I’ve finally discovered why Rich doesn’t listen to me. Because no one is listening to him.
Last Monday Rich suffered chills and fever. After 24 hours of nagging and threatening he called the nurse in charge of his pellet placement. He was told to “keep an eye on it”. Must I recap? If you’re lucky Rich will run a brief fever. That will be the only sign you get. Last year he ran a fever off and on for two days. I was told to give him ibuprofen. No more fever. Six days later he was septic and I was signing paperwork to stop treatment and let him die peacefully.
Three times now I have explained Rich’s infection process, my concerns, and have been assured that they “are going to be ALL OVER THAT.”
On Wednesday he called again because his lung is filling up again. He’s short of breath, diminished breath sounds, and extremely weak. He spoke with an actual person, so they ARE aware. He was told to call the surgeon because draining the lung will have to be done BEFORE the pellets are placed, can’t be done after. Surgeon wasn’t in.
As of yesterday he was throwing up all day. He cannot speak in complete sentences because the effort starts a coughing jag that threatens to bring up the lung. But apparently there’s no concern because there’s no more fever. Yippy skippy.
Every phone call he made was the result of my urging, and pleading, evolving into threatening. As of today we’ve heard back from no one. Rich is right. Why bother?
Here’s how it works in MY world. I get a call from an RN that a home care or nursing home patient is short of breath, diminished breath sounds and within an hour I am calling them back with doctor’s orders and an Rx has been sent to the pharmacy. I remember hearing somewhere that moist, dark places are a breeding ground for nasty shit. Especially for someone with a compromised immune system. If the doctor doesn’t get back to me within that time frame, I assure you that the RN in charge of that patient is calling me every half hour until she gets an answer, and I, in turn, am riding him like an old mule. Rightfully so.
I would be the first to admit that I am over-reacting had we not experienced June, July, August and September of 2010. Twenty-seven days in the hospital followed by three IVs a day followed by emergency surgery because his infectious disease “doctor” was not concerned by the fact that his drain tube stopped draining while his fatigue and lethargy increased. Those were some ugly phone conversations between me and numb-nuts. But hey, he was NOT running a fever.
The doctor I work for looks at me like I’m making this shit up. He explains “someone in his condition probably isn’t capable of running a fever.” (It sounds really cool with his Egyptian-British accent). It’s much like elderly ladies whose only symptom of a raging bladder infection is sudden altered mental status.
I’m not saying I know more medically than the medical professionals. I have, however, proven that I know more about Rich. I know Rich like a mother knows her child—inside and out. I know when his struggle is mental, emotional or physical.
Now I’m spending Saturday morning crying. I am THAT frustrated., helpless and hopeless. Rich is fast losing faith in his “Team”. As he put it, “they don’t care about me, they just want to place those pellets.”
Well guess what. P-Day is February 15th. Today is the 11th. The situation is getting worse, not better. If the man was not aloud to hold his own urinal while laying on that table for the arterial mapping….. I’m thinking they’re in for a shit time when he’s laying there trying to hack up a lung. Oh, wait, they’ll probably just sedate him for their convenience. After that, he can lay in an empty hallway and drown. Once those pellets are placed….let the billing begin.
I’m sorry. Do I sound cynical? Dr Phil says that the first step to healing a relationship is that each party must feel that they have been heard. I’m not feeling the Love, Dr Phil.
UPATE: Rich was notified that he does NOT have Hepatitis C. How do they know? Because someone decided that since Rich was not going to cooperate with driving to the lab for another blood draw, they’d test one of the multitude that was drawn while he was in the hospital. How cool is THAT?!
