Confinement in the VA Hospital Part 4

http://rfid.thingmagic.com/rfid-blog/bid/50106/RFID-Put-Behind-Bars

Confinement Day 3: 

         This morning started out the same as the others: vampires attack, vital sign checks, early morning medicine and something pretending to be food brought to me by someone in a hazmat suit. But today was different; not only did my breakfast resemble food, it actually was food. I couldn't believe it! I was looking at what appeared to be bacon and an over easy egg! (It was actually over medium because they can't serve undercooked meats and eggs in a hospital, but hey, it was a real egg.) So it looked like today would be different, and maybe I would even get to go home.

      This excitement was short lived. I called for the nurse and asked for my pain killers. It took a half hour for them to answer the bell, and then another half an hour for someone to come into the room. And it was not the nurse who showed up. It was the so called "doctor" that was in charge of my care. She came in to inform me that if this last TB test came back negative, I could go home today. It appeared that she had forgotten the reason I had been admitted to the hospital in the first place. I told her that I would go home once my pain was controlled. I was not going to go to the ER again because she failed to do her job.


      She told me that she had stopped the IV medications and "we" were going to be taking 4mg dilaudid orally. She said we needed to start trying to find a way to control the pain with oral medication. (Now, I'm no doctor, but it really seemed  to me, that we should have been trying to figure out a way to control the pain, a little sooner than the day she wanted to send me home.) I informed her that I already had a prescription for 4mg dilaudid an that's what I had been taking the night I was admitted. This was no solution.


       Her next idea was to double the dose. My pulmonologist was already concerned that the lower dose could cause breathing difficulty. I did not want to try this out at home. I also did not want to be a drooling idiot. We needed to try something else. So then she told me that she would prescribe morphine. After informing her that I was allergic she tried to tell me that IV morphine and oral morphine are different. So I would most likely be OK. This became a ten minute argument about why I didn't want to take a drug I was allergic to.She then decided to leave me on the pills that did not work, but let me know she was doing me a huge favor by allowing me to take them every three hours instead of every four.


      The Oncology Pharm.D and the man that found the experimental treatment that saved my life, was finally notified that I was in the hospital. Rusty is the person who normally handles my pain management. He came up to my room to see how things were progressing and they were not good. It was apparent to him and his students that I was suffering, and that the "doctor's" fix was not working. Fortunately Rusty is familiar with my history and the medications that I can and cannot take, being my pharmacist and all. After talking with him, we were able to devise a plan. If it did not work, we would try something different instead of something the same. The first bit of rational thought I had heard from anyone since getting here.

     Shortly before dinner a nurse came in the room to let me know that I was all clear, I did not have Tuberculosis. I think she seemed a bit confused that I was not more excited. But really, how excited was I supposed to be. There was never any concern in my mind that I might actually have TB. So that would be like someone running into my living room and shouting, "Your car is red, your car is red!" and then me jumping up and down and weeping tears of joy. That's exactly how much sense that being excited over not having TB would have made.

   

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