Confinement in The VA Hospital Part 5

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      I did not sleep at all last night. I'm not sure why, I was so tired. The drugs made it impossible to keep my eyes open, but still, sleep was not my friend. But that's fine; today I am going home. One full night on the new drugs and I am feeling much better. I'm still in pain, but not so much that I feel like I'm dying.I just need the "doctor" to come and sign the forms. Although, I'm a little nervous that she will decide to change the medication again, and go back to what didn't work. She seems to be a fan of what doesn't work, and what isn't wrong.
         It is about 7am when the night nurse comes in to give me the last of my medications for her shift. She was so wonderful and helpful during my stay that I had my husband pick up some See's candy for her. I will bitch and complain when things are not done right, but I believe that when people go above and beyond to help you, they should be treated as if they have.

        Usually when you are discharged from the hospital you are given some paperwork on why you were there and how you can help your condition. So I expected to receive something on chronic back pain. I did not. When the nurse came in, she handed me the papers with an "I'm sorry look" on her face. She told me she knew that this wasn't why I was here and that she was sure that I knew all of this already, but she had to give me the papers. I asked her if they were about my Tuberculosis, she said, "Pretty much.".

        When I read through the papers, sure enough, it was about lung problem, blood in the lungs or lung infections. Something like that, I didn't bother to read it. I couldn't believe it. Nothing about back pain or possible post surgical complications of the spine. This "doctor" really was dumber than a bag of rocks.

      The doctor shows up at 8:30. She is very brief. Are you feeling better? Yes. Are you going home today? Yes. Good, I'll start your papers. Then she turned to me and said, "At least next time you come in, we won't have to deal with the whole TB isolation thing.". That was it, I just looked at her and said, "If you had jut listened to anything that I or my pulmonologist had said, we wouldn't have had to deal with it either. She left, and honestly I was just glad to be done with her and glad she didn't decide to change my medications back to something that she wanted to prescribed. But yes, at least next time, I won't have to be in TB isolation.

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