were absolutely amazing. I may have complained about the hospital food and television, but I have absolutely no complaints about the care I received from the doctors and nurses at both Urgent Care and in the hospital. It was so terrific; I plan to write letters to them expressing my thanks and appreciation for how well they all looked after me.
It began
with the doctor I saw on Thursday. He called first thing Friday to inform me my
red blood count was very low and I should go immediately to Urgent Care. When I
arrived at Urgent Care, I barely sat down before they called my name. They took
me right in, asked me a bunch of questions and then moved me into a room. Clad
in a hospital gown…they are really the height of fashion…there were more
questions, blood draws and a trip downstairs for more CT scans.
No one
really talked to me about the scans, but the one doctor who seemed responsible
for me, eventually told me I was going to be admitted to Swedish Cherry Hill.
He did tell me they couldn’t find a reason for why my red blood cell count had
gone down, and that it was continuing to drop. They’d get it all figured out at
the hospital, he was sure.
Three
very nice young men came to transport me to the hospital. They made sure I was
comfortable, strapped in securely, and made conversation, probably in case they
thought I might be frightened. It was my first time ever in an ambulance, but
since I wasn’t critical, they didn’t turn on the lights or the sirens. That was
perfectly fine, but it might have been fun to go faster than we did because the
roads are so very bad, I felt every single bump and dip.
I figured
they would leave me in the ER, but instead, they walked me and my gurney
through the hospital. I believe if they’d decided to abandon me at any point, I’d
probably still be trying to find my way out of that maze. We arrived at what
was to be my room for the next six nights, transferred me to the bed, got their
paperwork signed and wished me well.
My nurse
that night was Kevin. He was from southeast Asia and I think he told me he’d
lived in Hawaii. Actually, his father was in the armed forces, so he lived in a
lot of different places. He made me comfortable, took my vitals and returned
every four hours to take my vitals again. It was still very difficult to
breath.
The next
morning, I met Dr. Phan who would be my doctor through Monday. He assured me
they would get to the bottom of my problem. Kevin was replaced by Regine and
Kristin and they popped in and out with medications, checking my vital signs,
checking on me throughout the day. They didn’t allow me any food until late
afternoon and I’ve already blogged about that.
Sunday
morning, nothing had been accomplished and I felt worse than ever. When Dr.
Phan came to see me, I cried like a baby and told him I felt hopeless, that I
just kept getting worse and there didn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason. He
patted my leg several times and assured me they would figure out my problem and
make me well again.
After Dr.
Phan left, I got up to go to the bathroom without notifying the nursing
station. I was barely back in bed when I had three nurses around my bed. One of
them gave me holy hell for getting out of bed. She told me I wasn’t to move
from that bed, that they were going to bring a commode or bed pan. The other
two nurses were Regine and Kristin and I never saw the one who raised hell with
me again. Later on, I learned the reason for the big upset…my heart rate
climbed precipitously to 133 during my little trek and I was very short of
breath.
I don’t
know if it was the tears or exactly what, by come noon that day, I was
transferred to an OR where Dr. Demopolis removed the fluid from around my heart.
I had been told it was a “moderate” amount, but the doctor and all his
assistants (4 of them) seemed amazed at the amount. Dr. Demopolis left the
drain in the pericardium which was a good thing since there was even more fluid
that leaked out over the next 12 hours or so. The nurses had to change my gown
and top sheet twice, plus the bandages twice more to keep up with the fluid
that kept draining.
I cannot
begin to tell you how much better I felt when the fluid was drained away. The
huge rubber band that had been compressing my chest was gone and I could almost
take a very deep breath without any pain or discomfort. Finally, we were
getting somewhere.
On
Monday, the pulmonologist, whose name I didn’t learn and who had arrived the
day before while I was in the OR, came to my room with his assistant who handled
the ultrasound. Together, they inserted another drain through my left back and
removed the fluid that was in the plural membrane. Again, it was way more than
they expected. This doctor also told me that as my lung re-inflated and
expanded I might have some pain. Fortunately, there was no additional pain and
I could actually take a very deep breath.
Regine
and Kristin continued to take care of me on Monday and on Tuesday, it was just
Regine. They didn’t come to check on me quite as often as before, but that was
okay because I was getting better all the time.
Dr. Phan’s
last day on the floor was Monday and he had indicated maybe I could go home on
Tuesday. Dr. Burney replaced Dr. Phan and there was no way I as going to be
discharged on Tuesday. She didn’t have any answers to any of the questions as
to why this had happened to me nor were there any answers to why I had become
anemic so quickly. It was possible I could go home Wednesday, but she wasn’t
going to make that decision until then.
On Wednesday,
my nurses were Courtney and Jen. Courtney had just graduated from nursing
school and Jen was her mentor. They also took excellent care of me.
Unfortunately, Dr. Burney still didn’t have enough answers to allow me to go
home on Wednesday, but she more or less promised I could go Thursday morning.
Dr.
Burney kept her promise even though she still didn’t have any answers. She told
me the fluid in the lab wasn’t growing anything, so it wasn’t a bacterium, but
perhaps had been viral. She also thought perhaps the anemia was due to the
amount of inflammation in my chest, that my bone marrow had decided to take a
break from manufacturing those important red cells. However, the blood work did
indicate the red blood cells were now increasing as opposed to the decreasing they’d
been doing.
It’s been
decades since I spent any time in the hospital. Yes, I had both hips replaced
and a shoulder repair, but they got me up and out within a day or two. Then,
the care I received was excellent, but I wasn’t there long enough to really
understand how it all worked.
I found
it amazing that no matter who the nurses were that came on duty, my care was
seamless. In the space of those seven days, I had at least seven different
nurses and the ones going off-duty handed off my care to the incoming nurses.
It was absolutely amazing how they coordinated so there were no mistakes or
slip-ups. And, they’re not just nurses who administer medical care, but also
are responsible for removing the trash and soiled linen. In the past, there was
janitorial services who took care of that and I don’t know if it’s a COVID thing
or if those chores have been added to a nurse’s workload.
Finally,
let me say how amazed I was at the trash that was generated just in my room. I
know it’s necessary to keep everything fresh and antiseptic, but the amount of
trash generated each day when it came to blood draws, glucose checks, vital
sign checks, etc., was simply mind-boggling. Someone really needs to invent
that medical thingie they used on all the Star Trek programs…it monitored your
body and fixed it without the use of all the products we now require.
I have
absolutely no plans to return to the hospital for another stay, but it is
exceedingly wonderful to know the care provided is extremely effective. Being
either a doctor or a nurse was never a goal for me, but I’m thankful there are
wonderful people who choose those occupations. They are a very special breed of
human and I don’t think we can ever thank them enough for the work and care
they provide.