Yays and Nays

After eight sessions of physical therapy for my broken finger, I can now bend it enough to touch my palm. Still can't tuck it all the way into a fist shape but it is progressing very well. Yay!

I had the past two days off from work because Marty was in the hospital with gastrointestinal bleeding. Friday he had a massive dental procedure done and took 600mg. of Motrin to relieve the pain. Saturday he had muscle soreness after working out very hard during a fencing tournament and took 400mg. of Motrin to relieve the soreness. Sunday he still had muscle soreness and took another 400mg. of Motrin and two aspirin during the day plus several Tums to relieve his heartburn.

Monday morning he was light headed, high pulse rate, short of breath, off balance and slightly nauseous. I didn't tell him but his face was completely white. He called our Dr. for an appt., but while on hold had to go to the bathroom and the black tarry blood made me hang up the phone and take him immediately to the hospital ER.

We were taken to a room immediately after Marty completed the initial sign-in with health history, 10 minutes after we walked into the ER. There was a nurse waiting and another nurse arrived within minutes. They were very efficient, quickly placed an IV catheter, drew blood for tests and started fluids. Their friendliness and telling us what they were doing calmed our worries somewhat considering we were thinking no person gets into ER quickly unless it is an emergency such as an amputated limb or heart attack or a knife stuck in the chest.

The Dr. was there within fifteen minutes which made us worry even more because of the quick service. After his visit, Marty had an additional IV catheter placed for IV medication. Two hrs. later the Dr. returned and said Marty was being admitted and needed a endoscopy and colonoscopy. The gastroentologist came two hours after that.

Yay for the ER staff and the Dr. being quick, nay on the wait for lab results and the hours spent in ER waiting for an available bed elsewhere in the hospital.

Nay! It was a shared room, three beds with one bed occuppied by a very noisy man who blasted his tv and had multiple visitors at any given time with cell phones ringing and loud phone conversations going on. The nurses came in and out but did nothing to squelch the noise and hectic activity of his visitors. Marty and I couldn't even hear ourselves talking because of the noise. Fortunately that man was discharged later that night, but Marty still had no sleep because he was receiving two units of blood which required a check of his vitals every 15 minutes.

Yay! Marty was discharged today. Turns out the Motrin and aspirin, even though he took very little compared to the dosage instructions, caused the problem. Marty is one of the few people very sensitive to Nsaid medication.

A big nay for the nurses in the ward where Marty was roomed. No one told him anything of how to function. No instruction was given on what to do if he needed to use the bathroom while connected to IV fluid pumps, how to contact the nurse, how to operate the bed or television. No one told him there were supplies available on the sink to brush his teeth, wash his face. Each time the nurses came in to check vitals or draw blood, they just stated what they were doing and did not speak his name. Those nurses get a huge NAY.