Thursday, March 20, 2008

When family and death smacks you in the face..

I know....it's been quite a while since I've been able to do this. But, I have a good excuse. I almost lost Joel. He has been very..very sick and in the hospital for a little over a week. He's been off work for almost 3.

And..all of this may have been avoided if the damn doctors would have taken a little more time and effort in his initial care. We are looking in to getting damages from Pipp/Borgess hospital.

Joel's had kidney stones BAD......BAD...kidney stones since October. He had been to the ER twice, once by ambulance. "yep..stones"...take this pain medication and good luck.

Well, almost 4 weeks ago..an excrutiating pain developed in his right side...down his groin and into his boy parts. Almost debilitating...he endured. March 4th...I convinced him to go to the Dr. He stayed home and I called...they were too busy...go to ER..it may be appendicitis. So....we did.

Pipp ER.....No urine specimin...no blood test...they put him on IV...gave him Dilladed (sp) and some Toredol (sp) and said...it's stone related. After the pain didn't go away....gave him more Dilladed. As he started seizing and trying to scratch his skin off...I got a nurse. They injected Benedryl and Adivan.....and SENT HIM HOME ONLY 15 MINUTES LATER!!! With a script for pain and nausea. Good luck...hope it passes soon. Four hours later...gone.

As we arrived home...he barely go up the stairs to the kitchen and I then figured out that I CAN carry my 160 lb husband. He went down...seizing again. We spent 20 minutes on the floor in the bathroom. After about 10 minutes he got into bed...ate....and got up to have a smoke....down he went again. Another one. This time..I needed our "brothers"...I called 911 and got my firemen there. They transported him to Borgess and almost lost him in the ambulance.....where we spend another 4 hours and several tests. They admitted him...they had no clue. He was in there until last week....colonoscopy, upper GI, a couple more seizures......still nothing.

Come to find out...he has a stone the size of a large pop top that he is tomorrow...having Lithrotripsied as an out patient. The seizures you ask....oh, come to find out that he is allergic to Dilladed.....and he was on the verge of having such severe ones....that he could have died. But, hey..."it's just stones...good luck."

For all of you special people in my life...you know who...all will be ok. He has to visit the pain clinic for some steroid injections in his groin (he's really happy about that)..and with the surgery tomorrow...... all will be ok, eventually.

Hmm...should we sue?!

3 comments:

L*I*S*A said...

Holy shit. As a medical professional, I'm embarrassed that Joel was treated that way. I would absolutely contact the patient advocate at the hospitals and let them know you are NOT happy. Let it slip that you WILL be contacting an attorney.

I hope you got the names of the nurses/doctors involved in Joel's care. There needs to be some serious reprimands, including dismissal for this error.

Tell Joel I hope he gets well soon, and we'll see him this summer for the camping jamboree. :)

Gknee said...

OMG!

I'm relieved to hear he is alive. That is very scary! oof.

I would contact an attorney, even if it's for a consultation about the situation.

Animal said...

WOW! Glad he is okay!