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I had a feeling that morning that
something wasn’t right, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it though. Nate had a
routine appointment at the VA for his blood pressure, we take it daily at home
in 3 week increments and then take it to the doctor to see if anything needs to
be adjusted. I normally go with him, but I figured its just a quick blood
pressure evaluation , he was feeling good, so I just let him go alone.Not even
an hour after he left the house I got a voicemail from his cell phone, it was
his primary care doctor from the VA. It really caught me off guard first of all
because she called from his phone, and second because she just left a voicemail
and that was that. All it said was we are taking your husband to St. Lukes
hospital. No details whatsoever. I got one more call after that from a nurse at
the VA who said I needed to take his meds with me, again no real explanation of
anything. I live about an hour from that hospital, and the whole way a million
things ran through my head. Was he ok, what happened, what if he’s not ok, crap
is there only one St. Lukes Hospital here? I have no idea and they didn’t tell
me. When I got to the hospital, it was no longer St. Lukes so if it wasn’t for
my facebook friends who acted in my moment of need I would have kept driving. I
parked and ran through the parking lot with a giant bag of medications in my
hand, I can only imagine the things people were thinking when they saw me. When
I got inside I was both shocked and concerned at the fact that he was not there
yet, the person at the front desk couldn’t tell me anything. I wanted to know
how he was getting there, why he was there, why I beat him there, I got nothing.
It could have been anything. A car accident, a PTSD episode, I had no idea. When I was finally able to go back they
had him hooked to all sorts of things, heart monitors, and oxygen, IV fluids,
they thought he was having a stroke, or a heart attack. After an entire
afternoon in the ER they decided to go ahead and admit him because whatever was
going on was still going on. His blood pressure dropped to 65/42, and his heart
rate went through the roof. I initially thought that him being admitted was a
good thing, and don’t get me wrong it was, but trying to explain 6 years worth
of medical history is complicated. They decided against my say that it would be
a good idea to take him off ALL his medications. They thought because he was on
so many blood pressure medications that it was too much for his body, what they
didn’t understand was that not all of those medications were primarily used for
blood pressure, and it was a carefully formulated concoction that has taken 4
years to somewhat perfect. I had a perfect list printed out for them, what he
took and when, the dosages, and what he used it for, but they could not seem to
understand why someone would use a blood pressure medication for anything
besides blood pressure. Oh Mylanta things were about to get really
complicated. I had to leave him
there at night and come home to be
with my kids, he seemed to do ok, I talked to him most of the first night, he
didn’t sleep, he doesn’t at home either, but he couldn’t even get comfortable
enough to dose off even for a minute. The second day he really started to feel
the effects of not having his meds, he kept getting really hot and nervous, and
he said it felt like the walls were closing in on him, his startle reflex which
is generally bad was way worse. We again asked if he could have his meds
because I saw this going south real fast, and the doctor had put in the notes
that he wasn’t allowed to have anything until he saw him. I understand that
some things could be reacting negatively, but you CANNOT just pull a guy cold
turkey off all the things he is on and expect it to be ok. Things got rough
Sunday night his 3rd night there. Every night I ensured on my way
out to make the new nurses aware of his situation, I get that maybe they read
his chart but that does not mean that they know what kind of a state he is in.
That particular night was really bad, he was seconds from ripping everything
off and walking out. They had him on a restricted diet because of the concern
for his heart, no medications AT ALL not even for pain, or anxiety, he was a
ticking time bomb. I waited to leave as long as I could that night and like normal
I spoke with the nurses on the way out, as nicely as I possibly could. It was a
simple warning that he is now day 3 with no meds, he will startle easy, he is
guaranteed to have nightmares and/or flashbacks, and I honestly do not know
what will happen if things are not handled correctly, and the response I got
was, “ Ma’am, we are perfectly aware of his condition.” Wow, it took all I had in me not to
flip out. I waited until I got to the car, and bawled my eyes out. Part of me
wanted to go back in and stay the night, but I knew my kids needed me just as
much. Eventually the inevitable happened, a nurse thought he was asleep and
just walked in, he jumped out of bed yanking all the things he was attached t
around and scared the living heck out of the nurse. From that point on they
sent a man nurse in, and even he barely opened the door and made sure to have
like a 10 minute conversation with him before coming all the way in the room.
What a mess. Finally on Monday afternoon someone came to their senses or feared
for their safety and allowed him to have JUST his nighttime meds back. These
people were seriously trying to give ME a heart attack. The doctor who came in
Sunday finally thought to ask if he had any other health problems….ummm, WOW,
read the flipping charts people, yes, he had low blood pressure, but you ARE
NOT working with a guy who has just that! Finally on Monday the actual doctor
who admitted him came in, and not just the weekend on-call people, and she was
baffled as to why he wasn’t allowed to have meds because she never said that ,
so thankfully she put in the order for all his meds. Meanwhile they are still
doing different tests to try to figure out what I already knew. He has been
diagnosed with seizures in the past, the VA took him off the anti seizure
because they said it was a headache medication, and that there was no record
anywhere of him ever having seizures, and bam all this started happening again.
I am no doctor but I know my husband, and I know what is happening to him is
not normal, or a side effect of not sleeping because guess what? I don’t sleep
either and this isn’t happening to me. The end result, the civilian doctor
believes that he is indeed having a form of seizure, the best way it was
described to me is that his brain in a way short circuits due to the scar
tissue build up causing his body to not know how to react to the message it is
trying to convey. Hes been out of the hospital about a week and we are just now
starting to get back into a normal routine.
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3 comments:
Oh wow! I am so sorry you both had to go through all that! I wish doctors would listen to family members! They are the ones living the day-to-day with the patient and typically know what they are talking about! Again, I'm so sorry for all that you went through but glad that things are getting back to normal.
:( What a mess! I hope things get better soon.
Ugh. Wow. :( I am so sorry it took all of that happening just for the doctors to conclude what they did!!! I'm willing to bet you knew everything they concluded before they even opened their mouths, too. If I could fly you to a tropical island, I would. Praying! *hug*
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