Stage 2 Renal Failure

Dear, dear friends and family, I pray that you will understand why it has been so long since I have posted anything on my blog. Between April 1^st and April 7^th I have had to go to the ER Department of the hospital 3 times. Twice I was admitted. The first time I was only in for 1 ½ days, the second time that I was admitted it was for 4 ½ days. In fact I was only home for only 5 HOURS. There was a horrible mix up with my medications. Last Wednesday I was told to leave because my insurance would not pay. Yesterday, I received a letter from the insurance company saying I would be covered until the 23^rd of the month?  I am so confused by all of this. I don’t know what if anything I should do.

Tuesday, I was treated because of constipation, then the following Friday, I was admitted for A-Fib, and went to the brand new heart wing and discharged the very next day, Saturday. Only to be readmitted 5 hours later because of a big confusion with my medication. So I was sent to the oncology wing of the hospital, and stuck with the same doctor who had discharged me just hours before.

So on Monday afternoon I was very surprised to have an ambulance crew show up and inform me that they were there to take me to the D’Amour Center for my radiation therapy! My appointment had been for 11 am.  But I had called and cancelled. I had no idea that the hospital would take me over for this treatment. We get down and into the ambulance and one of the guys on the crew started teasing me. Friendly and fun stuff, we both got to laughing and I told him that I knew all about the guys that work on the ambulances so he asked me how I knew about the crews. I told him that I have a brother who use to work on the ambulances. He said “ah, so you are who are thought you are!” I said yea, who would that be, he said Harold’s daughter. So I asked him how he knew Harold, he just said his last name and I was very surprised. He is the son of a very dear friend of my folks and he does know my brother.

After they got me back to the hospital I would not let him leave until he had given me a big hug. At this stage of my life I need lots of hugs. After that the other guy on that crew took me over to D’Amours every day for my daily treatment. Boy do those guys all tease one another. My friend Crag was never assigned to transporting me. He says he is on a goofy rotation. I sure hope I did not get him in any trouble for that hug. It was simply a little brother giving a big sister a hug!

Back to Monday, the doctor’s suggested a different type of palliative care. This care is done with a pain doctors who checks to see that the meds used in the hospital can be obtain once I am released. It makes a whole lot of sense to me so I said yes.  Then a few hours later they had an ultrasound done on my kidneys and it appears that I have stage 2 of renal failure. Yuck, yuck, yuck!!!

Tuesday night was horrible. I had a night nurse who refused to give me my pain medication for 45 minutes, I rang the nurse call bell 3 times. She tried to tell me that the other nurses never told her that I had rung the bell. I find that very hard to believe. So one of my friends got a ride up to the hospital at midnight and she stayed by my bedside until noon. I told the doctors about this. Later that morning I said something to my daytime nurse and she said the nurse I had has a reputation for doing what she did to me.

So on Wednesday, I am so over medicated that I am having trouble staying awake or talking to anyone. I was told in front of my company, that I had to leave by 8 pm because the insurance company will not pay for anymore care. Oh so unprofessional! How unethical can a doctor get?? This is the same doctor who discharged me just that Saturday. So too over medicated to fight this I left the hospital. If I could get rid of that one doctor and the one nurse it would have been a great staff. It is too bad that they have two who spoil the reputation of the entire staff.

The next morning, my daughter-in-law had to wake me up for my radiation therapy appointment. After that appointment, we went to my supportive care appointment. I had different doctors there to see me.  They had to ask Brooke any questions they had because I just couldn’t answer them myself. They were very kind about this whole thing. They took me to their infusion room and ran an IV on me for about 5 hours. I slept through most of it. Brooke came back to get me after getting the girls from school, at the end of the school day. Her 9 year old wanted to come in and see what was happening with me. The nurses said that it was okay for them to come in. The people at D’Amour are fantastic!!

Friday, when I got up I was under medicated, but it is now Saturday, and I think we are getting closer to being at the just right amount of medication. But only time will tell if the medication level I am taking is right for me or not.

Now I need to do some research on renal failure and learn what I need to know to slow that down or treat it. Yuck, yuck, YUCK!!!!

I hope to be able to do another blog either later today or sometime tomorrow.