Category: Family

Well, another long, long day.  Margie wasn’t scheduled (likely) for surgery until the afternoon, so I worked from home (with a jaunt up to the Blands to bring Kitten some school clothes and say howdy) until Noon, then headed up to the hospital.

Sat around for a few hours, until Margie was finally told she would be taken down to pre-op, as the surgery in her semi-scheduled OR was wrapping up. (St Joe’s doesn’t reserve ORs to time slots on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but does on MWF.)

So around 4:30 or so, Margie’s bed was wheeled off to pre-op.

And sat there for, oh, 2+ hours.

The Orthopod who would operate on her came by periodically.  He apologized that the OR was full of, well, folks with complications and then folks from the ER that had priority.  For some reason, the hospital gives precedence to abdominal bleeding and ectopic pregancies and other ER niceties over broken bones. The nerve of ’em.

Finally, about 7, it became clear to the powers that be that we weren’t getting into an OR any time soon.  So Margie was reserved for tomorrow (a Wednesday) at 7:30 a.m.

While the doc was there, Margie mentioned our plans to fly out to California a week from Thursday, the 17th.

The doc indicated that, no, that wasn’t going to happen.  Factors include that she has post-op treatment needed after about 10 days (including transitioning from a splint system to an actual cast), plus, so soon after surgery, lethal blood clots were a concern in flying.

The doc left open the possibility that we might — might — be able to do the flight to Hawaii on the 26th, but the 17th? No way.

Which meant that we would not be able to be in California for Margie’s parents’ 50th anniversary on the 19th.

Which really — after a day of delays and disappointments, no to mention pain and no food — was sort of a capper for Margie.  I.e, she was very, very upset.

We got wheeled up to her room.  An intern came in.  Margie was thirsty, but the intern wasn’t sure she was allowed to drink anything, and would have to check with the RN on duty.  I noted that Margie really needed some food, too.  She said she’d check with the RN.

A CNA came in. The same requests got passed on.

Another CNA came in a bit later.  She started off by noting that the floor food orders were now closed …

… at which point Margie, after a day of frustration and pain and disappointment and no food, sort of lost it …

… but that she, the CNA (Thelma Louise, if you can believe it) could run down to the cafeteria and pick up whatever Margie wanted, which I helped provide, and she scurried off.

[Redacted]

Ultimately, food arrived and was consumed.  The RN on duty (once the shift change was complete, and, damn, why is it that whenever Margie arrives in a room, it’s the middle of shift change?) came in and got her both some pain meds  and some jello.  Things settled down, but Margie was clearly exhausted after two days of stress, pain, extremely intermittent food, and general disappointment and stress.

*sigh*

I headed home shortly thereafter (it being a bit after 9).

So … thinking in contingencies …

1. We can’t fly on the 17th.
2. But maybe we can drive.  Though, as I’d be the sole driver, we’d probably need to do it over 2 days, rather than straight through.  Or maybe the train?
3. Currently, still looks like we can go to Hawaii — but would need to change our flights, with the complication of flying out, oh, right at Christmas.
4. Margie has follow-ups she needs to do after surgery.  But … there is Kaiser Permanente in SoCal (with a KP hospital within relative spitting distance of her folks’ house.  Can she go out to California before her  post-op meeting and getting a cast — and have that all done at KP out there?

Also, need to consider (this is for me) Margie’s setting here at home, once the surgery finally (eventually) takes place, and how I need to set things up, and what she’ll be able to do, and so forth.  Which basically means turning the downstairs into living space, since she really won’t be able to get upstairs.

*sigh*

Stay tuned …

Well, follow the Twitter for all the impressions during the day (they’ll be posted here shortly, if not already by the time I’ve done this).

Broad outline of the day’s events:

1. I decide to work from home due to the weather.
2. Margie walks Katherine up to Kendall & Tyler’s house to catch the bus.  It’s very cold and the bus is usually running late, so they all go inside.
3. Margie spots the bus coming, and hurries out to let the driver know that, yes, there are kids to pick up here.  Hits a slick part of the paving along the driveway, slips and falls.  She thought she had a very bad sprain, and started to hobble home, until she misstepped again and went down, and realized it was actually broken — and that it was slick enough to make it difficult for her to get up (or anyone to help her get up).
4. Paula (K&T’s mom) comes running over to the house, where I’m on a conference call.  I run  into the 5-degree chill with no jacket and just slippers on.  Lucinda, a neighbor from up the street, calls 911.
5. South Metro Fire Rescue responds within a couple of minutes (they’re also only just a large block away).  Both an engine and a paramedic van rolls.  They assess the situation, are professional and helpful (special kudos to Laura Goldin), and transport Margie off to Littleton Adventist.
6. I’ve put on a jacket and snow boots by now, and I run into the house, grab a bag full of books and sudoku puzzles, send an out-of-office message to my teams, and head over there.
7. Margie’s on an ER table.  They do x-rays, give her a couple of different pain meds (one of which makes her pretty nauseous), and splint up her leg.  They contact Kaiser Permanent (her insurance) to see if they want her treated there or to go through KP’s clinic/hospital system.  KP indicates the former, so the ER teams wraps things up and discharges her.
8. Once I get wind that I might be transporting her somewhere, I realize (esp with her splint extended up her full leg) that the Subaru is not going to suffice.  I jaunt home, to find a message from KP’s orthopedics department already on the answering machine.  I call Margie, let her know (huzzah for the cell phone era), grab the van, and come back to pick her up.  She manages to do okay in the middle seats with the passenger front seat slid all the way forward.
9. We pick up good drugs at the nearest KP clinic.
10. We have an appointment at Franklin Clinic at 2:30.  We get there, I learn about the wonders of wheel chairs and juggling a passenger who can’t walk (though she has a nice pair of crutches from the first hospital).  I get her inside, then get the van parked.
11. Inside, we get referred up to Orthopedics.  Supposedly they are going to take x-rays at 2:30, prefatory to a 3:00 meet with the Orthopod.  Instead, we hang out until close to 4 before we see the Orthopod, he sends us across the hall for x-rays, we go back, and he informs us that (a) yes, both bones are broken, (b) Littleton Adventist did a piss-poor job in setting the bones because there’s still a big piece of bone pressing outward. Ick.
12. KP Orthopedics sends us down the street to St Joseph’s ER (which is KP’s contract hospital).  Margie gets asked the same questions she’s already given a dozen times a dozen more times.  She eventually gets a room in the ER.  It’s around 5 now, and the Percocet she took at 1 is beginning  to seriously fade.
13. Around 6, the ER team sets to work in resetting the ankle.  They moderately sedate her (enough so she’s out of it, not so much they need special anaesthesiological measures).  I get sent out to the waiting room, where I sit for about an hour — only to be told by the helpful PA that it only took about 10 minutes, went swimmingly, and Margie’s been asking for me for a while, so I might as well go in.  Dark fantasies of tragic medical accidents disappear into a puff of irritation.
14. Margie’s doing much better, though she starts to fade pretty quickly.  It turns out the new plan is that they are going to admit her, she is going to get plenty of overnight meds, some food (she’s not eaten all day), and they’ll try to get her in the ER Tuesday morning.  Huzzah.
15. We call Paula, who’s been watching after Katherine, and she’s more than happy to let K sleep over.
16. An hour and change later, someone finally comes to transport her to her room.  Since they were to give her new pain meds there, she’d been holding off on having anything in the ER, and is beginning to feel pretty uncomfortable.
17. The floor nurse who is just going off-duty gets us tucked into her room (a very nice former suite) around 8:15.  She says she’s going to hand us off to the next floor nurse, who will be back shortly.
18. Finally, 9 o’clock rolls around.  Margie is still hungry, she is in more pain, she is cold (and  there are no extra blankets in the room), and the nurse has not been there.  Her doc (PA?) from the ER comes in to see how she’s doing and update her on the plans.  We bitch and moan about how we haven’t seen hide nor hair of nurse, food, or meds.  He trundles off, comes back about 10 minutes later to say that she should be in shortly.
19. Ten minutes later, we ring the nurse desk.  We’re assured our nurse will be told of our needs.
20. Ten minutes later, at 9:30, I go in search of nurse.  I find the main desk, ask what the hell is going on with my wife’s pain meds, originally prescribed 2.5h ago, etc.  I am assured that Kelly is making her rounds with the meds and will be there shortly.
21. Fifteen minutes later, Kelly finally shows up, an hour and a half since we arrived in the room.  She is not greeted warmly by Margie, who notes that she is cold, hungry, very thirsty (no water today, either, except ice chips at Littleton), and in pain.  The nurse makes some very lame excuses about how she’s just been called in, how the Rx was just filed, etc.  Margie will have none of it.
22. Nurse Kelly plies Margie with meds, confirms that, yes, she can have water, and that she can also havfe some food (pre-packaged sandwiches, etc.).
23. Around 10:20, I head home.  A very long day.

Some of the times above may not add up, but it was a pretty frustrating experience.  “In just a minute” means more like “probably a half hour from now,” it seems, esp. at St Joe’s.  Also, lesson learned: if offered some sort of pain med, take it then, don’t wait until you think the time is right or you are seriously hurting.

Slight change in game plan for tomorrow.  Margie will most likely not get into the OR until early afternoon.  I plan on working from home until lunch, then heading up, so I should be there for the pre-op, etc.  Unless plans change again.

Okay — pretty tired now.  Time for bed.