That would be me (mostly just hungry)...
When I had my husband in Emergency last week and he was kept in a room they termed "code Burgundy" (sort of a makeshift ICU because of the overcrowding lately), there were a couple of um... Interesting characters in there, too... An elderly gentleman with a walker in one corner kept getting up and trying to leave. He was finally allowed to call his daughter and she calmed him down. There were only curtains, no walls at all, so it was impossible not to hear. Poor guy was convinced "something wasn't right here" and the nurses constantly had to chase him down. The other thing he did that drove the poor elderly lady crazy in the bed across to him was that he kept calling her his wife. "That's my wife right there," he kept saying. She was quite offended when he kept coming over to drink her water, and he tried to make a couple of advances or hold her hand. She was in a tizzy, poor thing! She was also mad that the tech who tried to put in the IV needle back on the triage/emergency entrance had some difficulty because her veins kept collapsing (where several beds, including my husband's, were temporarily located out in the hallway)... So she was a bit horrified that she had all these bruises on her arms and was complaining loudly about it. But she also managed to wiggle her own IV loose and caused it to bleed all over herself when she got up to use the washroom. They gave her a mild rebuke and so when the old gentleman kept trying to come over to her she would say, "You'd better stay there or you're going to pull out your IV and then you'll be in big trouble." The nurses kept telling him, "Albert, your wife isn't here. That is NOT your wife. Your wife is at home with her feet up watching television." He kept saying, "Well she sure looks like my wife." I couldn't see through the curtain but I bet that elderly lady was scowling at him something fierce...
There was another fellow a few beds further down who was gacking and coughing like he had TB or pneumonia or some kind of nasty lung issue. Ah, the sounds that came out of him... "hack hack hack cough cough cough bark bark bark... hhhhwaaccckk...." I don't know if it was because he was lacking oxygen or something to do with his meds because the 2nd day I was there he started complaining loudly that his forehead and fingers and toes all felt like there was something dead inside him trying to get out. Some kind of neuropathy? "It's driving me crazy! I don't think I can stand it anymore... It feels like it's me falling out of my fingers and toes and my forehead... You know what I mean? It's like I'm coming out of my own body and I'm falling out dead in bits and pieces. Is there anything you can do to stop it? " He would laugh nervously because he felt embarrassed about how it sounded, but he was clearly anxious about it. He kept repeating it over and over until the doctor came to visit him and apparently gave him something else as he settled down finally before I left that evening.
At least the 2nd time we visited Emergency a week later, we just stayed a few hours and he's back home again.
Last week it was an intestinal bleed from the meds he was on for his pinched nerve. Yesterday it was "just" his pinched nerve. We finally have him on some "short activation" morphine... Lowest dose available, and now we can both sleep fairly well after 2 weeks of us both being exhausted trying out other medications... He is doing a lot better, getting more sleep, managing the pain much better, and we have had xrays and have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon on the 21st. Emergency doctors told us they are booking him for an MRi but no one has called us yet, but mind you it happened on the Saturday so I don't even know if MRi appointments are open until weekdays (or at least unless it is an emergency)... I have to call our physician on Mon anyway so he can get back up to speed (although they kept him up to date on the first trip to Emerg)... We will see if David can get some slow release Morphine or if he just needs to stay on the stuff he has now. Seems manageable with staggering Tylonel and morphine. The other stuff (Tramadol once a day 300mg) didn't do squat for him.
Sorry I haven't been on, I've also had some milder medical issues, found out my thyroid levels plummeted a bit so I have a higher dosage prescribed for synthroid and we'll see if that doesn't lessen these feelings of blah and always chilly and short-tempered and not wanting to do anything etc... It feels so hard to do anything lately.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and are not experiencing any PAIN!
When I had my husband in Emergency last week and he was kept in a room they termed "code Burgundy" (sort of a makeshift ICU because of the overcrowding lately), there were a couple of um... Interesting characters in there, too... An elderly gentleman with a walker in one corner kept getting up and trying to leave. He was finally allowed to call his daughter and she calmed him down. There were only curtains, no walls at all, so it was impossible not to hear. Poor guy was convinced "something wasn't right here" and the nurses constantly had to chase him down. The other thing he did that drove the poor elderly lady crazy in the bed across to him was that he kept calling her his wife. "That's my wife right there," he kept saying. She was quite offended when he kept coming over to drink her water, and he tried to make a couple of advances or hold her hand. She was in a tizzy, poor thing! She was also mad that the tech who tried to put in the IV needle back on the triage/emergency entrance had some difficulty because her veins kept collapsing (where several beds, including my husband's, were temporarily located out in the hallway)... So she was a bit horrified that she had all these bruises on her arms and was complaining loudly about it. But she also managed to wiggle her own IV loose and caused it to bleed all over herself when she got up to use the washroom. They gave her a mild rebuke and so when the old gentleman kept trying to come over to her she would say, "You'd better stay there or you're going to pull out your IV and then you'll be in big trouble." The nurses kept telling him, "Albert, your wife isn't here. That is NOT your wife. Your wife is at home with her feet up watching television." He kept saying, "Well she sure looks like my wife." I couldn't see through the curtain but I bet that elderly lady was scowling at him something fierce...
There was another fellow a few beds further down who was gacking and coughing like he had TB or pneumonia or some kind of nasty lung issue. Ah, the sounds that came out of him... "hack hack hack cough cough cough bark bark bark... hhhhwaaccckk...." I don't know if it was because he was lacking oxygen or something to do with his meds because the 2nd day I was there he started complaining loudly that his forehead and fingers and toes all felt like there was something dead inside him trying to get out. Some kind of neuropathy? "It's driving me crazy! I don't think I can stand it anymore... It feels like it's me falling out of my fingers and toes and my forehead... You know what I mean? It's like I'm coming out of my own body and I'm falling out dead in bits and pieces. Is there anything you can do to stop it? " He would laugh nervously because he felt embarrassed about how it sounded, but he was clearly anxious about it. He kept repeating it over and over until the doctor came to visit him and apparently gave him something else as he settled down finally before I left that evening.
At least the 2nd time we visited Emergency a week later, we just stayed a few hours and he's back home again.
Last week it was an intestinal bleed from the meds he was on for his pinched nerve. Yesterday it was "just" his pinched nerve. We finally have him on some "short activation" morphine... Lowest dose available, and now we can both sleep fairly well after 2 weeks of us both being exhausted trying out other medications... He is doing a lot better, getting more sleep, managing the pain much better, and we have had xrays and have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon on the 21st. Emergency doctors told us they are booking him for an MRi but no one has called us yet, but mind you it happened on the Saturday so I don't even know if MRi appointments are open until weekdays (or at least unless it is an emergency)... I have to call our physician on Mon anyway so he can get back up to speed (although they kept him up to date on the first trip to Emerg)... We will see if David can get some slow release Morphine or if he just needs to stay on the stuff he has now. Seems manageable with staggering Tylonel and morphine. The other stuff (Tramadol once a day 300mg) didn't do squat for him.
Sorry I haven't been on, I've also had some milder medical issues, found out my thyroid levels plummeted a bit so I have a higher dosage prescribed for synthroid and we'll see if that doesn't lessen these feelings of blah and always chilly and short-tempered and not wanting to do anything etc... It feels so hard to do anything lately.
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and are not experiencing any PAIN!
