Wednesday, August 24, 2011

I Felt The Earth Move Under My Feet

 
Day 25.

So the white count was actually 36 yesterday at some point.  And last night Dr. Gross told me that I should be content to know that at least he wasn't running a fever.  He had a fever of 102 overnight.
One thing that scared me today is that I was told he is still on the verge of being septic.

And I was not happy today when I found out that the abacter and pseumonas were found in Derek's throat.  I was not told that.  When I asked WHY I was not told, the explanation was that it is all over his body and it is difficult to explain every little place it is found.  Not.Good.Enough.  I want a full and complete explanation of exactly WHERE the infections are, WHAT the bugs are, WHAT is being done to combat them, etc.  HOW do they expect me to be able to deal with this impossible situation if they are not telling me everything?

And I really do not think Dr. Gross leaves the hospital.  He was there late last night, and I saw him at 8:30 a.m. this morning.  I left the hospital tonight at 10:30 after "assisting" with the placement of a new central line, and Dr. Gross was part of the procedure.

Derek had to have a new central line placed due to another infection in that line.  Every line seems to get infected.  What the hell?

Last week, Derek was off the vent.  He was well on his way to being able to speak to us again.  They put him on CPAP, which is just vent support.  Now he is back on the vent thanks to those damn infections.
Hey, docs!  They are just bugs!  And some mold and fungus!  Got some Raid?  Fly swatters?  Tilex?  The antibiotics aren't working, so find something else already!!  Get to it!  Kill those stupid things!
The nurse took blood because his heart rate was questionable.  He was low in magnesium.  Come on!
He also became very agitated and depressed.  He just wanted to go home.  He said over and over that he was done and wanted to leave.  I called in Dr. West to talk to him.  He is frustrated, as we all are.  A few weeks ago, he was independent and could do everything for himself.  Today, he cannot swallow or even blow his own nose!

And then about 2:30 today, we were standing in the day room when all of sudden the room started to shake.  I thought the construction workers had blasted something outside, but the floor and ceiling were shaking and not stopping!  I took off out of that room and ran to Derek's room!  Someone yelled at me to stay where I was, but I yelled that I had to get to Derek!  All I could think was that if the building was going down, I was going to be by his side!  And I thought, "should I gown up before I go in there?"  Stupid.  The building might be collapsing and I was worried about germs.  Not even the earthquake could shake the bugs out of Derek's system!

A lot of the buildings evacuated, but not the main hospital.  Also, I heard the Pentagon and the memorials in DC were evacuated.  The quake was felt from the Carolinas to NYC and NJ and up to Boston.  The epicenter was in VA and was 5.9.  Wow.  Not common on the East Coast.

What really made it freaky to me is that I am reading the Left Behind series and just read the part about the worldwide earthquake.

Derek did not feel the quake and sort of looked at us like we were nuts.

Tonight, Yvette and Dad left, but they say they will be back.  Hopefully Mike, Ryan and Kellina will come back soon.  I miss my kids.  I miss my cats.  I miss my regular stress. 

We are ready to move on to the next step in this healing process.  We are done with ccu.  Let's get to it already!  We want to move on and get Derek walking!

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