L
uke and I had an adventure this week that we will not soon
forget. We had to make a trip to Vanderbilt Emergency room due to Luke
experiencing severe upper right quadrant pain. We were seen soon after arriving
at 11 am. Luke was triaged then brought back for blood work.
By Noon on Wednesday, we were taken back to a private room
in the Emergency room. Here they took more history and blood cultures. Due to
Luke’s history and condition they elected to place him on a monitor so we were
moved down the hall to a private room that was equipped with a monitor. Luke
was soon taken down for a CAT Scan.
The Oncology team that float through the hospital and ER
started coming in first one then two, asking the same line of questions and
getting the same answers that Luke and I had provided since arriving. We were
finally told that they wanted to Admit Luke and we would be moving up stairs as
soon as they had a bed available.
At about 10 pm we were told it looked like we would not be
moving till the next day, so we requested a hospital bed for Luke and nice
reclining sleep chair for myself. Wednesday night was a fun time the room was
not very large and if I reclined I blocked the door. So every time staff needed
to get into the room, they had to knock slide in through the door, close it and
move around me after I sat up.
After the 5 am Thursday blood work, it was determined that
Luke would need another two units of blood and they were still looking to move
him to a bed upstairs. By Noon the two
units had been changed to three units and still no bed available. It was
decided that he might had an infection and they needed to make adjustments to
his pain medication so we would be staying till the blood cultures returned
after 48 hours.
By 3 pm the first
unit of blood was started and I decided to take fast trip to Clarksville. We
made a list of items we both would need for another night so off I went to
shower, see my dogs and collect the items. While I was gone another unit was
started but an accident caused lines to be cut and upon my return it looked as
if there had been a blood bath in the room. By 8 pm we were told still not room
available upstairs. We moved all the rolling cabinets, the hospital bed and the
sleep chair so we could make room for the nurses to enter and do their work
without disturbing Luke or myself.
Friday finally arrived and the Oncology team stopped by and
stated that once blood culture were back we would most likely go home with oral
antibiotics. The new pain medication regiment seem to be providing Luke with
some control over the pain. So we waited, well Luke slept and waited, while I
worked to end the Month of May.
Of course, by this time we realized we would be discharged
from the ER never making it to a room upstairs. We were told it would be after
the blood cultures were complete. Now during all this time, we had become squatters
in this ER room we were provided, the staff provided excellent care even though
the care they were providing was something they all were not use to doing
having the same patient for nearly 48 hour. Around 3 pm, the nurse came in and
simply stated I have your paperwork and proceeded to advise Luke of the
discharge orders. From that point on we
were treated worse than the actual criminals who had police protection in the
room down the hall.
Before we could even get our bags packed, housekeeping was
outside the door waiting to pounce on the room, the staff acted like we had overstayed
our welcome and kept trying to hurry us out of the room.
We got out the ER 53 hours after walking in the door. Never
did see a room upstairs. After all the wonderful care provided, at the end the
attitude was totally different like we were the ones that were under police
protection.
Luke has a wonderful Oncology team at Vanderbilt and we
cannot wait to see them next week to express our opinion on this last adventure
to the Greaty Vanderbilt Emergency Department.
Keep Dancin’ Larry B.
No comments:
Post a Comment