Update on my five plus day hospital stay.

In my last post I told you I was going to the Walk in Clinic on Monday and ask that they order a cat scan to see in fact if I have Diverticulitis.  They found a place to do a cat scan that day which was just down the street at Lee Memorial Health Park Hospital.  After the cat scan was read they told me to go across the street to the emergency room.  The emergency room reminded me of what you would find in downtown Chicago, New York, or LA.  There were probably 75 people in the waiting rooms and hall ways.  Some on gurneys and some in wheel chairs holding barf buckets.  Some covered with blankets etc. trying to stay as comfortable as possible.  When I finally got called to be admitted which took about an hour I was told the wait to see a triage person would be not longer than another four hours.  We went over to the emergency room at 4:30 pm.  At 10:30 I was put on a gurney and since there were no rooms open in the hospital and no open rooms available in the emergency room I was parked in the hall of the emergency room where they started administering antibiotics intravenously at 11:00 pm.  Around 2:00 am or so they moved me to what I thought was a room but it wasn't.  It must have been just a room and not an actual hospital room.  I found this out when a housekeeping person came in the morning and we were talking and as she was leaving she asked me if I was going to get a room?  I then figured out that the room I was in was not an actual room.  Later in the day they moved me to the Penthouse room on the eighth floor. They must have felt bad on how they treated me the night before because the room on the eighth floor was a private room with a view facing west of a large lake and a condo complex and then in the distance you could see the hotels on the beach.  It was very nice if you have to be in a hospital.  Every body would come in the room just to check out the view out the window.  Whenever I would close the drapes so the sun didn't glare on the tv some body would want to open them back up until I told them I couldn't see the television at certain times of the day when the drapes were open.



I was diagnosed with Diverticulitis with a developing abscess.  I was being seen by at least seven different doctors.  Half of the doctors I still have no idea what they did.  I had a generalist who was kind of overseeing my overall care but there were also surgeons who thought they would need to do exploratory surgery, and there was one doctor who was a specialist of infectious diseases who prescribed my antibiotics.  The others I am not sure what they did.  Maybe they were there just to get paid because to my knowledge they did nothing in my actual treatment. 

My treatment consisted of giving me one powerful dose of antibiotics intravenously every 24 hours.  I was given nothing to eat until Thursday when I was put on a clear liquid diet.  Since I wasn't eating they had me on a sugar water IV.  Other than that it was the usual having your vitals checked every three hours and blood drawn for one thing or another once a day or so.  I went through three 1000ml IV bags of sugar water every day. I had chest x-rays and another cat scan on Wednesday that showed little change from the one I had on Monday.  They changed my antibiotics on Tuesday and they finally kicked in late on Wednesday and my fever went down and never returned.  My white blood cell count was also very high when I was first examined.  It was 20 and is supposed to be 10.  By late Wednesday early Thursday they had it back down to 10.  So I layed around in bed in my private room with the great view and watched the NCAA basketball games all day Thursday until Saturday when I was released.  Before they released me they installed what they called a pick line which is a more permanent IV line that is threaded from your bicep in your arm through the main artery with the line ending just before it enters your heart.  When they thread the line in they have a chest x-ray taken to make sure it is in the correct position.


I got released from the hospital at about 4:00pm Saturday after receiving my antibiotic treatment for the day.  The next day Sunday, which was earlier this morning, a home health care nurse came to our motorhome and taught Huli how to administer my antibiotics intravenously through my pick line.  Huli did fantastic.  The main thing is all about sterility and cleanliness and keeping the two pick lines flushed out with saline and heparin before and after administering the antibiotic.  We need to do daily doses until Thursday when I go to the infectious disease doctor who will remove the pick line so we can start home on Saturday.  I told them Friday but we now plan on leaving Saturday and plan on being home on Monday.

When we get home I will need to get a gastroenterologist to see what will need to be done going forward.  The doctors here don't want anybody doing anything to me for six weeks until my colon "cools" down.   My problems were many that got me into the hospital.  First, I thought I had food poisoning since I have never had diverticulitis ever before. I waited about a week and one half before going to the doctor.  I have never been one to run to the doctor or hospital when I get sick.  I usually kind of wait it out to see if I get better or if things get worse which normally takes a week or two.  My next problem was going to the Walk in Clinic even though I called the hospital and asked them where I should go since I did not have a primary physician in Fort Myers and this is where they referred me to.  ( Many nurses in the hospital said never go back there.  They said come straight to the emergency room.  I explained I didn't want to be one of the people you hear about on tv using the emergency room for every ailment that comes up and clogging the system up.  They said don't worry about it go straight to the emergency room the next time.)  My next problem was the Walk in Clinic prescribed me an oral antibiotic that was not right for the stage my illness was in.  On Wednesday when Janet called them telling them I was getting worse every time I took another dose of the medication they said stop taking it and come in next Monday for my appointment.  They should have had me come back in immediately but that is as much my fault for not insisting to get in asap rather than waiting another five days for my appointment.

On the bright side I have lost 23 pounds and haven't had any alcoholic beverages in over two weeks.  I jokingly told the doctors and nurses in the hospital that this probably contributed to me getting this god awful illness.  They laughed and assured me there was no correlation between the two.

For me personally 2014 really, really sucks.  I have was first layed up for my surgery for the first couple of months, secondly I was walking in front on the patio of our motor home bare footed and cut the bottom of my foot on two protruding broken off screws.   That had me hobbling around for about a week.  Then in March I get this.  I would like to have a do over for this first quarter.  Oh well, I look around and see many people who have real problems compared to my inconsequential ones.



 

Update on my foot and other things

Yesterday I went to the Orthopedic surgeon for the last time.  It's been two months since my surgery.  I went to the visit wearing Crocs which I thought may irritate the doctor but he didn't say a word about the absence of the boot.  The physician's assistant came in first and checked me over and asked me to press my foot against his hand.  He asked how I was doing and I told him I have been doing well and would have had the surgery years ago if I knew it was going to go like this.  I said I thought it would take months to be able to walk without the aid of a stroller or cane.  He said I am where it takes many people six months to get to. He said I am doing very well to be walking like I am without the boot at eight weeks.  I didn't tell him but the boot has been under the motorhome bed for almost a month. 
I still have discomfort after I walk a certain distance which they said is very normal and will subside over time.  I told them the pain doesn't increase but just stays at the same level.  We always park at the farthest parking places at Walmart or other stores.  Earlier I would stop at one of the shopping cart corrals and get a shopping cart to lean on which would help significantly.  Over time I didn't need to get the shopping cart on the way in at all so I know I am making progress. 

My next health calamity.  We went to the Farmers Market two weeks ago and I ate a breakfast bagel sandwich at about 11:00 am. That evening I had a pain in my lower left side and the worst flu like symptoms you can imagine.  I thought  I must have contracted food poisoning so I just sucked it up and was sicker than hell over the weekend.  On Monday the flu symptoms went away for the most part but I still had a pain in my lower left abdomen but not near as intense as on the weekend.  I did my normal internet self diagnosis, which by the way I apparently misdiagnosed the first time around,  and I am now sure I have Diverticulitis.  So I ate light and the pain subsided.  Then I would eat a little more and the pain came back.  After a week of this I went to a walk in clinic and they agreed I had Diverticulitis which I now understand is very common, especially with people over 60.  They gave me an antibiotic and told me to come back in a week.  On Wednesday Janet called them and said I continued to get sicker and sicker by the day.  At first I thought it was just the side effects of the medication but the doctor said to stop taking the medication immediately.  Oh by the way,  I lost 20 pounds from Monday to Friday.  It's amazing how much you lose when you just stop eating  all together.  Only 30 pounds away from my goal.  That isn't that big of a deal when you have the pounds to lose I do.   Now that I will be able to walk without pain I am planning on losing  weight.  In fact I no longer do tequila shots or shots of any kind.  I have not had much to drink from an alcohol standpoint since March first.  Maybe that is why I got diverticulitis since the alcohol kept me in balance (just kidding).  I am feeling better since I quit taking the medicine but I still have a lingering low level pain in my lower left abdomen.  I go back to the doctor on Monday and will probably ask to have a cat scan to see if they can tell for sure that it is diverticulitis.

 Huli and the dogs are doing good except for Huli getting tore up by no see ums.  About three days ago in the evening she was over talking to a neighbor and got about 50 bites on her legs.  The neighbor didn't get one bite.  There is something about Huli's composition that attracts the no see ums.  The other thing that really has bothered nurse Huli is she wants me to go to the doctor immediately when I have something wrong from a health standpoint.  That is not in my nature unless I think it is something very serious.  This infuriates her.

We are leaving the park on March 29th and will be heading up to Ocala to see Joann and Wally for a couple of days.  We then plan on heading over to Gulf State Park for a few days and will then head back to Indiana.  We need to be home by the middle of April since Huli has an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon the following week.  She has had a hitch in her knee for some time so she wants to find out what is wrong and what can be done to repair it.  We know it is a little early to be heading home but we have several things we want to get done this summer.  We have to get warranty work done on the motorhome in May and the collision damage fixed June 2nd.   Precision Painting is doing the work.  Very professional in the quoting process and extremely detailed whereas Newmar was the opposite.  The first quote I got from Newmar included zero labor.   I had to point out mistakes and omissions on Newmar's quote four different times before I got what was the final quote of $5700. The  check from the other person's insurance company is $4600 which should cover everything at Precision.  The damage to the motorhome is very superficial with two small scrapes and one small fiber glass piece missing and one scratch above the step and a scratched rim.  I think I was in the wrong line of work.  We also have a few house projects we want to do.  I am looking forward to getting home this year for some reason.  Probably because I have been either crippled or sick since the first of the year. 


Sorry for the rambling.  Hope you can translate it so it makes sense.