Two Thursdays ago, I was woken up by a phone call from the nursing home, telling me that my brother had thrown up three times and that they were sending him to the hospital. I asked that he be sent to the hospital that is one, that is about five more minutes away, but they told me they had called 911 instead of an ambulance service and that it was too late. I don't know how many times I have asked that he not be sent to the hospital that is located across the street from the nursing home because the care is second rate.
When I got there he looked ok, not great, but ok. They were giving him iv fluids and his very low blood pressure seemed to be increasing so I went to work. they told me he had pneumonia, and I asked why they thought that. They said that there was a spot on his lung, large enough to make them believe that the pneuomina had come first, not the vomiting. I remarked that he has had a spot on his lung for several year,, but the doctor did not seem interested. I was pretty tired so I left work t early and got back to the hospital in the middle of the afternoon, more because it would mean that I wouldn't have to go in the evening and that I could just go home and crash.
When I got to his floor, I saw all the staff practicing for caring for potential patients with Ebola. When I asked them if that was what they were discussing (they were all in the hall talking in hushed tones), they denied it, but when I mentioned I had heard them discussing Ebola, then they admitted it.
My brother was in a cardiac care unit but not hooked up to the monitors. Since residents had removed his oxygen, I asked for an oxygen reading (it was good), and then I asked for a blood pressure reading. It was really low, around 78/44, life threatening. That caused some commotion and phone calls.
I went home and felt pretty uneasy so came back later in the night with my husband. My brother looked pretty bad. His blood pressure was prety low, in the 90s, but his heart rate was dangerously high, around 130. They were monkeying around with his medication ,titrating between treating the high heart rate and the low blood pressure. I was pretty worried, and would not have been surprised if I had gotten a call in the night telling me that they were going to transfer him to the ICU.
But he got better, and his numbers were pretty good by the morning. He stayed in the hospital another day and was released on Saturday.
However, the hopsitalist told me that my brother probably did not have pneumonia. They sent him for yet another cat scan that was inconclusive. The cat scan was inconlusive. The good news was that no mass (cancer) was detected, that he needs to get another one in a month, and was seems more likely now, a biopsy if the new cat scan continues to be inconclusive.
Of course this raises all sorts of issues I really don't want to think about. What if it is cancer? Do I give him chemo? What does that do to his quality of life? Will will it already do to his already weak condition? Will he start throwing up and end up with heart issues again. Ug, just thinking about it is stressing me out. I will have to approach this one day at a time.
Meanwhile, my brother got back to the nursing home, on a Saturday. They wouldn't even discuss taking him out of a wheelchair until physical therapy looked at him, which didn't really happen until Tuesday. So I went to the nursing home Tuesday night, took him for a walk, and then asked the night head nurse why he was still in a wheel chair. She told me that he didn't have to be because there weren't any orders to that effect, so I thought the issues was over.
The next day, I found out that he had only been to physical therapy for 15 minutes, and that they were still confining him. I called the head nurse and made a stink. She said she would talk to the PT folks. Fortutnately, I had one of the 3 month CARE meetings the following day, and after a lot more arguing, got the nursing home to agree to let him use his walker with the understanding that he would be accompanied when he wanted to move until he "got stronger". Meanwhile, everyday that he doesn't walk around enough, he gets weaker.
I am taking him out tomorrow for breakfast and I will make sure he walks as much as he can.
