Since I haven’t been really faithful in updating my saga, there may be some holes in it!! I can remember that the first hospitalization was only for IV antibiotics.
Hospitalization #2
The second hospitalization was more antibiotics and then a transfer to the subacute hospital called Select Specialty at West Allis Memorial. I spent about 3 weeks there “rehabbing” and getting off the IVs. They finally let me off the floor to go to the hospital library to use the computers. It was a normal and long and boring stay with no new developments.
Looks like I left Select on a Saturday in mid-August(?) for another facility. I told them in no uncertain terms that I would not go home until it was healed. I cannot stay off my feet if I am home alone. There is NOBODY who cares enough to keep me company 24 hours a day!!!
Fell the night before last in my bathroom. My ankle just went “wibble wobble” and CRASH! Didn’t really hurt myself but they made a big production of it. I had to go to bed right away and they kept me up taking my vitals every 15 minutes for a while and then hourly for a few hours and then every two and then four hours for 24 hours. Talk about resting!! HA! Didn’t get but maybe one and a half hours sleep Monday night. Then I am not supposed to get up even to go to the bathroom without two people there! They threatened to put a bed alarm and chair alarm on me so I couldn’t get up without setting off the damned thing!! I told them I wasn’t a senile old lady that didn’t know where she was and that I would wait for an escort of they ever answered the damned call button. Told them that when I had to use the facilities, I HAD TO USE THE FACILITIES NOW … not 20-40 minutes later. My nurse [this a.m.] balled me out for getting out of my chair last night and going to the bathroom. My night nurse squealed on me!! So, today, they sent in the big guns … the Director of Nursing and someone else came to speak to me and made it clear that if I didn’t stay put, they WOULD put an alarm on me!! Siiiiiigggghhhhhh!
I transferred to Mount Carmel Health & Rehabilitation Center in Greenfield, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee. It seemed to be a nice place. I got a private room with enough room for me to spread out with my jewelry-making craft stuff. One day seemed like another. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, meals, pills, etc. However, just two weeks into my stay, my foot/feet started stinking!! Yes! STINKING!! Later found out that was the smell of rotting flesh. UGH! I had to beg them to change my dressings more than they were doing it. Finally, on July 28, I had an appointment at the hospital for a bone scan. After finding out that the test started at 8:30 with a 3-hour wait for the final part, I stopped in to see the facilities of the new Wound Clinic/Hyperbaric Center in the basement of the hospital. Just by chance, I checked with them if they had any earlier appointments than that Friday and they said they could see me at 2:30 that afternoon! What luck!!
When the wounds were undressed and cleaned off, the nurse practitioner came in and took one look and said that I had to go in the hospital. But I refused. I was afraid. The DR came in later and threatened me with amputation. He said that, as far as he was concerned, my feet were cosmetic and could just as easily be sacrificed to save my life. Even after they assured me (with the home on the speaker) that my private room would be held for me, I didn’t want to go in but I knew I must.