Hospitalization #3
Back in and not enjoying it one bit. IV antibiotics again. This time, a bunch of other doctors were brought in for consultations. The one that scared me the most was the surgeon. It really hit me then that I could lose a limb or portion thereof. I hated it!! It took about 11 days before I finally went into surgery. After signing a revised Consent to surgery and/or amputation, I was wheeled off to meet my fate. When I woke, I found that the DR had done just a deep debridement with NO amputation!! YEAH!!!
Every time I got up to use the commode, I bled a big puddle of blood. It was then that we all agreed to catheterization to preserve my supply of blood!! lol At this time, I started treatment in a hyperbaric room. Not a “tank” as others that had come before it, but a things that LOOKED like a room. Two hours in that smallish room. Seems to me, though, that it took too long on my backside. Succeeded in pinching a nerve in my butt and I still have a numb spot in my upper right-side thigh. Altogether, 30 treatments.
Another week or so lead me back to Select Specialty Hospital at St. Luke’s; on the same floor that I was on but just on another wing.
During this time, some little “birdies” decided that I had been absent too long and that they had to do something about it. Would you believe that I had been contemplating buying a laptop or notebook or whatever to use in the hospital? I discussed this with Robyn and, before the day was up, she called me and told me not to bother getting one. Several members of the site had agreed to get together and generate a request for donations to raise the money. Before I knew it, I was breathlessly waiting for a new computer to come to me in the hospital. WOW! It was purple!!! Back into communications but not full-load yet. Still tired and hurting too much to dedicate myself to too much of anything.
About two weeks into hospitalization at Select, I had a surgical skin graft using skin from my left thigh. To avoid bleeding from the left foot, PT had me standing on one foot and swiveling on a disc on the floor. Putting enough pressure on my arthritic right knee caused it to flare up again. That’s all I needed … another source of pain!!
Time is coming close to transfer back to Mount Carmel. When it was specifically, more of you would know from the posts of Robyn, etc.!! I came back and settled in to the routine of PT, OT, meals, pills, etc.!! Only this time, I wasn’t allowed to get up by myself and use the facility because of doing it only on one foot. Hurts my knee.
Then the picture goes downhill from there. The aides started acting freaky. Leaving me waiting for an answer to my call for sometimes up to an hour, leaving me on the commode for 30-60 minutes, sassing me with comments about me complaining, stealing stuff that I can’t prove. Their attitude got worse the more I reported them to administration. Would be days when they had me in tears. The food was also awful. Sometimes we sat in the dining room for a whole 45 minutes even before the soup and salad cart would appear. Then we’d have to wait and wait for our ordered entree. When it finally came, it was stone cold most of the time. One night, everyone else had their entrees and were ordering their desserts. I and another tablemate had to eat our dessert before they even brought out our entrees. Just as they were bringing it out, I suggested to Celeste that we walk out … and we DID! Back on the unit, one of the aides bitched me out about it. “You had no right to walk out like that. They were bringing your meals out.” Darn right I had a right. I said, “I’m making a statement here. Just get off my back.” Another aide then bitched me out (later they all denied it!) and I had enough. I reported them all to management. After all this treatment, a friend of mine on the outside said that it just wasn’t right. SHE called the State to report them. I told management that she said that and they wanted to talk to her the next day. Good! They found out first hand!! I had to get out of there!!!
My birthday came and went with no celebration or recognition. I’m lonely, upset and tired of being mistreated. The week after that, they called me into the office and told me that my Medicare was ending as of 12/5. I had to either put down $6,000, seek alternative funding, or go on Title XIX. NO WAY to any of them. I said I wanted to go home. Nobody but nobody wanted me to go home. Not even my supposed best friend. But where else was I to go? No money (even for groceries) to do anything else. So I started packing and, despite their efforts to get me to apply for Title XIX, moving day approached. Saturday, Dec. 5 … I’m FREE!!! Scared, broke and free!