We're home

Jay was finally discharged from the hospital tonight around 9:30. What an ordeal! We had to wait all afternoon to be discharged, and at about 5:30 we started getting pretty annoyed. The neurosurgeon said that on his end, we were good to go home. That was at about 11:30 this morning. So the nurse called the attending, who said she would be by in a few hours. Fine. Ok. We'll wait a few hours. Well, 3 p.m. came around, and still no sign of her. Then, the next thing we know, a neurologist shows up for a consult, at the request of the attending doctor. Um... we have a neurosurgeon who came in and did an evaluation this morning, and said we were good to go home. I'm sure the look on our faces was priceless when she told us she was from neurology. And when I mentioned that we had already been ok'd by our neurosurgeon - who did Jay's four previous back surgeries - her response was, "Well, I guess this visit will be quick then." And, sadly, my only thought was, "And quite expensive, I'm sure."

So, she gives Jay the ok (I think she was more afraid of what we would have done had she not given Jay the ok), says she's going to write the orders for the attenidng so we can leave. The nurse comes in, takes Jay's IV out, and says she's going to call the attending with the list of medications we wanted to go home with. She calls, and comes back in to tell us that the attending won't release us until we see the pain management doctor, and he won't be up for another two hours. And then we have to wait to see the attending (who, if you remember, was going to be by in the early afternoon), and she had no time frame for when she would be up.

By this point in the day, it's 6:30, and this is where we both went a little ballistic. "You're telling us that we have to wait to see a guy who spent 15 seconds with us last night, never introcuced himself, let alone discussed treatment options, and then changed the meds without telling us, and now we have to wait two hours to see him. Are they out of their f#^&@!* mind?!?!?!?! They wouldn't wait two hours for us! Heck, they wouldn't even wait 30 minutes, I'm sure. Can the attending not make a decision on pain medicine, of which she consulted with the pain management doctor on, to discharge us?" That's pretty much how the conversation with the nurse went. And I feel sorry for her, because she was just the messanger, but by this point in time we were back to the ridiculousness that began his whole ordeal. We were told we could leave, but we wouldn't have any meds, so it was a catch 22 situation. Very frustating. Obviously, both the pain management doc and the attending got to us so we could be released, but again, it was after 9 p.m.

The whole experience was a blessing in disguise, now that I look back on it. And a nasty rollercoaster ride, too. Had they released us after the first MRI on Saturday, and then Jay had the spasms, etc., at home, what would we have done? But who knows if that even would have happened. He was so congested from laying in bed for two days straight, which made him cough and have the spasms in the first place, but would he have been that congested had he not been laying in bed? It's all a "what if?" game, and I could sit here and play it all night, but I won't. It'll only drive me crazy. I'm just glad that he is home and not in as much pain and resting comfortably. The neurosurgeon said no surgery for the herniated discs, that 85 percent of the time they heal on their own, but Jay is a unique situation, and he could be wrong, and for us to check back with him in a few weeks. Jay just needs to take it easy, which (like me) is easier said than done. Especially with everything else going on in our lives at the moment.

Thank you all for your concern and well wishes. I really appreciate it!

It's time for some action

That's my motto for today. We need some action with Jay and his treatment so that we can get out of this joint.

I'm happy to report that Jay finally got some stronger pain meds and muscle relaxers (after asking for these for over 24 hours) from his attending doc, as well as a steroid (shock! something I suggested a few days ago), and is able to sit up and walk to the bathroom. This is very good news, as the spasms had pretty much crippled him to the point he couldn't move at all. He literally laid in one position in the bed for probably 18 hours straight. So when he said he wanted to try to get up yesterday, I was relieved.

His attending doc (not the neuro doc) has assigned a pain management doctor to Jay. I'm not overly excited about this, as we'd like to fix the problem to get rid of the pain, not "manage" the pain. He came in last night right after Jay sat up for the first time in a day, didn't even introduce himself other than letting us know he is the pain management doctor, asked Jay what his pain level was (a question he HATES), said he would come back to discuss treatment options with us, and then disappeared. And the next round of meds were prescribed by him, to which Jay and I had a lot of questions (because it was different than what the attending prescribed, and Jay had only had one dose of thossee meds so we didn't have a chance to find out if they really worked or not) that the poor nurse couldn't really answer. The drugs pretty much knocked Jay unconcious, to which he said he doesn't want anything that strong again. So, that doc has already pissed me off. Have the respect and courtesy to talk to us before you go pumping drugs in Jay's system. Which I guess is the difference between us and a lot of other patients. I've noticed that a lot of people just lay there and take whatever is prescribed without asking questions. That seems crazy to me. Jay wants to feel better, but he also doesn't want to be drugged up on so many meds that he barely knows who he is and is afraid to move because he doesn't know if he's hurting or not. He wants to be treated to fix the problem. If it's just a herniated disc or two, then what are our options? PT? A shot? Chiro? Laying in a bed for four days certainly can't be a viable option.

We're now waiting on the results from the second MRI that Jay had done yesterday. Hopefully this will give us some answeres. If not, it's time for some action!

So that's why I say we need some action. And I'm going to ask the docs what their plan is and how soon we can get started. If we're just going to pump drugs in his system, I can do that at home, where a) Jay can be more comfortable, and b) it won't cost so much. God only knows how much this hospital visit is costing us. We may have to take out that second mortgage after all...

hospital update

Ok, so my post yesterday was a little harsh, ok a lot harsh, and I apologize. It's just that this entire process has been so incredibly frustrating. And such bad timing on so many levels for so many reasons.

Here's the latest. We are still at the hospital. Jay coughed yesterday evening and felt something pop again in his back, which set off his back into massive spasms every time he tried to move. So bad at one point that he passed out. That's when I kind of had a feeling we weren't going home. For those of you that know Jay, you know that he has a very high tolerance for pain, so I'm sure this pain was excrutiating if it caused him to pass out.

After much pleading and prodding from us and the nurse, his neuro doc finally came to the hospital at 11:15 last night (I think we paged him four times). He was none too pleased, but I won't go into that. I'm afraid I won't say anything nice, and my mom always taught me that if I can't say anything nice about someone, I shouldn't say anything at all. So I'll keep my mouth shut about that part of the evening. Anyway, I digress. The neuro doc said the MRI revealed two herniated - not ruptured - disks, but given the events of the day with his cough and subsequent pop, he ordered another MRI. Jay is having that done as I type this. This one is on the entire spine. He was able to sleep (mostly drug-induced) for about eight hours last night (off and on with them coming in to give meds and take vitals), which means I was able to get a little shut eye as well.

Hopefully today's MRI will tell us something new. If not, I'm not real sure where we go from here. Any suggestions are appreciated. I just know that I'm tired of being at the hospital (I know, I know... no one really likes hospitals anyway). Never in my wildest dreams did I think that going to the ER for an MRI would evolve into this big, huge, expensive ordeal. But I do know that he is in an incredible amount of pain, and we have to find an answer, so I'll be by his side the whole way. He would do the same for me.

Still at the hospital

It's after 8 p.m. on Saturday, and we are still at the hospital. Yes, this has reached the highest point of ridiculousness. I have lost my patience, and so has Jay.

The nurse this morning told us that it may be today or tomorrow for the MRI. That was not acceptable as that is the sole reason we're in this joint to begin with. For a stinking MRI. So I called down to MRI myself, and surprise! they were up within 30 minutes to get Jay to take him down. When we got back up, I asked the nurse what we needed to do to get discharged. That was at 12:30 p.m. Again, it's now after 8 p.m., and we're still here.

Apparently, nobody wants to "be responsible for discharging Jay if something is seriously wrong." Um, hello?!?! We've been telling you something is seriously wrong. We KNOW something is seriously wrong. That's why we're here. For you to send the MRI report and films to our doctor, who is aware that something is seriously wrong, so he can handle it. Not for you to sit here and continue to give him pain pills every 4 hours in an uncomfortable bed while charging us out the ass, when he could be resting semi-comfortably at home.

This is absolutely ridiculous! This is why I despise hospitals (no offense to those of you who work at them), but I've never had a good experience at one. This isn't our first rodeo with his back problem. It's not even our second rodeo. It's the fifth. And it's no different than any of the other four, except that it all happened over a holiday when the doctor was out and no imaging plaes were open, so we had to come to the ER for imaging, which in turn put us in this position. Yes, I'm pissed. This is the most ridiculous experience I've ever been through.