Friday, November 26, 2010
An Incident On the Road
Three days ago, Peter's grandmother and I were in a store looking at goods made by the members of the many craft classes here in Sun City West, when Grandpa Joe came rushing into the store to get us: Peter had fainted, lost consciousness, sitting in the car with the pup on his lap, and he did not look or feel so well. This terrified Joe into running into the store to get us: we needed to get Peter to the Emergency Room quick.
At first, I thought this was a ploy of Peter's to get us out of the store faster, and i was imagining how I was going to get back at him for scaring us so....but, turns out that he really had fainted, looked pale as a sheet of clean paper, and was indeed needing some medical attention. So off we rushed to the nearest hospital, a large , clean modern thing that looked entirely capable of taking care of not only the thousands of elderly residents of this community, but my darling husband as well.
We were greeted at the door by one of their many marvelous volunteers who promptly informed us that this was the Main Entrance, not the Emergency one as we had hoped, and after getting Peter out of the car and into a wheel chair, he told us we'd do better to put Peter back in the car and drive around to the other side of the hospital. Looking at frail Joe and terrified Buscia, i told the guy, forget about it, i would push Peter myself, and let the folks drive around and meet us. Turns out, there was a strong volunteer at the Main desk who took the chair from me, pushed for me (her name was Hope, if you can believe it), and we were across the Hospital and in the Emergency Room Entrance Area quickly, since the hospital was not as large as it seemed. Hope knew where to go and who to ask to help get us there fast.
When I rushed right up to the desk, told the nurses that Peter was experiencing numbness and pain in his arms, that he had fainted, etc. they were all over him right away, taking vital signs, filling in his initial paperwork ( I got Peter's wallet with al essential info from his pocket) and truly fast, we were with another capable aide who took Peter to get an EKG first thing...these people were extremely helpful, fast, and terrific! I barely had time to be scared...though I was scared...and i had switched into my "okay!-there's - a problem - so-let's-handle-it-and-get-the-solutions-as fast-and-efficiently-as-humanly-possible-mode, and did not let my fear show, even to myself. Actually, I was totally and almost debilitatingly terrified. Visions of my Daddy having a heart attack at age 51 and Momma being the only person with him on their vacation at Sea Island, Georgia came to mind, I was ready for the absolute worst...already composing the very worst scenarios in my head...but I plowed on, asking the right questions, writing it all down, getting nurses and aides names,etc.I was my most efficient and calmest self.....on the surface.
(I noticed, as I played the role of calm ,self-sufficient and thorough wife, next to my ailing husband, that i had a fascination - and always had - with hospitals: how they worked, what the various machines were for, how things were analyzed and recorded, who the people were working on the patient,etc. Utter fascination and interest. This made it easier not to be scared, as well.)
After the EKG, the thin, efficient, Asian American aide rolled Peter down to Red Zone C-3 to wait for the doc to read his film and take more tests.
(Though it sounded sort of dire, Red Zone had no meaning other than the fact that it was not the Purple Zone, or the Green Zone: in this Emergency ward, they divided areas into colors, for clarity and safety....so the folks wouldn't go into the wrong patient's waiting roomette...that's all.)
So there were were in Red Zone C-3, and they put Peter on a bed, took his thoroughly sweated-through shirt and undershirt off, put a flimsy robe thing on him, and hooked him up to many things so they could monitor his heart, respiration, oxygen absorption rate ,blood pressure,etc. His pressure was very very low, and he seemed to show signs of dehydration, so they soon hooked him up to his first (of two) full bags of saline solution, and he began intravenous drip to get his electrolytes up and his pressure up too....Peter continued to be whiter than the sheet he was lying on...this did not comfort me, but the people helping him did seem to know what they were up to, so I kept watching and asking questions. They took a thorough medical history from Peter, who was groggy but conscious and aware. We explained that we had been on the road driving cross country for 6 solid days, and this seemed to send them in yet another direction for tests, so blood was taken,etc a chest x-ray ordered, and a CT scan as well: turns out they wanted to check for possible blood clots, since sitting that consistently for such a long period of time was ripe territory for possible roaming clots...they wanted to check for everything, since at this hospital ( I was informed) fainting was taken seriously.
Doctor Chad Lewis soon came in and was very good with Peter , who had by then regained some color and strength, looking over the initial in-take notes, and told us we'd be there at least two hours waiting for results of tests, and for the taking of a CT scan, so i went out to the waiting room and told Joe to take Buscia and the pups home and that I would call them when we were ready for the next steps whatever they might be. They drove back to their house, and I went back to Red Zone C3.
All was calm, and Peter rested easily, until Josh came in to wheel him into the CT room for his scan...i went then to get a diet soda from the Nourishment Room they have in Emergency for both staff and waiting spouses and family, and by the time I got back, Peter was back in C3, looking none the worse for wear, and we sat some more and I held his hand, while he kept apologizing for causing so much trouble. I was just glad he was conscious and looking pinker and better by the minute! My fear had subsided a bit, as I knew he was in good hands and being monitored and cared for by good medical staff.
We both stayed there, listening to the family drama in the cubicle next door, where an elderly man, clearly no stranger to this hospital, was waiting for the results of his tests, while his son, wife and others hovered solicitously around him. Peter and I were very quiet. This other family was very talkative, with all that inane reassuring talk families produce when they know an elder is deathly ill, and on his last legs...odd, how stupidly light-hearted we attempt to be in such circumstances.
ANYWAY: long story short: we were indeed out of there as Dr. Chad predicted, in two hours or so, and Peter's tests showed nothing truly dire...no heart complications, no clotting anywhere in the chest region, nothing cardiac infiltrating anywhere ti should not be...it did show some small "infiltration" in one corner of one lung, meaning Peter may have contracted a touch of pneumonia somewhere along the line, and he was indeed dehydrated, though that was improving with each drip of the saline solution, as was his blood pressure. By then it had come back up to totally normal. But there was this possible pneumonia thing, so a short course of antibiotics was prescribed, and Peter took his first pill right there. By then he was back to his normal gorgeous pink self again, though exhausted from the entire thing. Naturally.
So, he was unhooked, (oh, i forgot to tell you about the new words i learned : "orthostatic vitals"...which meant that an aide came in and tested Peter's vital signs in varying positions, like standing, lying down, sitting,etc...his pressure, oxygen absorption rate, heart rate,etc...orthostatic vital signs...love learning new words, even at the expense of my darling husband's state of health...but I can afford to joke about it now...life is so fragile.)
We easily checked out of the hospital, and Joe and Buscia were right there to pick us up, of course. I went to the grocery store and stocked up on all flavors of Gatorade, since it was suggested that Peter drink a lot of it...lots of water too...to continue to tend to his dehydration. He drank two bottles of it on the way home!
We postponed our departure from Arizona , and moved the San Francisco move-in date to MOnday, from the originally slated Saturday...cost a bit of money, but that is nothing compared to the need to make sure Peter's pneumonia is handled well, and to see that he gets the right amount of rest...he slept most of Wednesday..i mean a deep, sweaty sleep...and by yesterday, was feeling more his old self.
We are dividing the drive to SF into two days now, so as to be easier on him, and hope to get to SF by late afternoon on Saturday, leaving us Sunday to rest and prepare for the onslaught of newness that comes our way on Monday!
There are other tales to tell of "No Parking" signage conversations with the SFPD ,who are all very helpful and cordial, and have been throughout, despite my "please put them up on this date...no now THIS date...oops, sorry...now this date again...now..back to that other date" rigor I've been putting them through.. of arranging this and that, in an effort to get our move date changed...but these stories can wait. For now, it is all about Peter, and getting him well enough to enjoy what's ahead...and i think he's on his way to being able to do that.....good gracious! Life! Right? It was not fun seeing Peter all pale and faint like that...but even through it all , he was so gorgeous and still trying to take care of me...honestly, what did I do to deserve such a dear man?
More soon...of course....of course....more soon.
Whew!
At first, I thought this was a ploy of Peter's to get us out of the store faster, and i was imagining how I was going to get back at him for scaring us so....but, turns out that he really had fainted, looked pale as a sheet of clean paper, and was indeed needing some medical attention. So off we rushed to the nearest hospital, a large , clean modern thing that looked entirely capable of taking care of not only the thousands of elderly residents of this community, but my darling husband as well.
We were greeted at the door by one of their many marvelous volunteers who promptly informed us that this was the Main Entrance, not the Emergency one as we had hoped, and after getting Peter out of the car and into a wheel chair, he told us we'd do better to put Peter back in the car and drive around to the other side of the hospital. Looking at frail Joe and terrified Buscia, i told the guy, forget about it, i would push Peter myself, and let the folks drive around and meet us. Turns out, there was a strong volunteer at the Main desk who took the chair from me, pushed for me (her name was Hope, if you can believe it), and we were across the Hospital and in the Emergency Room Entrance Area quickly, since the hospital was not as large as it seemed. Hope knew where to go and who to ask to help get us there fast.
When I rushed right up to the desk, told the nurses that Peter was experiencing numbness and pain in his arms, that he had fainted, etc. they were all over him right away, taking vital signs, filling in his initial paperwork ( I got Peter's wallet with al essential info from his pocket) and truly fast, we were with another capable aide who took Peter to get an EKG first thing...these people were extremely helpful, fast, and terrific! I barely had time to be scared...though I was scared...and i had switched into my "okay!-there's - a problem - so-let's-handle-it-and-get-the-solutions-as fast-and-efficiently-as-humanly-possible-mode, and did not let my fear show, even to myself. Actually, I was totally and almost debilitatingly terrified. Visions of my Daddy having a heart attack at age 51 and Momma being the only person with him on their vacation at Sea Island, Georgia came to mind, I was ready for the absolute worst...already composing the very worst scenarios in my head...but I plowed on, asking the right questions, writing it all down, getting nurses and aides names,etc.I was my most efficient and calmest self.....on the surface.
(I noticed, as I played the role of calm ,self-sufficient and thorough wife, next to my ailing husband, that i had a fascination - and always had - with hospitals: how they worked, what the various machines were for, how things were analyzed and recorded, who the people were working on the patient,etc. Utter fascination and interest. This made it easier not to be scared, as well.)
After the EKG, the thin, efficient, Asian American aide rolled Peter down to Red Zone C-3 to wait for the doc to read his film and take more tests.
(Though it sounded sort of dire, Red Zone had no meaning other than the fact that it was not the Purple Zone, or the Green Zone: in this Emergency ward, they divided areas into colors, for clarity and safety....so the folks wouldn't go into the wrong patient's waiting roomette...that's all.)
So there were were in Red Zone C-3, and they put Peter on a bed, took his thoroughly sweated-through shirt and undershirt off, put a flimsy robe thing on him, and hooked him up to many things so they could monitor his heart, respiration, oxygen absorption rate ,blood pressure,etc. His pressure was very very low, and he seemed to show signs of dehydration, so they soon hooked him up to his first (of two) full bags of saline solution, and he began intravenous drip to get his electrolytes up and his pressure up too....Peter continued to be whiter than the sheet he was lying on...this did not comfort me, but the people helping him did seem to know what they were up to, so I kept watching and asking questions. They took a thorough medical history from Peter, who was groggy but conscious and aware. We explained that we had been on the road driving cross country for 6 solid days, and this seemed to send them in yet another direction for tests, so blood was taken,etc a chest x-ray ordered, and a CT scan as well: turns out they wanted to check for possible blood clots, since sitting that consistently for such a long period of time was ripe territory for possible roaming clots...they wanted to check for everything, since at this hospital ( I was informed) fainting was taken seriously.
Doctor Chad Lewis soon came in and was very good with Peter , who had by then regained some color and strength, looking over the initial in-take notes, and told us we'd be there at least two hours waiting for results of tests, and for the taking of a CT scan, so i went out to the waiting room and told Joe to take Buscia and the pups home and that I would call them when we were ready for the next steps whatever they might be. They drove back to their house, and I went back to Red Zone C3.
All was calm, and Peter rested easily, until Josh came in to wheel him into the CT room for his scan...i went then to get a diet soda from the Nourishment Room they have in Emergency for both staff and waiting spouses and family, and by the time I got back, Peter was back in C3, looking none the worse for wear, and we sat some more and I held his hand, while he kept apologizing for causing so much trouble. I was just glad he was conscious and looking pinker and better by the minute! My fear had subsided a bit, as I knew he was in good hands and being monitored and cared for by good medical staff.
We both stayed there, listening to the family drama in the cubicle next door, where an elderly man, clearly no stranger to this hospital, was waiting for the results of his tests, while his son, wife and others hovered solicitously around him. Peter and I were very quiet. This other family was very talkative, with all that inane reassuring talk families produce when they know an elder is deathly ill, and on his last legs...odd, how stupidly light-hearted we attempt to be in such circumstances.
ANYWAY: long story short: we were indeed out of there as Dr. Chad predicted, in two hours or so, and Peter's tests showed nothing truly dire...no heart complications, no clotting anywhere in the chest region, nothing cardiac infiltrating anywhere ti should not be...it did show some small "infiltration" in one corner of one lung, meaning Peter may have contracted a touch of pneumonia somewhere along the line, and he was indeed dehydrated, though that was improving with each drip of the saline solution, as was his blood pressure. By then it had come back up to totally normal. But there was this possible pneumonia thing, so a short course of antibiotics was prescribed, and Peter took his first pill right there. By then he was back to his normal gorgeous pink self again, though exhausted from the entire thing. Naturally.
So, he was unhooked, (oh, i forgot to tell you about the new words i learned : "orthostatic vitals"...which meant that an aide came in and tested Peter's vital signs in varying positions, like standing, lying down, sitting,etc...his pressure, oxygen absorption rate, heart rate,etc...orthostatic vital signs...love learning new words, even at the expense of my darling husband's state of health...but I can afford to joke about it now...life is so fragile.)
We easily checked out of the hospital, and Joe and Buscia were right there to pick us up, of course. I went to the grocery store and stocked up on all flavors of Gatorade, since it was suggested that Peter drink a lot of it...lots of water too...to continue to tend to his dehydration. He drank two bottles of it on the way home!
We postponed our departure from Arizona , and moved the San Francisco move-in date to MOnday, from the originally slated Saturday...cost a bit of money, but that is nothing compared to the need to make sure Peter's pneumonia is handled well, and to see that he gets the right amount of rest...he slept most of Wednesday..i mean a deep, sweaty sleep...and by yesterday, was feeling more his old self.
We are dividing the drive to SF into two days now, so as to be easier on him, and hope to get to SF by late afternoon on Saturday, leaving us Sunday to rest and prepare for the onslaught of newness that comes our way on Monday!
There are other tales to tell of "No Parking" signage conversations with the SFPD ,who are all very helpful and cordial, and have been throughout, despite my "please put them up on this date...no now THIS date...oops, sorry...now this date again...now..back to that other date" rigor I've been putting them through.. of arranging this and that, in an effort to get our move date changed...but these stories can wait. For now, it is all about Peter, and getting him well enough to enjoy what's ahead...and i think he's on his way to being able to do that.....good gracious! Life! Right? It was not fun seeing Peter all pale and faint like that...but even through it all , he was so gorgeous and still trying to take care of me...honestly, what did I do to deserve such a dear man?
More soon...of course....of course....more soon.
Whew!
Labels: Cross-Country Journey
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Orthostatic vitals? You watch your phraseology, young lady! Glad everything is OK with Peter! All grist for the writing mill ... thanks for sharing.
# posted by 
: 9:47 AM
: 9:47 AM
Rick - thanks! We're here...finally, in our new City by the Bay home...well...not quite..staying at friends' until our truck arrives on Monday... but we are here, and we ain't goin' nowhere else for a while! Love hearing from you so consistently...
xxev
xxev
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