Hospital Visit

I had a little visit to the hospital last night.

Nothing serious, just annoying.

I have a chronic condition, not life-threatening and not related to cancer, that flares up every now and then. The specialist I see suggested I take a particular medication, one that has some potential serious side effects. So the first time I take it, he said I should go to the emergency room at the hospital, so if those side effects start up, they can take care of me immediately. If there are no side effects, then I can just take the medication on my own from here out.

So yesterday at 3:00pm I started to feel symptoms of my condition. First time I'd felt them in months. As the doctor instructed, I waited two hours to see if they'd go away on their own. They didn't. I texted the doctor and told him what was happening, and that I was going to the emergency room, following our plan.

Unfortunately, the doctor was on a plane, flying home from vacation, so he never got the text. That was OK, since the plan was already spelled out in my electronic records. So the folks at the hospital just had to read the record, and we'd be fine to carry out the plan.

I won't go into too much detail, but I'll give you a little bit.

When I got to the hospital, I tried to explain what was happening, but the nurses there heard the name of my condition and pretty much stopped listening. They ran some tests and took my vital signs and called a specialist. Then they took me too a spot in the emergency room and a doctor came in after a while and listened to what I had to say. I explained the plan to him.

He understood. He was a Resident, in advanced training, so he had to discuss everything with his supervisor so they could work out a plan together.

Let me be clear about this -- my condition isn't life-threatening. I was uncomfortable but OK. I didn't need immediate medical attention. Which was good, because I didn't get any immediately.

The Resident eventually came in and said he wanted to consult with another specialist to make sure the plan was OK. The specialist eventually came and we talked about the plan again. Once he was OK with the plan, he called the hospital pharmacy to order the medication. That was eventually delivered at 9:40pm. All this time, the nurse was coming in to check on me and try to keep me positive. 

OK, the end of this story -- the medication didn't work after an hour so I needed a second dose. It took another hour for it to come up from the pharmacy. That didn't work so they let me leave. The medication finally started working about the time I got home at 1:15am.

It was a long afternoon and evening, but I'm fine. Just tired. (Because my puppy still likes to get up at 5:30 every morning, no matter what I've been doing the night before.)

I'm not looking for sympathy by telling you all of this. Quite the opposite.

I realized that's it's been a while since I've needed to be in the hospital. I go to a hospital for lots of my various doctors' appointments. But it's been a while since I've needed to stay there while they figure out what to do for me.

For those of you who need to go to a hospital often, you have my deep sympathy.

Everyone was very nice, but it seemed like the six people that I needed to work with just weren't communicating with each other. Or they had to wait around until someone else did something before they could do it. It was awful. I'm glad I don't need to do that a lot, and I feel for those of you who do. 

I also recognize I was in an emergency room, so the various doctors, nurses, techs, and pharmacists that I was dealing with were also dealing with other patients, probably people with worse problems than I had. Like I said, my condition makes me uncomfortable, but it doesn't threaten my life. 

So in addition to feeling tired today, I'm also feeling fortunate. 

I hope you're all doing well, and your days are easy.

More Follicular Lymphoma stuff next time.