A LONG JOURNEY BACK PART 8

Alan has been home now for three months. Feeling as good as a dialysis patient can. He has even been able to get back to what he loves and that is being a vendor at the gun shows.

A month ago he started coughing a lot which concerned me so we made an appointment with Dr Edwards, our primary doctor here. He did blood work and a chest X Ray and said his lungs were clear so he put him on cough medicine and said to follow up in two weeks.

A week went by and his cough was getting worse and he said he didn't feel good. He had dry heaves and was very short of breath and  his chest hurt so I took him back to the doctor. This time the doctor listened to his lungs and said there was a little rattle in there and treated him for bronchitis. Four days later I decided that we needed to see the doctor again so I called to try to get him in right away but they were booked so they told me to take him to immediate care or we could come in the next day. This was not going to work since he has dialysis "the next day" so after serious thinking I decided to take him to dialysis and then when he was finished I could take him across the street to Immediate Care. He was getting so short of breath and so weak from constant very harsh and wet coughing. He coughed all through the night and couldn't sleep and it was really taking a toll on his body.

I picked him up from the dialysis center at 6pm and went directly to Immediate Care across the street. We got right in and they took his blood pressure which was really high and his O2 was only 78. They told me to take him to the ER just next door right away.

Amazingly we didn't have to wait the usual 4 to 8 hours to be seen since his O2 was low and he was having chest pain. That is the key word "Chest Pain". they don't fool around when you have chest pain. He had 6 nurses at his bedside hooking him up with leads to do an EKG, starting IV's and then the X Ray department came in to do a chest X Ray. Suddenly his heart started to beat so rapidly it really scared me and they had the paddles ready to shock if necessary. They gave him an injection of medication to stable the heart but it didn't work so they gave him more. Finally his heart rate started to slow down and his blood pressure stabilized too. Now we wait to see the results of the X Ray and the blood work.

BUBBLES

For my challenge at Digital Whisper March 31st

Credits:
Foxy Squirrel kits and Photoshop brushes and filters

EGGS

This is for the challenge at Take A Word this week

BLACK AND WHITE SPOTS AND STRIPES

For the challenge at The Three Muses this week

This is my dog Sampson. We rescued him and his brother in 2005. We lost them both in 2017. They are greatly missed. They were such a part of our lives and so deep in our hearts

A LONG JOURNEY BACK PART 7

Bless Dr Hall, the ER doctor at Coquille Hospital. He felt that Alan was anemic due to a lack of something in his bone marrow. He said he felt it was being lost in his dialysis sessions because he was very anemic. He also thought he needed to be on a stronger antibiotic for the pneumonia.

After I had made my point to all the nurses and doctors about getting to the bottom of why Alan keeps getting the same infection and having to be transported over and over to Riverbend a miracle happened. The next morning a hospitalist by the name of  Dr.Michelle Yeomans was assigned to Alan case. She was a very empathetic and understanding women and she could tell just how upset I was and after spending time with us and  long conversation she promised us that she would stay on his case as long as it took to get to the bottom of what was going on with Alan and that she did! I swear she is an angel!

She got together with his neuphrologist and his oncologist and together they made a plan. It took nine days to figure it all out and in those nine days there were intense testing of blood work and cat scan and Xray .They did find something being depleted from is bone marrow in dialysis and now it is replaced once a week during dialysis. Remember that I was told we had to make an appointment with our pulmonologist because he wasn't assigned to Alan's team?  Well one day in walked his pulmonologist, Dr Mahadaven. I was so surprised but he took the bull by the horn and changed Alan's antibiotic and now he WAS a part of the team and I have our angel, Dr Yeomans to thank for that.

Like I said it took nine days but he finally started to feel better and his tests started showing that he was recovering. I made it clear to Dr Yeomans that I was not going to take Alan home until I was satisfied that he was ready. She assured me with the test results and showed me his Xray and indeed the pneumonia was gone and his fever was gone and his blood work looked good and his spirits were better. She felt he was ready to go home.

She prescribed a antibiotic to use twice daily in his nebulizer and an inhaler. I was shocked when I went to pick up the inhaler Rx. It was over $900.00 per month! Medicare doesn't cover that medication so I sent Dr Yeomans an email asking for her help. She actually called me from home on her day off! This is dedication. She changed the inhaler to a different brand that does the same thing and that is covered by medicare. Now what doctor these days calls a patient from home on her day off? Angel!

BUTTERFLY

For my challenge at Digital Whisper this week

Background and bubbles fromTangi Jublibation kits
Image from Gatsby
Photoshop brushes and filters

APRIL SHOWERS

For the challenge at Three Muses this week

I found this cute image online and embellished it with Photoshop brushes and filters

SPRING

For the challenge at Take A Word this week

I'm a bit short on time this month so I am posting a piece I did back in 2017

RAIN

For my challenge at Digital Whisper this week

Credits:
Background from Foxeysquirrel
Model from Sue Masterson
Photoshop brushes and filters

BIRDS

For the challenge at Take A Word this week

Credits:
Background by Foxeysquirrel
Birds by Gatsby
Word Art by Patti Koosed
Photoshop brushes and filters

BOW TIE

For the challenge at The Three Muses this week

LEPRECHAUN

For my challenge March 10th at Digital Whisper

Credits:
Tangi Jubiliation
The Internet and Photoshop

VINTAGE

For the challenge at Take A Word this week

A TREE IN YOUR ARTWORK

For the challenge at Three Muses this week

A LONG JOURNEY BACK PART 6

After 4 hours in he ER the ambulance didn't arrive to transport Alan until after 10 PM so I knew it would be late when he finally did get there. As I said before it is a 2 hour drive to Riverbend in Eugene so I waited up until I got a call and around 1:00am I got a call and the voice on the other end of the phone said "Is this Mrs Koosed?" I answered "yes it is" The voice said "this is Dr Dwart and I wanted to let you know you husband is here and I just examined him and I want to tell you that what I saw, was an 80 year old man (he is only 78) that has been treated for the same thing over and over again with numerous hospital visits and seems to be in a very confused state and I think you need to call his family and discuss HOSPICE"

I was shocked and offended and did not appreciate the way this so called Doctor presented to me especially not being able to be with him! In the first place he is confused due to his high fever, hydration and infection. Secondly if the doctors would figure out what keeps causing this infection he wouldn't have to be treated over and over again. I was so shocked I didn't know what to say so I didn't reply. I called his neuphrologist, Dr Sanghvi the next morning and he could tell how upset I was. He has cared for Alan for a few years and knows him well so when I told him what this Dr Dwart said to me he told me not to worry that she doesn't know him or how he is when he isn't sick with infection. He said he would look in on Alan that morning.

I arrived about 11am and Alan was still confused and in much pain from the kidney that had the tube.
I made sure that every hospitalist and nurse knew how upset I was that we were there AGAIN. I had enough! I was so frustrated with all of this that I reported Dr Dwart to the hospital administrator that afternoon and I was looking for an attorney. Someone had to stand up to all of this repeated neglect so I marched into the administrators office with a written complaint as to what exactly occurred the night she called me.I also stressed the fact that my husband had been admitted 12 times in 7 months and no one seems to be able to figure out why he keeps getting sick with the same thing. I told him I was researching some legal help.

Dr Sanghvi ordered all the usual blood work, blood cultures, Xray of his lungs and cat scan of the kidney area. The test showed another infection in that kidney and pneumonia. Alan was in a lot of pain and trying to get any rest in a hospital is ridiculous. They wake you every hour to do vitals and then the lab comes in to take blood and if there are any other tests they wake him to do those.

His oncologist, Dr Sharman also looked in on him. Alan has had Chronic Lucitic Leukemia CLL for about 8 years and was a part of a study that reduced his cancer 80% but his oncologist keeps an eye on him and he sees him about every three months. They are both excellent doctors and I trust them 100%. They could see how upset and concerned I was.

SHADES OF GREEN

For my challenge at Digital Whisper this week

This was created back in 2016 using EmentoMagic kit, Foxeysquirrel background and the model is from my collection.