Autumn Leaves
Sr. Member
Posts: 360
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« Reply #15 on: July 08, 2007, 11:21:31 PM » |
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Lonnie, my husband had been ill for a long time. He was first hospitalized in April 2004 when he went into a diabetic coma. He was in ICU for a week (glucose count of 27). He developed cellulitis and was hospitalized October-November 2004. He was in ICU for 7 weeks, went into respiratory arrest and was placed on a ventilator and sedated for about 3 weeks. I was there when he went into respiratory arrest and yelled "code blue" to get the attention of the nurses. He had back surgery in June 2005. He was doing ok until September when his pain increased considerably. He was hospitalized in December 2005 with discitis (an so began a disagreement amongst the orthopedist and infectious disease doctor and primary doctor and a struggle to get services and home health care). He was in ICU for a week or so. He was hospitalized again in January and February and had surgery again in February to remove the loose screws from his back. He was in and out of hospitals/convalescent hospitals with sepsis, abscesses, osteomyletis, hyperthermia, dehydration, and a variety of other ailments including bleeding ulcers. It seemed like he was in the hospital a lot but I counted the days once and of the last year of his life, he was only hospitalized 35% of the time.
He was basically bedridden from end of November 2005 until his death October 29, 2006, about 11 months and was totally dependent on me for his care, food, insulin, toileting needs, transfering him to/from bed/wheelchair, etc. I worked part time at the local school from January onward except for summer vacation so I spent a lot of time either traveling to and from hospitals or rushing home to take care of him. His maind started going in August (morphine build-up I'd guess or results of dehydration with electrolyte imbalance or a combination) so August & early September were especially stressful for me. I went out to see a movie on my birthday (September 4) and came home to find him on the floor again (fifth time that year, I got him up twice, called the neighbor once, and called the paramedics twice). I got him up and in his wheelchair and took him out to the truck and got him in the truck and took him to the local emergency room. They admitted him and transferred him to the hospital in the next town. They kept him there six days and sent him to a convalescent hospital.
I was determined that I wasn't going to let them discharge him to home again because I could no longer take care of him at home. I was trying to figure ways of being able to afford to put him in a nursing home, mainly looking at getting a full time job or getting a legal separation so his lower income would qualify him for Medicaid. Luckily, he developed a GI bleed and the convalescent home transferred him to a hospital and the paramedics insisted they go to the nearest hospital which happened to be Loma Linda University Medical Center. Unfortunately, his overall condition had deteriorated too much. He has a retroperineal abscess, deep vein thrombosis, terminal pneumonia, bleeding ulcers (upper GI), congestive heart failure, 50% blockage in his arteries, complications of diabetes, extreme edema (100 pounds), skin ulcers, dehydration, a dislocated shoulder, severe and chronic anemia, extremely low blood platelets and high white blood cell count, and a few other things as well. They kept finding new things. He got at least six units of blood. He was there almost a month. He'd been on IV antibiotics for almost two months and had been off and on them for the previous ten months - I even had to administer the IV antibiotics at home for a couple weeks until he developed colitis.
It was a long and very stressful eleven months. I did not expect that he would ever be well enough to be discharged from the hospital. Now, eight months later, I find it difficult to remember those stressful times. I kept records so well that several nurses asked if I was a nurse because of my record keeping and medical terminology. It's funny how much I've forgotten. I have to look at my records to see what was going on when.
I do understand what you're going through and how much work's involved.
My card playing friends are new. They were friends of my sister-in-law and the couple are familiar with back problems and surgeries and pain killers, etc. and convalescent homes and medical stuff as her 90 year old mother died earlier this year and her brother is living at her father's house full time as his caregiver (the 92 year old dad is relatively healthy for his age but he tends to wander and he's not terribly steady and his memory isn't as good as it used to be and he falls sometimes so he needs someone around to take care of him.) I didn't start hanging around with them until a few months ago - March I guess so now I'm over there three or four times a week. They live a half mile from my house. They treat me like family.
We had some couple friends but they basically disappeared when we became recluses and most of my work friends disappeared when I went on medical leave and then retired and then became so involved with my husband's health and care.
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