Mountain Clams

I think I've eaten more hospital food than gramma

Being the youngest of seven kids, my grandmother was already old when I was really young, and I remember her going into and out of the hospital a lot. Sounds kindof familiar to me right now, though for very different reasons.

Erika got out of the hospital last Tuesday with instructions to follow up with her doctors (all four of them) in the week after that. We followed up with her primary care physician last Thursday, and I ended up getting a flu shot (so I don't get sick and give it to her).

This week, she had three appointments scheduled on Thursday with three different specialists. One specialist, the hematology/oncology one (no, Erika does not have cancer), wanted to give her an IV infusion of medicine over the span of about two hours. After having been in the hospital for a week and been poked so many times her veins all retreated to her lower back (nobody seems to look there for veins), she was really against the idea of another needle stick. After a couple hours of wrangling, tourniquetting, crying, and general freaking out, they called a truce by pricking her finger and taking just enough blood for a CBC, along with a promise to return the next day with some sedatives and lots of hydration.

On the way home from that appointment set, we stopped at Bonfils so I could give blood. She got a look at the size of needle they use on me (I have pretty fat veins) and was glad it wasn't trying to be stuck into her, shall we say "petite" veins.

Today, I took her back to the hem/onc place to get the IV line and get her infusion. They stuck the first IV in her foot, since her hands were all chewed up from other nurses with needles and good intentions. That went okay, especially after taking a sedative. She didn't even notice when the nurses poked her arm for a blood sample (since her IV wouldn't draw back).

They started her on the medicine, with Benadryl first to counter some of the normally-expected reaction, then the stuff she was there to get. It made her itch like crazy! She also had to pee (remember the "lots of hydration" thing above). Then her foot started to turn red, following the path of the vein in both directions. Okay, turn it off, start over. In came another nurse with a needle and good intentions. She got the IV started in her hand. The difference? Sedatives plus Benadryl make for a carefree Erika. No freaking out over the stick, and only minimal stiffening when the nurse went digging for the vein. Got the IV in, working and happy, got the meds in, and we were done.

A quick stop at the Eyeglass World to pick up the glasses that had been waiting for her, and we were home again. I had my bag packed and left the house for work. As I drove down Monaco, maybe a mile from the house, I got two phone calls telling me that Rick, my son, got hit by a car.

The place where he got hit was right about where I was heading anyway, so a slight course alteration brought me to the scene. There were lots of emergency vehicles, and for good reason. No, Rick was alright, but the friend of his that was walking with him got run over by the front tire of the minivan. They suspect it may have broken her pelvis. Rick was only a few feet away from that, as the van hit his left leg only, and only hard enough to bruise and scrape it.

We spent several hours waiting for the Denver Police to finish their investigation enough to let us leave. Rick wasn't in much pain, so it was not too bad. Then we spent several hours in the hospital waiting for the doctor to take a look at him. An x-ray later, and the confirmation that there was no broken bone, and we came back home. All told, it was probably around a five and a half hour long ordeal. Could've been much worse!

But lunch today was turkey at Presbyterian hospital, and dinner was fajitas at Swedish Medical Center. Yum.

Labels: kids, medical

posted by Brett @ 9:58 PM