My husband Jim was doing poorly after his left hip replacement surgery Nov. 13th. Not at first. He did great in physical therapy, walked all over the ward with his walker twice, and ordered a cheeseburger the second night. By Nov. 15th, Friday morning, however, he was weak, sick, nauseated, light-headed, and had the dry heaves at the hospital pharmacy on the way out and all the way home from the hospital.
He was wild to get home because he couldn't sleep after the first night in the hospital because his roommate's buzzer went off nonstop all day and all night. Yet once he was home, he continued to feel badly and wondered if he'd been released too soon.
At 3:19 a.m. Sunday, 11/17, he woke me up and wanted to go to the Emergency Room. I'd told him to wake me up between 3:00-5:00 a.m. if he was awake because that was ER's "quiet time," per Dr. Elkin, and Jim had refused to go to ER the day before.
Saturday night was "crazy busy" Dr. Elkin admitted after Jim refused to go. At 4:00 a.m. when we finally did show up at the ER, the young men who helped me bring in his crutches and wanted to help me with my newspapers were waiting on a friend who'd gotten into a bar fight. There was a full moon as well as balmy temperatures and odd weather for November. I'm sure that all those factors contributed to a crazy night in the ER.
Or are all Saturday nights crazy in ER when school is in session?
Having reported a fluid build-up in Jim's right chest cavity, the doctors feared a pulmonary embolism, which can be fatal. I was relieved to hear after several tests that his problem was just a partially collapsed lung at the bottom around the edges. Also, there was no internal bleeding, another worry because of some symptoms he was having.
The UIHC ER team was cracker-jack good, starting with paramedic Sam Scherkenbach, then resident physician Luke Lowry, R.N. Holly, and EKG tech Tabitha (B.?). We were grateful for their excellent care and glad to get home in time for one of our favorite news shows, "This Week," on ABC.
Jim fell asleep in his lift/easy chair during the show. He fell asleep with the leg rest up and the chair back down a bit. I covered him up with a summer quilt our daughter was wondering what to do with when she was here on her days off.
I got the one pain pill down him that he's still willing to take, Tramadol. He won't take the Percoset, which he's sure makes him sick. He seems to need to sleep desperately most of the time. He fell asleep during football and basketball yesterday and during "This Week" today. Believe me, that just doesn't happen ordinarily.
Here's hoping the worst is behind us!