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syncope at 09:37pm on 26/04/2012
syncope at 09:37pm on 26/04/2012Hiiiiiiiiiiiiii. To inaugurate me being back online, how about a story about my family?
My aunt and one of my cousins were in Hawaii for ten days. They lived there for years when my uncle was in the Marines. They decided to go back to check out their old house, see how things have changed, that whole shebang.
My aunt's flight got in at 10 this morning. 12 hour flight, and it was a bad one. Neither my aunt or my cousin slept the entire time. SO jetlag, exhaustion, the usual.
At 11 this morning, my aunt called me and said "could you come down there and do a neuro check on me? I fell down the stairs." So I wash my face, brush my teeth, and got dressed (did not shower). I get down to the house and she has a goose egg on the back of her head the size of a baseball. She's disoriented to the point where when I ask her "what happened?" she replied "where am I?"
Ok, I load her in the car immediately and drove to the ED. My cousin's husband what watched her fall didn't even offer to go with us. Situation normal, most of my family are dicks.
We get to the ED and she has to have a CT (of course), but I notice that the Person In Charge is a TRAINEE PA. No doc, no real PA, nothing. I get agitated.
While I know she's fine and I did a neuro on her myself, so I know she just has a concussion and no serious issues, WTF? A 69 yr old woman comes into the ED with a head trauma, disoriented, who also has fibro AND lupus and you don't even have her evaluated by someone who passed boards? No.
Shit goes down the hill from there.
My cousin who went with my aunt to Hawaii calls from Florida and says he's surrendering himself to the cops because when he went to get his dog from the boarding place he caused an accident and left the scene. There were injuries. He's a really stand up guy (the only other responsible person in my generation in my family). He feels like shit, and is calling his mom to let her know he might have to be bonded out.
He has no idea she's in the hospital. She tells him, and he goes berserk.
Que my aunt telling me I can't tell anyone about this situation because he's embarrassed and freaking out. OK! GREAT! Luckily her kids are all dicks and I'm the only one in the ED (for 12 hours) with her (my mom was there for some of it, but she's on call, so it was extra dicey).
They decide to keep her overnight and tell her if she leaves she has to sign a AMA (which means the insurance won't pay). Que hysterics.
My mom shows up just in time to rationalize the hospital stay by arguing that my aunt needs a drug holiday to consolidate her meds (she has five docs). You know those ads where they say "inform you doctor of all the meds you're taking" and you think "why wouldn't they know?" Yeah, they don't know. The American health care system is fucking broken.
Soooooooooooo I'm going to spend all day tomorrow at the hospital as my aunt gets tons of tests and take her home when she's discharged.
This was my first ED visit with a loved one since I graduated nursing school, I was unimpressed.
My aunt and one of my cousins were in Hawaii for ten days. They lived there for years when my uncle was in the Marines. They decided to go back to check out their old house, see how things have changed, that whole shebang.
My aunt's flight got in at 10 this morning. 12 hour flight, and it was a bad one. Neither my aunt or my cousin slept the entire time. SO jetlag, exhaustion, the usual.
At 11 this morning, my aunt called me and said "could you come down there and do a neuro check on me? I fell down the stairs." So I wash my face, brush my teeth, and got dressed (did not shower). I get down to the house and she has a goose egg on the back of her head the size of a baseball. She's disoriented to the point where when I ask her "what happened?" she replied "where am I?"
Ok, I load her in the car immediately and drove to the ED. My cousin's husband what watched her fall didn't even offer to go with us. Situation normal, most of my family are dicks.
We get to the ED and she has to have a CT (of course), but I notice that the Person In Charge is a TRAINEE PA. No doc, no real PA, nothing. I get agitated.
While I know she's fine and I did a neuro on her myself, so I know she just has a concussion and no serious issues, WTF? A 69 yr old woman comes into the ED with a head trauma, disoriented, who also has fibro AND lupus and you don't even have her evaluated by someone who passed boards? No.
Shit goes down the hill from there.
My cousin who went with my aunt to Hawaii calls from Florida and says he's surrendering himself to the cops because when he went to get his dog from the boarding place he caused an accident and left the scene. There were injuries. He's a really stand up guy (the only other responsible person in my generation in my family). He feels like shit, and is calling his mom to let her know he might have to be bonded out.
He has no idea she's in the hospital. She tells him, and he goes berserk.
Que my aunt telling me I can't tell anyone about this situation because he's embarrassed and freaking out. OK! GREAT! Luckily her kids are all dicks and I'm the only one in the ED (for 12 hours) with her (my mom was there for some of it, but she's on call, so it was extra dicey).
They decide to keep her overnight and tell her if she leaves she has to sign a AMA (which means the insurance won't pay). Que hysterics.
My mom shows up just in time to rationalize the hospital stay by arguing that my aunt needs a drug holiday to consolidate her meds (she has five docs). You know those ads where they say "inform you doctor of all the meds you're taking" and you think "why wouldn't they know?" Yeah, they don't know. The American health care system is fucking broken.
Soooooooooooo I'm going to spend all day tomorrow at the hospital as my aunt gets tons of tests and take her home when she's discharged.
This was my first ED visit with a loved one since I graduated nursing school, I was unimpressed.
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