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Post by Clipper on Jan 7, 2024 14:30:06 GMT -5
Kathy went back to the hospital again last night about 10. I came home about 3:30 and went back up at 10am. She is still in the ER waiting for a bed to open up. She has pneumonia again and was spiking a 103 fever. They got it down to 99 and her oxygen levels back up where they belong with her on 3 liters of oxygen. I suppose we are looking at another several days of diuretics and IV antibiotics along with steroids to clear her lungs again. Keep us in your prayers.
I haven't been on here much because I have been taking care of her. She has the boot on her fractured ankle and a bad knee so she needs help just getting up and down, and to the bathroom. I am doing the housework, cooking, and laundry.
I hope all is well and everyone is safe and warm with the storm blowing through the Northeast. Be careful if you have to go out and drive anywhere.
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Jan 7, 2024 15:20:14 GMT -5
Sorry to hear this Clipper you \are doing a great job of caring for Kathy.. I am also sick this something. Upper respiratory congestion, headache, fever was 101 but got is down to 99. ,running nose, tiredness and a horrible cough. This is day 8 with this. I have to call my Pulmonologist on Monday morning hoping for the over the phone meeting. Did a COVID test and am negative. IRSV. Yes I did get the vaccine but who knows. My prayers for Kathy's healing and for you for strength. Be blessed.
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Post by BHU on Jan 7, 2024 23:12:12 GMT -5
Kathy went back to the hospital again last night about 10. I came home about 3:30 and went back up at 10am. She is still in the ER waiting for a bed to open up. She has pneumonia again and was spiking a 103 fever. They got it down to 99 and her oxygen levels back up where they belong with her on 3 liters of oxygen. I suppose we are looking at another several days of diuretics and IV antibiotics along with steroids to clear her lungs again. Keep us in your prayers. I haven't been on here much because I have been taking care of her. She has the boot on her fractured ankle and a bad knee so she needs help just getting up and down, and to the bathroom. I am doing the housework, cooking, and laundry. I hope all is well and everyone is safe and warm with the storm blowing through the Northeast. Be careful if you have to go out and drive anywhere. Sorry to hear that Clipper. Prayers are with Kathy & you. |
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Post by BHU on Jan 7, 2024 23:15:08 GMT -5
Sorry to hear this Clipper you \are doing a great job of caring for Kathy.. I am also sick this something. Upper respiratory congestion, headache, fever was 101 but got is down to 99. ,running nose, tiredness and a horrible cough. This is day 8 with this. I have to call my Pulmonologist on Monday morning hoping for the over the phone meeting. Did a COVID test and am negative. IRSV. Yes I did get the vaccine but who knows. My prayers for Kathy's healing and for you for strength. Be blessed. PB, I would not rely on those home Covid tests with your symptoms. I know someone who tested negative on a home test but tested positive in the ER. The virus is out there & I'm seeing a lot more people lately who are masking up. Take care. |
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Post by chris on Jan 8, 2024 4:00:44 GMT -5
Sorry to hear this Clipper you \are doing a great job of caring for Kathy.. I am also sick this something. Upper respiratory congestion, headache, fever was 101 but got is down to 99. ,running nose, tiredness and a horrible cough. This is day 8 with this. I have to call my Pulmonologist on Monday morning hoping for the over the phone meeting. Did a COVID test and am negative. IRSV. Yes I did get the vaccine but who knows. My prayers for Kathy's healing and for you for strength. Be blessed. Same here with similar symtoms. Got sick day after Christmas and refuses to let go. My BIL is now sick also same. Something is going around for sure. This time I didnt dodge the bullet. |
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Post by Clipper on Jan 8, 2024 8:32:33 GMT -5
Our hospital system is a sad and dangerous joke, but it is our only alternative now that the two local healthcare corporations have merged and formed a monopoly.
Kathy was in the ER for over 20 hours before she was taken to a regular room and admitted. She woke up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe and they found that the cpap machine that they put her on was malfunctioning and turning on and off. She awoke literally suffocating. It took a code team of 4 over a half hour to get her breathing back to normal.
They no longer have enough physical therapists to walk a patient up and down the hall. A patient lays in the bed until they are well enough to be discharged, and by then they need to be sent to a rehab facility because they have become so weak from being immobile that they can't walk. It becomes a vicious cycle. It is a sad and dangerous state of affairs.
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Post by Ralph on Jan 8, 2024 15:54:28 GMT -5
Sorry to hear this Clipper. I wish you guys could catch a break with this crap. It's a sad state of affairs when you can't run a decent healthcare system.
Our prayers are with y'all.
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Post by BHU on Jan 8, 2024 16:49:25 GMT -5
Our hospital system is a sad and dangerous joke, but it is our only alternative now that the two local healthcare corporations have merged and formed a monopoly. Kathy was in the ER for over 20 hours before she was taken to a regular room and admitted. She woke up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe and they found that the cpap machine that they put her on was malfunctioning and turning on and off. She awoke literally suffocating. It took a code team of 4 over a half hour to get her breathing back to normal. They no longer have enough physical therapists to walk a patient up and down the hall. A patient lays in the bed until they are well enough to be discharged, and by then they need to be sent to a rehab facility because they have become so weak from being immobile that they can't walk. It becomes a vicious cycle. It is a sad and dangerous state of affairs. That's a damn shame that she had to spend 20 hrs waiting in the ER for a room. A dangerous state of affairs is right. A few days ago there was a story on the tube (WKTV I think) about patients having to wait for hours & hours in the Wynn ER because the place was mobbed with patients lined up & down the hallway. And of course the big shots at Wynn went on a PR campaign. Well, what the hell did they think would happen now that there's only one ER in Utica? When there were two ER's, the places were mobbed on the best of days. Unbelievable. |
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Post by kit on Jan 9, 2024 10:52:51 GMT -5
I feel that closing and consolidating 3 major medical facilities into one alleged 'supercenter' hospital and building it downtown and opening it up without adequate parking and with several internal problems is without a doubt the biggest blunder that Utica has made in recent history.
I read the local obituaries every day and I see more people who have recently died in the Wynn Hospital than previously in the separate facilities. This observation is not a good testament for this new hospital. So I'm not surprised that more and more people have elected to go to the Rome Hospital, Oneida Health Hospital, Upstate in Syracuse, and Bassett in Cooperstown for their care even though they're further away. At least they're fairly certain of returning to their home safely again rather than going feet-first to a funeral facility. Also, several nurses (who are really the backbone of a hospital) are dissatisfied with Wynn so far. Many have either left or are planning to if something isn't done quickly to solve the existing problems. I just hope that this is done before you or I get drastically sick.
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Post by Atticus Pizzaballa on Jan 9, 2024 16:32:22 GMT -5
I think it would be a wise move to reopen the ER at Faxton. If a patient needs be hospitalized it would be a short trip to Wynn and a win win situation for ambulance companies.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Jan 10, 2024 15:58:41 GMT -5
Same number of ER doctors, so what we are seeing is all of the people from 2 waiting rooms put into one larger waiting room. The placement was strictly a political decision.
The biggest complaint I have heard from my daughter-in-law is when she has to travel between the parking lot and the hospital at night. She works for an agency and normally takes local assignments when she can get them. Better pay and no holidays unless she wants to work. (Generally a big bonus to get an RN willing to work on a holiday.)
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Post by clarencebunsen on Jan 10, 2024 16:01:17 GMT -5
She has really good things to say about the working environment in the new hospital. No leaking roofs and no bats. (Yes St. E's had bats in the attic.)
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Post by Clipper on Jan 11, 2024 11:12:08 GMT -5
She has really good things to say about the working environment in the new hospital. No leaking roofs and no bats. (Yes St. E's had bats in the attic.) That doesn't surprise me. That building is old. I was born there in 1947 and my mom went to nursing school there in the earlier 40s and quit to take a defense job at National Emblem in NH when WWII broke out. I guess they made uniform buttons and collar insignia for the military. |
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Post by Clipper on Jan 11, 2024 11:49:23 GMT -5
Kathy came home yesterday afternoon and is doing surprisingly well. At least she wasn't in the hospital so long that her legs got weak this time. They found that some of the time when she was struggling to breathe it was actually an anxiety or panic attack brought on by her getting a little short of breath. If she stops, breathes in through her nose and out through her mouth for a short time her oxygen level gets back up where it belongs and she breathes normally. They sent her home with a prescription for Xanax and she slept like a log last night. She came home with oral antibiotics for her respiratory issues. They said her lungs were clear.
We are set up like a rehab here now. We have the walker, the bedside commode chair, safety rails on the toilet, large oxygen concentrator, portable oxygen concentrator, the size E cylinder with the regulator and cart, shower bench, Cpap with supplemental oxygen hooked to it, and a transport style wheelchair to use if we go out shopping or to a restaurant.
Hopefully her ankle will heal well and she will be back to being able to ambulate without the big boot and walker.
She is getting her priorities in order. First item of business is a trip to the hair dresser tomorrow for a perm, and then out to dinner with our friends at Longhorn Steak House.
It is a true relief to me to find her able to do so much more and for her to be so strong and feeling well. I was seriously exhausted running on 4 or 5 hours of sleep per night and running full speed ahead all day every day. We both went to bed at 10 last night and I slept until 7:30. She slept until 9 o'clock.
Visiting home health nurse coming this afternoon to evaluate her and set up her treatment program. She is also going to go over the medications with me and what to take when. They have changed her meds so many times that I need help to organize a schedule of what to take in the morning and what to take at night so I can set up her pill organizer.
She will be having physical therapy as well as respiratory therapy at home for now, and the orthopedic surgeon that is treating her ankle will re-evaluate her when she follows up with him on February 1st. (My birthday).
It is going to take forever to get caught back up on appointments. She has appointments with her primary care doc, the pulmonologist, the orthopedic doc, and the hair dresser. I have appointments for eye exam, dental cleaning, primary care doc, the cardiologist shock my heart back into rhythm on the 26th, and the podiatrist on Feb 3rd.
It seems that there are very few days that we are not on the road to one appointment or another.
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Post by Clipper on Jan 11, 2024 12:01:05 GMT -5
Same number of ER doctors, so what we are seeing is all of the people from 2 waiting rooms put into one larger waiting room. The placement was strictly a political decision. The biggest complaint I have heard from my daughter-in-law is when she has to travel between the parking lot and the hospital at night. She works for an agency and normally takes local assignments when she can get them. Better pay and no holidays unless she wants to work. (Generally a big bonus to get an RN willing to work on a holiday.) I keep hearing about the distance to the parking. Where exactly IS that lot located? That is not a neighborhood where a person would want to be walking at night, especially for a young woman. If they are going to depend on remote parking lots for the time being they need to provide shuttle vans that run every 15 minutes or so, around the clock, 7 days a week. Our VA hospital campus has outlying parking lots and there are shuttle vans running all day until after visiting hours, 7 days a week. You never have to wait for more than 5 or 10 minutes. During the night when the shuttle isn't running security will take you to your car. |
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