Hospital Day #1

Courtney got into the ER in like 10 minutes today. That is much better than the 3 hour average we had been working with.

The ER time went pretty smoothly until the shift change. The second nurse was also the charge nurse, and she just plain sucked. The ER doc(actually, he was a PA-physician's assistant) only prescribed 1mg of Dilaudid, and it was only helping Courtney for about 30-45 mins. I kept going out and telling the nurse Re was still in pain. Not once did the nurse come in and check how she was doing without me going out and getting her.

After the ordeal was over, the nurse told us that she was charge nurse that shift, and that we got shorted because of that. If she can't handle being charge nurse and dealing with her own patients, she needs to be taken off the charge nurse rotation. That dumb woman spent the entire night in front of her computer, even after I went out three times for the same thing.

We met Dr. Edwards around 10 or 11, I think. I had a real favorable impression of him right from the beginning. The first thing he said, after only reading Courtney's chart, was that she could have another shot of Dilaudid. He overheard me telling the nurse that she didn't get any relief from the last shot, and jumped right in. We talked to him for about 20 minutes, and he told us what plan of action he recommended, and that he was fairly certain she had a bad gall bladder. Not stones bad, but non-functional bad. He ordered more pain meds, and was gone.

Around 2 am, a tech came and got Courtney for the CT scan that was originally scheduled for 11:10. We couldn't get into a room until after the CT scan. After the scan, which was done around 2:20, the nurse said someone would be down to take Courtney up to her room. Of course, it took 2 hours before we actually got into the room, because the nurse was too busy dicking around with the computer to be bothered with something as trivial as patient care.

We finally got into a room about 4 am Tuesday morning. There was a problem with Courtney's bed(of course), so we didn't get to sleep until 5 am. The doctor was here in the room at 8 to speak with Courtney. After 24 hours of no sleep, I was ready for some real sleep, but that wasn't to be. Courtney was just as tired, and in pain, so I totally feel bad for her.

The HIDA(sp?) scan was scheduled for 10:30.

5 am was the first time that they got her enough pain meds to work. She got 3 mg of Dilaudid. We need to remember that for the next time(although hopefully there won't be a next time). They have been giving her the Dilaudid every 2 hours, and she has been needing it.