Fiasco for three hundred ...Please Bob.

What was ..David stay in hospital?



I ended up having an over night stay in hospital Saturday night. It began with me believing that the people in the hospital, like Doctors and nurses would actually know what they doing. Saturday suddenly my blood pressure went whacko and sky rocketed to dangerously high levels and stayed up for a long time. I told Denise to take into hospital when my blood pressure was at 177/133 and holding. I got light headed, it was hard to breath, my hands swelled up,and I needed to sit down. I am thinking blood clot or stroke or may be even heart attack. All the instructions on what to do in case you need urgent care I have received either in paperwork or verbally from my oncology nurse. On weekends call the advice nurse. Well we both tried. Denise phoned on her cell phone from the house and we were on hold all the way to the hospital. We were in line at emergency when the advice nurse finally came online. Her advice was to go to emergency. we informed them up front that I was an oncology patient and was receiving chemo. They immediately isolated me. We waited two hours to get moved into a room . We arrived at 11:00 am and it is now 1:00pm. I had to undress and get into the hospital gown and get on the gurney. They are like airline seats to me only they are flat. I am way to big and my feet hang over and my ass goes numb and I am very uncomfortable.

Diagnosis started with the insertion of an IV needle . Apparently no one is qualified to access my port so I had to endure getting stuck seven or eight times in the course of the stay. Well it took a couple of long attempts and they finally got one established in my left hand. I hate IV needles because I am a very hard stick. Now going on 2:00pm a blood sample is drawn. We had to wait a couple more hours to get back the labs on the blood work. It was decided that everything was ok but very low except my hemoglobin. It had dropped from 16 to 10 in just two weeks. Doc was concerned that I was having a blood loss.Doc however ordered both a chest x-ray and then a c/t scan to rule out blood clots in the lung. The x-ray was uneventful but the c/t scan almost broke my right shoulder. I have had several c/t scans and told the tech that I could not put my right arm up due to a replaced shoulder joint. I had to have it down to my side. He was told three times. After he got me positioned on the part that you lay on he had me put both arms up. He asked if I could do this? I replied, yes but only if this is as far as it will go. I can not rotate my shoulder further back. Ok he said and went to his control booth and pushed the "IN" button and In we started to go rotating my arm back. I screamed at the top of my lungs to stop. I kicked the machine ,I yelled NO ,NO, NO, STOP ,STOP ,STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!! The blithering idiot came running out of his booth asking Whats the matter? Boy did I have a few choice words for him!!! After all this it is now 9:00pm . Both scans showed clear. Doc now decided to do a manual rectal exam and he didn't even buy me a drink! He said I had gross bleeding and that he was going to admit me over night and turn me over to a gastroiterologist and that I needed a blood transfusion. Another blood draw was done prior to admittance.
I finally arrived at room 331 ,a private room no less ,at around 11;30pm. Poor Denise was with me for all of this She however got to slip out around 5:00pm or so for a bite to eat. I however have not had any thing to eat or drink since 9:00 that morning. Needless to say, I was getting hungry and grouchy. Food was about the only thing on my mind now. Just feed me,please! You know it's bad when all I can think about is food and not sex.!! Damn, have things changed!!!
I was put on a no food or drink order until I get an all clear from the gut DR. which wasn't going to a happen until later that morning. Now at near 2:00 am the nurse came in with the blood and hooked me up and actually started the transfusion before checking the computer.She, in a panic had to stop the transfusion because my hemoglobin count had gone up on its own and was now high enough not to need the transfusion. They were going to give me two pints blood. The first pint is now ruined and has do be wasted. The second can be returned and kept.
After all this and talking to the gut DR. and the house DR. that there was nothing really wrong except that all of my problems are side affects of the chemo. That high blood pressure spikes and bleeding from the rectum are normal. It makes me think if the cancer doesn't kill me the treatment will.
I took round 7 today. My blood count was very low and it fell a lot from round 6. I will probably need a transfusion or maybe take a week off before round eight can commence. The chemo is taking it's toll. My oncologist will take me off the Oxailplatin for round 9-16, then back on for round 16-24. Wow, how many rounds can I do!!!!