Post holiday let down

December 29, 2009

I hope you all had a merry Christmas. We did.

We actually let the boys open their presents at midnight. They had all guessed exactly what their gifts were, so, I figured why not… and said go for it. At least we got to sleep in Christmas morning. And we got a drama free day! Those are few and far between around here.

I think Stud must have been mad or something in his sleep because I woke up with a swollen eye. No clue what happened there, but its swollen. He hasn’t seen it yet, because he’s still asleep. I know when he does wake up, he’s going to be laughing his head off at me.

My face does weird things sometimes. I will go to bed perfectly normal, then wake up with various different parts of my face all puffy and swollen for no apparant reason. Strange, but true. Its happened to me all my life. I must beat myself up or something.

YOu know I’m really reaching for blog material when I talk about beating myself up while asleep.

Merry Christmas

December 25, 2009

Its here! Finally!

Merry Christmas to all my online friends and family. May you have a wonderously joyful, hopeful and peaceful day, from now on.

Out with the old

December 22, 2009

This is kind of a sad Christmas for me. Has me all melancholy and junk and life is just all swirly right now.

But back to Christmas. Sad for several reasons, all which my kids point out on a daily basis.

This is the first Christmas we haven’t made a trip to see Santa.

This is the first Christmas I have no children that believe in Santa, thus the aforementioned no trip to see him. I want to go sit on his lap myself and tell him I want my kids to all be toddlers again so the excitement and joy of waking up to a room of toys is there. So that in June I can say “It’s almost Christmas, you better behave or Santa won’t come” .

This is also the first year we had no requests for Star Wars, Legos, or Nerf on our lists. none. Ever since Oldest was a toddler and he saw that very first Star Wars movie, there has been at least 1 light saber under our tree on Christmas morn. If it comes with Star wars on it, we’ve had it. Trust me. Those are only one set of two that we actually go to the theater to see in person as a family. The other set of movies is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Grant it, there is one Star Wars thing under our tree this year, but it wasn’t requested, I just chose it. And no nerf guns, how on earth did we outgrow nerf guns? I thought 80 yr olds still wanted nerf guns.

This is the first year we won’t be celebrating with Stud’s family on Christmas eve… they cancelled it.

This is hopefully our last Christmas in this house. That makes me both sad and happy. As long as we take the piece of trim work that has the kids measurements through the years on it, I’m good.

I’m not sure how to parent such “grown up” children. The presents are under the tree now this year instead of waiting patiently in whatever hiding place of choice for the year is. The boys don’t really know what to do with them under the tree, as it has always been a tradition to NOT put any under the tree at all before Christmas. The suspense is killing them. I love it.

muchos mush

December 20, 2009

This is going to be one of those mixed up going no where fast posts…. ready….

We are currently sitting under at least 12 inches of snow, just got our power back at 3am, and am loving every watt of electricity I use.

This was before the majority of the snow hit. if you look wwwwwaaaaayyyy there in the distance are two of my boys… youngest and #3 I think.

Now tell me that isn’t gorgeous.

I’m still fighting whatever it is that I’m fighting, I have no idea at this point what it is, but I am having waves of nausea, pain, then will be ok other than a dull ache for a few hours then it will all hit again. I have to work tonight, and am dreading it with a passion.

The veritgo, I didn’t post, but the doc gave me the exact same exercise to do that Jammie suggested lol. She found it interesting when I told her I enjoyed having my head off the edge of the bed. I didn’t tell her what I was doing when I had my head off the bed. Use your imagination please.

I finally broke down and ordered the very first Christmas present. Yeah, 5 kids, no shopping, I’m really on the ball. I wouldn’t have that one done, but its something that HAD to be ordered because you can’t buy it in stores. Leave it to my kid to request something like that. AND the ONE of my kids that ordered a very specific video game, well you ain’t getting it unless you get a job and save your money cause its not sold in the US only in a foreign country and costs well upwards of 100 bucks to order. I don’t pay that for games.

RIP Brittany Murphy. I think there will be more to the story once it comes out. Personally, I think an eating disorder will have played a part. I loved her back in the day on a rarely watched sitcom with Perry somebody as her dad…. I will have to go google it to see what it was. She was bright, funny and healthy then.

Pioneering it

December 20, 2009

Ya never know how much you rely on something until its gone. We just spent 36 hours with no power. Us, 5 kids, 7 dogs, and 2 cats. Not a good combination.

We all survived. All in one piece. Including me, while at this point, I still havn’t passed that stinking kidney stone. Yeah, I still have it. It likes me. Wish I felt the same about “stonie”. Although, I’m not hurting as often, the pain is still just as bad. This coming from what the doc chick called “a non-hurting kidney stone”

Sheesh.

The kids discovered that Hang-man is actually pretty fun. Youngest found out that being the youngest does in fact stink. And oldest discovered he really doesn’t like family time. As soon as the road was clear enough for him to hit it, he shot off to a buddy’s house who has power.

Yeah, that’s the way we love around here

Snowed in

December 18, 2009

If I can ever find the cord for my camera, I’ll show you the 10 plus inches we have of snow.

In the mean time…. one of my finer moments

Want more? I’ll give ya more.

December 18, 2009

If this is what nationalized health care is going to be like, I want nothing to do with it.

Seriously.

I have to go to the county health clinic for medical care because I is po’. No health insurance, means no doctor for me.

I went to the doc today, didn’t get to see my reg doc, but saw a different one, and let me tell you, it was just as bad, if not worse than the trip to the ER.

In a nutshell, I broke down bawling, Stud had to leave–or get arrested for being so beligerant, and I still dont know what the heck is going on.

Oh, did you know that kidney stones don’t hurt?

According to the “doc” I had today they don’t. They only hurt when they move, and that is one long pain, that lasts for hours…. not days.

Oh, and did you know that kidney stones don’t move a little, stop and then move again…. nope. They don’t. At least that’s according to the “doc” I had today.

She did however schedule me for a uterine biopsy, because evidently, that ultrasound I had that said I had a UTI…. well, it showed some issues with my uterus that needs a biopsy, and the hospital didn’t think it was up to them to tell me.

I have no idea what the biopsy is for, or what they think it is, just that I need one done. Because something looked funny. Her words. It looks funny. And the hospital didn’t tell me about it because according to the “doc”… it is unrelated to the reason I was there for the ER visit.

And for real serious here…. all that above was in fact things I was told today, but please read it dripping in a sarcastic voice… now switch to regular, normal voice……

I’m on a med for my arthritis, that if I hadn’t went off accidentally and stopped taking it…. would have kept me from forming the kidney stone, and the crystals that are in my ears causing the vertigo…..

Maybe I did learn something today.

Just not what I needed to learn.

slurpage

December 17, 2009

Slurpage is a word we made up at work when we were banned from saying sucks. yeah like slurpage is any better.

But that is exactly how it is right now, I’ve got some major slurpage going on. I fell like kaka, and am in the most pain today, that I’ve been in the past 2 days. Seems as if that stone finally got out of my middle kidney and has moved its way along. I had an appointment with a urologist today, but cancelled it. They wanted $500 cash for the visit. $150 up front before letting me in the door, and the rest was a minimum depending on what they did to me. Yeah. Slurpage.

I’m supposed to go to my reg doc tomorrow, but if you pay attention tot he news, and know anything about where we live, we are due for a major snow storm over this weekend. So who knows if we will be able to get out of our little hollar in the am for me to go.

Thank the lord that Stud has extra pain pills.

Step one

December 16, 2009

I filed an official complaint with the hospital today, at their suggest there are 3 departments involved in this complaint. Now to get my brain clear enough to write it out for the medical board.

Details… long story.

December 16, 2009

Thanks for all the prayers and comments, they are much appreciated and much needed. Keep them coming please.

Sooooo before I sink into yet another drug induced stupor and have no idea what I’m saying or in this case typing…..I’ll tell you what happened today.

I woke up this am writhing in pain. Yep writhing. After watching my misery for about an hour Stud insisted I go to the ER. Remember we have no health insurance. Ok. That’s important.

We get to the ER right around noon, no biggie, we wait, I get a room, and the doc eventually comes in. Now, just to describe, I had been crampy and achy since this past Friday,and had called my doc every day since then trying to get an appointment. My appointment is for this coming friday. Yep, un huh, that helps tons.

Back to the symptoms… achy pain since friday in the pelvic, right ovary area… but this morning…. oh this morning, it was new, severe, harsh pain that honestly rivaled labor pains. Coming from a chick who has birthed 5 younguns, that’s bad. The pain was in my lower back and right side radiating down to my knees. Serious pain. There was no getting comfy, or even any position that would relieve it in any way. I was in tears.

ER doc comes in and pokes around gently, he taps my left side, I jump, because THAT hurt my right side…huh? He decides its ovarian related, seeing as how I have a history of ovarian issues. Off to ultrasound I go for a vaginal ultrasound. I made quick friends with the tech, as we discussed all the things that can go wrong in the female body vs the things that go wrong in the male… our list is a lot bigger.

Now, the doc had already gotten me a good shot of dilaudid… that’s good stuff, the stuff that Stud fell in love with when he had kidney stones. I was still in pain. Even with the pain meds, the ultrasound about killed me. as soon as I got back from ultrasound I asked for more meds. It had only been 1 hour since the first shot. Yeah, I was in pain.

Now, the Doctor Dolittle (as he will be known from now on) comes in and says, well, the ultrasound was fine, but you have a UTI, I’m giving you antibiotics, and pain meds, and you are going home. NOW… I had already discussed with the tech the fact that the ultrasound was normal, and that the pain that I was in meant there was SOMETHING going on, the tech said she guarenteed I would be back for a kidney ultrasound.

I mention to DR do-little that maybe its a kidney stone, or kidney related… his response…”oh yeah it could be, but we would do the same thing for that as we are doing for the UTI, so go home, and if you aren’t better in a couple of days, come back and we will do a kidney scan.”

huh?

I asked why he couldn’t go ahead and scan the kidneys while I was there…. he again said well if this doens’t work, then just come back. I requested the kidney ultrasound. Told the doc I wanted it today instead of having to come back. His response:
“well, you’ll have to wait awhile then”

Now tell me, I’m laying in a hospital bed for a reason, I’m in extreme pain, and he is wanting to send me home because he finds a UTI, which I’ve had dozens of, and NEVER hurt like this before, so I request the kidney scan, and his response is you’ll have to wait. LIKE I CARE AT THIS POINT IF I HAVE TO WAIT. Gees. Just do the scan ok.

Within an hour I’m back at US getting a kidney scan. The first tech sees me in the hall, grins and says told ya, I tell her nope I had to request it….

2nd tech comes in to do the scan, she does it, I say “did you find a stone” she says “OH yeah, its a BIG one, 1 cm, or rather after I convert it, 9 mm”

9mm is not a passable size stone. We know this from Stud’s foray into kidney stones. Tech lady asks me not to mention to the doc that she told me, as tech’s aren’t supposed to tell you what they find. I’m glad she told me.

Next thing I know, I’m back at ER, a nurse comes in and says “ok, we are releasing you, the kidney scan was FINE”

WHAT?

I say sooooo no kidney stone? He says oh, yeah you have a stone.. but its small, only 5 mm. I ask to speak to the doctor and the nurse leaves.

Nurse number 2 comes in and says Ok, you are going home, you just have a UTI, we got ya meds and stuff, that’ll take care of it……….. all this while removing my IV.

AGAIN WHAT??????? I just have a UTI?

yes he says, I said NO, I was told 2 times I have a kidney stone…. He hadn’t seen anything about a stone. I ask for the nurse I had when I first came in.. a girl… who knew what she was doing. Oh, and the doc, nurse 2 tells me, has left.

SOOOOO girly nurse comes in and she says “yes you have a 5 mm kidney stone, follow up with this urology place” I ask for more info on the kidney stone, she tells me the discharge dept will go over all that when I leave, that they will have a print out for me, and will go over all instructions and things at discharge, in the nurse’s words “that’s their job”

At this point, Stud and I are both thinking the bum rush out the door we are getting is because I have no insurance. Because instead of talking to me about the fact that I have a kidney stone, and my options for this stone… they are pushing me out the door. Literally.

This brings us to the discharge desk. Oh. My.

DD woman hands me my papers and reads my diagnosis as UTI and prior ovarian issues, and tells me to sign it, and starts showing me the instructions on UTI.

I ask about the kidney stone… her reply “you dont’ have a kidney stone”

WHAT?

Nope she says the doc doesn’t mention a stone anywhere, so you don’t have one. By this time, my drug induced haze is receeding, and an angry is taking its place.

I told them I’m not signing those papers until I get the correct diagnosis on them. I raised my voice in a calm, not yelling manor, Stud slightly raised his, I was so proud of his control. And then I put on my work voice, my voice that I use when I have unruly customers that don’t want to listen to what I’m saying, and want to talk over me, and I let her know what exactly I need from her, and also let her know it is nothing related to her, because she is just reading what the doc wrote, but I need some clarification. She pulls up my record and says yep, you DO have a kidney stone. And once again tries to get me to sign the papers. Once again I let her know I want the correct diagnosis on my discharge papers. She tells me she can’t put it on there, because the doc didn’t write it.

SO, I sign it, but I add a note myself that the doctor did not put the kidney stone on my sheet. Then ask her to please go get them fixed.

A few minutes later, she comes back and says “so and so added the kidney stone to the diagnosis” I look at it she gives me one paragraph of info and tells me I’m done. Oh, and my doc, LEFT 3 hours before. so the discharge papers she was going off of were discharge papers the doc wrote before he left. Papers that were completed BEFORE my kidney scan was ordered.

So now, I will be filing an official complaint at the hospital and the county board of health. And quite possibly an attorney to see what we can do about this doctor.

What doctor writes discharge papers before the testing is completed?

What hospital doesn’t have a doctor talk to someone when they request it?

What hospital tries to discharge someone knowing the papers have the incorrect/incomplete diagnosis on them?

Like Stud said, it just keeps getting worse.