Quote From Doctor: We're 'Done With You'

On Tuesday the doctor decided (with some ‘forcing’ from the patient care coordinator that accompanied her ) that she wouldn’t skip me during rounds.  When she came in I explained to her that my ‘good’ shoulder was actually worse than my ‘bad’ shoulder now and that the Toradol I am taking isn’t helping with the pain.  This has been an ongoing issue that has only been getting worse and she’s known this since June.

Mere minutes later, after telling me that her and the Physiatrist are and I quote ‘done with’ me I informed her that the Physiatrist still hadn’t done the Cortisone shots he said he would do months ago and asked when he was going to do them.  She said he wasn’t!  My jaw dropped to the floor and I asked what she meant.  With all the attitude of a kid throwing a temper tantrum (in her most recent favorite style of ‘communicating’ with her patients) she said that they (meaning her and the Physiatrist) had ‘discussed it’ and they decided they ‘would not be treating me’ because ‘my shoulder (note she was talking about one shoulder and not two) gets a little bit bad and then gets better again’ and because it goes in cycles I don’t need anything done to fix it!

I have been literally eating Toradol (the only thing besides Tylenol she will allow me to have no matter how much pain I am in) like candy.  It only dulls the pain slightly.  This is something else she has known since June.  Every time I take anything for pain the nurse who gives me the medication has to write down what they gave me, the time it was given, and why I took it (ie: shoulder pain, headache etc.)  This is all recorded in my medical chart (the same one that is on the cart she pushes down the hall with her as she does rounds).  All she has to do is take a quick look at my chart to see that I have been taking Toradol (and sometimes Tylenol) basically every six hours (it’s when I can have it) for quite some time now for shoulder pain.  Apparently she doesn’t look at charts, or chose to totally ignore the facts (this is a common theme here).

She decided to end the visit with her snapping at me that she’d ask the Physiatrist about it again, but he said he was ‘done with me’ before stomping off down the hall like a little kid again.

Too Many Kims

My OT came in a while ago to discuss the commode/shower chair I used on monday.  I’m not sure which one will be used tonight.  She is also going to come out to the bus to watch me get on and off it on friday.  The RT said he can do it at 1PM when the bus comes to take him and another patient out.  It was suppose to happen yesterday at 2:30PM, but they got back early and the bus had to go pick up someone else right away.

Ooops, a nurse just said ‘bye’ to me, but I didn’t say anything right away because I thought she was talking to one of the other nurses (there are a lot of Kim’s here)…

Also, I finally got the Toradol just before 3:50PM.

What Are The Chances?

I just asked about the Toradol again and was told it should be brought over in the next fifteen minutes (which would be at about 3:40PM so I guess the only thing to do right now is to continue waiting and hope it finally gets here sooner than later.  My bowel program is tonight and I can only take it every six hours which means I can’t take it until 9:40PM or later (so my bowel program will have to be later than usual anyway).  If it gets here after 4:15PM I can either take it for my shoulder that’s been bothering me all day, or wait until after 8:20PM to take it and put up with the shoulder pain for even longer.  This shouldn’t happen!

Chicken Wrap, Meet Chicken Wrap

I just took Duke outside to pee, but he was too busy people watching to do anything, so we went to the cafeteria where I bought a brownie (they are so good!), a fruit cup and a chicken wrap.  Lunch was a chicken wrap and they are soggy, rubbery lumps that contain wet gooey lettuce, cheese and chunks of chicken that is so dry you could easily choke on it!  So, I essentially replaced one chicken wrap with another.

I brought my food up to my room and took Duke outside for round number two.  This time after some coaxing he finally peed and I decided it was time to go back to bed because I’m not feeling the greatest.  As I mentioned in my last post I have no doubt I have another yeast infection, something is going on with my left hip and my right shoulder is still acting up from using a different commode chair on monday night.  I have to use the same one again tonight, so it’s probably not going to be too comfortable…  It probably wouldn’t feel so bad if there was any Toradol in the building!  When I asked for some they had to get it sent over from the pharmacy (just like when I asked yesterday).  This has happened so many times now, so you just have to clench your teeth and bare the pain until it gets delivered (which takes hours).