Back Again!!!

[Guest guest]

Hello Folks,

I just got out of the hospital yesterday after a 7 day stay--

rather short for me. But once again, I ended up being cared for by

the hospitalists rather than my regular doc. It didn't seem to matter

that I needed the ambulance to get to the hospital because it hit so

fast. They made me stay in the triage area for almost 2 hours, even

throwing up in the blanket. I felt so sorry for the other patients in

the waiting area having to listen to me heave, gag, and choke. I

finally got back in a room in the ER by about 3:30 and they did the

usual IV's, dilaudid, and phenergan. Since my enzymes weren't

elevated, they wanted to do a CT (normal results as usual). It took

them until 11pm to decide I needed to stay and by that time my doc

was out of the office. By the second day, my enzymes were going up,

still vomiting--despite the Zofran. My temp started going up and

pretty soon they were doing bloodcultures and IV antibiotics. The

nausea was so bad I couldn't even talk or move about in bed.

Something they did differently this time that they have never done

before was start Decadron for the inflammation and then my blood

sugars started rising. Of course all this happened one day before my

alarm on my epidural pump started going off. So the focus quickly

became getting better before the pump ran out so I could get to the

pain clinic to get it refilled. The biggest glitch was that Medicare

would not pay for an ambulance ride to the clinic to get it refilled

and then return to the hospital. I would have had to be discharged

and then get sicker again to meet hospitalization criteria again---

stupid, huh? So they gave me a PICC line again and sent me home on

Morphine PCA plus the epidural pump and decadron. There were about 4

different people coming into my hospital room and telling me how

things were supposedly going to happen. But nobody seemed to really

know. It was the most chaos I have ever seen and it really wore me

out big time. Have others also had decadron or prednisone during an

attack? I had never had that before, and really don't know if its

doing what its supposed to or not..ARRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

I did get the epidural pump refilled and got to my PCP today and

finally figured out my med schedule and how to do the blood sugar

tests---no thanks to the hospital or nurses. The home health nurse is

supposed to come in the AM and get me going in that. It is really a

good feeling to know that at least one person is aware of what's

happening, and where to go from here...very slowly. I am so thankful

for my PCP who is doing all he can to get me through each new

surprise that seems to come with each episode.

It seems that everyone always asks what started this...and we

all know that answer is elusive..and we just do the best we can to

live with chronic pancreatitis...and sometimes we blow it and make

bad choices. But do you ever get the feeling that people see our bad

choices as worse than other people's without a chronic illness? Why

is it that the expectations for us are different from others? As you

can see, each new episode brings new questions, and seemingly no new

answers. But either way...God is in Control...and His Love NEVER

Changes!!!

Be Blessed All,

Diane H

TN State Rep