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filling in the details
Jan. 31st, 2008 03:44 amOK, yesterday's post was mainly just for those people in Austin who already had some idea of what was going on, and just needed an update as to why i hadn't returned some phone calls yet. But I see that I have alarmed the rest of you, so let me go back and explicate.
We got here last Wednesday evening OK - Southwest came in a few minutes earlier than scheduled, as usual, and one of the smoothet landings ever, despite the fog - the touchdown was less bumpy than driving down a normal street. Thursday morning all kinds of stuff was going on - we had a dozen people at the house doing different things. And that's when our schedule started getting sort of erratic, and S started forgetting to drink tea and eat on a usual schedule. So by Saturday he was a bit dehydrated, and felt a bit ill, so when we had lunch with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thecurmudgn and L and daughter M, S didn't feel like eating much, and afterwards took a nap - and went for another whole bunch of hours without drinking anything, and then felt worse, and so on, until by Monday morning he was feeling quite weak and dizzy. (The sort of thing that happens to many people who aren't used to having to pay close attention to various body signals.) So we went over to one of those walk-in doctor places - Urgent Care Plus or something like that - and after a couple hours wait, it only took them 15 minutes to get results on a CBC and a blood chem, and note that S's sodium was high and potassium low - classic signs of dehydration. They said he needed some IV electrolyte liquid, and they didn't have the facilities to do that, and that really the only way to get that done was at a hospital ER. So over we went to South Austin Hospital, where it took an hour and a half just from walking in the door and signing the clipboard, to get to the triage nurse, and then another 2 hours before anyone could actually look at S in a cubicle. And at that point, their standard protocol says that even if patient's spouse is showing them lab results and explaining exactly what needs to be done in clear and concise medical terminology, they must take an EKG and a chest x-ray, and draw blood and run the same tests. So... it was a little after 10 pm before they finally hung a bag of IV solution and started it running. By the end of the first bag, S was far more alertly grumpy than he had been, and by the end of the second bag, he was pushing the IV stand around and stating that he wanted to do the driving home, not trusting my night vision. (That turned out to be a little optimistic, but not too bad.) So we got out of there around midnight. Tuesday a.m. he was much better though still not real perky, and we took care to have him guzzling orange juice and green tea on a steady basis, and fed him lots of chicken noodle soup. Today he's nearly normal, or what passes for normal in our family. However, at this point we have several things to catch up on, so we're still not going to get to socialize any before we leave here tomorrow.
I'll post more later about the plans for estate sale, etc.; right now I'm piggybacking on a weak wireless connection from a neighbor, and I want to post this before I lose it.
We got here last Wednesday evening OK - Southwest came in a few minutes earlier than scheduled, as usual, and one of the smoothet landings ever, despite the fog - the touchdown was less bumpy than driving down a normal street. Thursday morning all kinds of stuff was going on - we had a dozen people at the house doing different things. And that's when our schedule started getting sort of erratic, and S started forgetting to drink tea and eat on a usual schedule. So by Saturday he was a bit dehydrated, and felt a bit ill, so when we had lunch with
thecurmudgn and L and daughter M, S didn't feel like eating much, and afterwards took a nap - and went for another whole bunch of hours without drinking anything, and then felt worse, and so on, until by Monday morning he was feeling quite weak and dizzy. (The sort of thing that happens to many people who aren't used to having to pay close attention to various body signals.) So we went over to one of those walk-in doctor places - Urgent Care Plus or something like that - and after a couple hours wait, it only took them 15 minutes to get results on a CBC and a blood chem, and note that S's sodium was high and potassium low - classic signs of dehydration. They said he needed some IV electrolyte liquid, and they didn't have the facilities to do that, and that really the only way to get that done was at a hospital ER. So over we went to South Austin Hospital, where it took an hour and a half just from walking in the door and signing the clipboard, to get to the triage nurse, and then another 2 hours before anyone could actually look at S in a cubicle. And at that point, their standard protocol says that even if patient's spouse is showing them lab results and explaining exactly what needs to be done in clear and concise medical terminology, they must take an EKG and a chest x-ray, and draw blood and run the same tests. So... it was a little after 10 pm before they finally hung a bag of IV solution and started it running. By the end of the first bag, S was far more alertly grumpy than he had been, and by the end of the second bag, he was pushing the IV stand around and stating that he wanted to do the driving home, not trusting my night vision. (That turned out to be a little optimistic, but not too bad.) So we got out of there around midnight. Tuesday a.m. he was much better though still not real perky, and we took care to have him guzzling orange juice and green tea on a steady basis, and fed him lots of chicken noodle soup. Today he's nearly normal, or what passes for normal in our family. However, at this point we have several things to catch up on, so we're still not going to get to socialize any before we leave here tomorrow. I'll post more later about the plans for estate sale, etc.; right now I'm piggybacking on a weak wireless connection from a neighbor, and I want to post this before I lose it.
