I hate hospitals

Gee, how do I describe this day?

This morning Van and I met John at the hospital as he was to get his stomach tapped. When we got to the short stay unit, the nurses told us the procedure was cancelled because his INR (International Normalized Ratio) or simply a type of clotting factor was not in the safe range. The higher the INR is, the greater the chance of abnormal bleeding with a procedure. Most doctors prefer an INR of 1.3 - 1.5. John's was 2.1 and that actually is acceptable in some cases. In the past, it has been well over 3. He's been taking vitamin K and that has helped keep it lower. But apparently radiologists have a higher threshold and wouldn't do the procedure. This has happened before at the local hospital. John was SO upset, he was sobbing. It was awful. I called John's PCP and told him we wanted him to go to AGH today. The last time this happened we waited a day or two to give him blood products and they still wouldn't tap him then it became a very critical situation. I wish we would've arranged for him to go to AGH in the first place. I sort of got all radical (no yelling or swearing) and I guess I was circumventing the process, but everyone did what they could to get him to the AGH ER. SOOOO, Van called off work and we get there and the first doctor who saw him was very kind and helpful. Then we saw the attending ER doc and he had the bedside manner of a ROCK. Rude, very UNhelpful. John actually gave him the Italian salute as he was leaving the room. Too bad he didn't see it. He basically told us that the ER would not tap him and he wouldn't be admitted for blood products. To make a long story short, the ER did contact the liver specialist and he will be tapped Friday. We complained about the attending physician to someone and they said he would soon be going to a different hospital. Good for future AGH ER patients but I feel bad for the patients at whatever hospital he's going to.

So it was a return trip from Pittsburth to the nursing home. This was at 3:45 in the afternoon and this all began about 9:00 a.m. this morning. By the time John got back to the nursing home, he was in a better mood. We did have some good news today- he's graduating to soft foods. He received a dinner tray upon his return and he really enjoyed it. Mashed potatoes and some sort of meat...chicken I guess. He was comfortable when we left. Tomorrow I'll check on him at lunchtime then return in the evening with the dogs and watch hockey with him. And now I am going to bed.