I hate Emergency Rooms! Updated Tuesday

I have not mentioned that my husband has bladder cancer. I suppose had, because he had surgery on Friday and removed the tumor. No incision either. So, he was feeling well enough to do some normal things by the next day. I am free to tell this story now, as he has blogged about it. Here is the story of today.

I just got home, again, from the ER. David was bleeding yesterday and called the doctor last night and they said, hmmm, you shouldn't be bleeding and to call the office in the morning. He did, and then went to court! He came home dripping in blood all over his clothes! I told him to shower and I was taking him to the ER. The doctor's office called and I told them I was taking him to Mission where he had the surgery. Stupid me thought it would be a good place to go, since he practices near there.

We got there and he was given an iv line only, they took blood. And he went to the lab this morning for blood work. Anyhow, then he was sent back to the waiting room with the umpteen other poor people. Not enough beds. Finally after an hour and a half, I went back to the on duty doctor and told him they still had not inserted a catheter nor had they taken him to the new ER section. We were told that they didn't do cathaters there on the side he was on. Flat out lie. We were called in within five minutes and they finally inserted the catheter about a half hour later. No pain meds at all. Then this very good and nice nurse started flushing out his bladder! YUCK. I could not believe all the blood. We never did make it to the new section of the remodeled ER.

David was having contractions like a woman having a baby. He was screaming and they were going to release him because his tube was clear. I told the doctor I was going to get the kids fed and come back. He told me we would be out of there in a few minutes. I waited a half hour and left. I called David from home when I was ready to go back and he was practically crying. I got back and heard him screaming from the waiting room. I went to the doctor on duty again and asked what was going on. He tells me that his job is triage and that I need to talk to the nurse. I find her and demand something for the pain. The on call doctor calls and tells David via my cell phone, that he is releasing him...I got on the phone with him and told him he was bleeding worse that ever. He said he was told the fluid was clear. I told him it was, four hours ago and nobody had been back to see him. I told him I would not take him home bleeding thru a tube and that I would not have him in pain and scaring the kids! He told me he would admit him and give him some pain meds. I went to the nurse, the good one was on dinner break. I asked where the pain meeds were and she said, I was just writing the order! I pleaded with her to get his medicine. I closed his door and tried to calm him down again. Finally a shot but nothing for the contractions. They were waiting for the pharmacy to dispense them. He finally got them and was taken upstairs. I left at 9:30.

I am furious that his doctor called ten minutes before I got home for dinner with the girls. He left a message and asked how David was doing and said he would see him at his appointment! He will be getting a phone call in the morning! Apparently his partner never told him he was in the ER...

What a day. The good news is that the pathology was good. No signs of spreading. We talked to one doctor who said that in the early nineties they did a study and found that dry cleaning agents were a big factor in bladder cancer. He asked David if he wears a lot of dry cleaned clothes. The answer is daily. Scary, but I know they changed chemicals a few years back due to the report.

What I think will happen tomorrow is that they will have to go back in cauterize the wound again. Nobody told him to go home and stay on his back! They told him to take it easy. He ran errands with me the day after surgery, then went to the play. And this morning he took a huge basket of laundry downstairs. The doctor said, no lifting and to stay on his back to let the wound heal...Now they tell him. Four days after surgery.

UPDATE:
David called me about two hours after I left last night and he was feeling much better. They had taken very good care of him once he got to a room. And the on call doctor from his surgeon's office actually showed up and did his thing to help clean out his bladder. They were going to do it every three hours last night, so I am going to assume he didn't get to sleep too much. But he sounded so much better and said he felt better. And to top it off, they gave him ice cream. He told me not to rush over there this morning, and that he would call me when he knows something. As long as he feels better, I am not ripping off doctor's heads this morning. Although, I will be doing the surveys, and I will at least make one phone call to his doctor, who didn't know he was in the freaking ER for nine hours!

UPDATE Tuesday:
David's actual doctor came to see him today and told him if the fluid was not clear by tomorrow, they were going to go back to surgery and cauterize the wound. Either way, they plan on sending him home. He is feeling all beat up, as you can imagine. He is trying not to take the morphine any more, but is taking other meds for the spasms. I just talked to him on the phone and he was lucid and sounded very worn out. Hopefully they will fix him up tomorrow and he can come home pain free. The doctor did say he didn't think he overexerted himself by lifting anything or moving around too much. He said some people just develop clots and David was one of them. He told David that it was a shame since his outcome was so good and now he was in so much pain. I guess that statement is certainly true.

Thank you for all your well wishes for David. I appreciate it very much and I am sure he will too!