just got home from from the VA Emergency Room for the second time in two days, and wanted to write all of this down while it was still in memory, along with a little bit of history. i'm going in order here of what happened, so i am sorry if this is so long and clumped together, but tonight, i am loaded up on a lot of IV steroids, two morphine shots, 3 breathing treatments, 2 shots of something for nausea, and a lot of albuterol puffs. i had a really crappy last 3 days.
Warning - some of this is really gross. i'm being straight up and honest about how i feel and what i experienced. It was AWFUL!
Day before yesterday
About 10 days ago, VA primary doc raises me to tylenol 4 and some miralax to help control my TMJ pain. i took tylenol 4 only when i was really hurting, but also took the miralax 2x day. after several days of rotating between squirts and agonizing constapation. i walk up to my girlfriend holding my tummy and nearly in tears. explained i took the dump of the millenium. asked he if she would look at it. she works in surgery, so this stuff doesnt phase her. she asked did 'that' come out of you? it was really huge like an orbiting asteroid. toilet paper had only blood on it, no poop. it even stopped of the toilet when she flushed, but she plungered it all down. she hugged me, i took my miralax and then we went to bed.
Yesterday - ER visit #1
i was at the VA hospital visiting a clinic. i felt my tummy telling me to hurry to a toilet. i found a private lockable toilet and it took me almnost 30 agonizing min to take a dump. felt like i was going to die. the heavy straining caused my TMJ pain to shoot through the roof from gritting teeth and lower back discs (previously herniated, currently degenerated) to hurt like utter mad despite getting my 3rd pain block last wednesday (which actually worked). glad i was wearing my tens unit on my lower back or it could have been worse there. pain from straining and everything was so bad that it sent me into a major asthma attack while i was on the toilet. glad they had those hand rails, but only on one side. finally got everything out. i stumbled into the ER and told them i couldnt breathe. they gave me a breathing treatment and hooked my up to an EKG which they said was haywire, like something they never saw before. i told them i had a tens unit and i turned it off, EKG was normal. asked nurse if my girlfriend could be called. also asked them to call my pschologist because she said if i ever experience extreme stress, to call her. this definitely qualified. loving girlfriend leaves work and arrives 40 min later. psychologist never arrives. After few hrs, my breathing stabilized. during the whole visit, my heart rate was from 32 to 90, but 48 is normal for me. my o2 occasionally dipped into the 70's, alarms buzzing. blood pressure was high once, heard the alarm but could not see it on the screen due to glare from the light. lady doc told me to come in and get a nebulizer next day. she gave me a 6 day prednisone taper, colace, and some supposotiories (gross). Was able to drive home slowly. went to girlfriends house because i didnt want to be alone when i slept. Took my tylenol 4 and my colace. she was glad i was with her. I woke up an hour later with a horrible nightmares about some bad experiences i had in the army. took asthma inhaler because i was short on breath. it worked. couple hours later, more horrible nightmares, asthma inhaler, breathing normal again. dozed off briefly then alarm went off. total maybe 2 or 3 hrs sleep.
Today - day from hell - ER visit #2
went to work an hour early. was awake anyway, feel like walking zombie. took my meds on schedule like always. less than two hours later, tmj pain was driving me nuts because i coudlnt concentrate. had minor asthma attack. inhaler took care of it. left and went to vet center. talked to counselor about my pain and problems. first visit, so he said to come back and talk again next week. nice guy. went to primary care doc to get my nebulizer. as i arrived, he had his coat on and said he was leaving, but i managed to talk him into seeing me due to the er visit. everythign was so rushed i felt like he cared more about getting out of there than providing me the care i needed. he ordered me a nebulizer and the liquid to put in it. he said he could not give me pain patches for my tmj, but chronic pain clinic can. got referral. went there because i am in some serious TMJ pain. they said they say the nurse was there about 20 min before i showed up. they said i needed a referral and then the nurse would have to schedule an appointment. i nicely explained i am in some serious chronic pain, worse than ever before, and felt like my head was going to explode. they paged and tried to call the nurse in charge of the clinic several times. 30 min later, she tried again. gave her my cell number, just in case the nurse returned the calls or pages and i went to pharmacy to get nebulizer stuff. went to visit psychologist to talk about the pain and frustration i had been having. i even presented her with a full clinical study showing showing i had classic symptoms of major depressive disorder due to dental problems, in addition to the less impacting adjustment disorder. we talked briefly, but she said she still felt i had an adjustment disorder with chronic mood, but asked me to present the clinical study for review by my regular counselor when i start seeing her next month. she said i very likely could be diagnosed with major depressive disorder due to chronic pain, but it would take several more visits to nail down. she also talked about what happened yesterday at the ER. i told her that i asked the ER staff to call her but she said nobody did. she said she would have came if they would have called her. she also got me a consult to see a psychiatrist today, in addition to my appt next month, because the anxiety/depression meds the primary care doc gave me had seriously unnerving side effects. i don't want to go into details about that here. went to his clinic, got seen an hour later he changed me to buproprion and got rid of a couple of the others. he basically said the primary care docs dont have a clue how to treat people with anxiety or chronic depression. he wants to see how these med changes do until i see him next month. back to pain clinic. they still could not get in touch with the person. i walk around pacing in circles for an hour with my hands on my jaws to try to alleviate the pain. still nothing and they were getting ready to close. i rushed to the travel office window next to the pharmacy. i hate this woman. every time i approach the window, she says i will be with you in just one moment. then she spends a few minutes finishing up some menial administrative task before attending to my request. yesterday, she walked around her office pulling stuff off the laser printer and reading it. today, the was hand writing some addresses on several envelopes. i gave her my id and she said i would have to get MH clinic to print my papers. great. just great. back up to there. the dude printed the papers and i rushed downstairs to collect my $8 and change. back to chronic pain clinic and i kindly the lady asked her to walk back and see if they were there. she checked, but nobody was there. she commented that they normally tell them when they leave, just in case. she apologized. i'm pretty pissed off by now and went to patient rep and she said called pharmcy, who said my primary care doc can write for the patches. told me to go back to primary care clinic and any doc there could review my records and write my pain patch script. i also complained about the rude travel desk nazi. the patient representative just laughed, nodded her head, and said she would address the issue tomorrow. from her reaction, i had a feeling that there have been other complaints. back to primary care clinic. dude at desk said all docs left early and he is only one there and was going to leave momentarily. he said i could call 24 hr nurse line and they would pager my doc who would then call me and call me a script into the pharmacy, which never closes. i did this 3 times in last month with no problem. i called the toll free nurse line. woman on phone was from another area and rude as all hell. she said docs dont call patients just because a patient wants to talk with them. i said yes they do. she said no you are wrong. i said let me explain. she said no you will not explain. my stress level went through the freakin roof! i said just please give me two minutes to explain and you will then understand. she did. i explained i needed my primary care doc paged to call me because i found out that he actually can call in the pain patches to the pharmacy which was still open. she said that primary care docs cannot do that. i explained that my patient representative just talked with the pharmacy and found out he can. she said she could send a messager, but i will not get a response probably until tomorrow morning if he is even working. got off the phone with the devil woman. talked to pharmacy. they said only option left is the ER. great, another wasted day, but my nerves were shot and my TMJ pain was a lot worse. went to release of information office and luckily they were still there. got printout of my ER, psychologist, and psychiatrist visits, but she said my primary care doc didnt note anything in the computer other than the referral to pain clinic and the nebulizer request. went to er. checked in. pain level about a 7, holding hands over side of head to compasate. the triage nurse was super nice and said she understood how i feel because she had two TMJ reconstructive surgeries. she started to tear up a bit by seeing what kind of pain i am in. when i was being triaged by the er nurse, i found out that lost 2 pounds since yesterday morning because i have not been able to eat anything at all today. i just wanted to get pain patches, get out, and eat, but nooooo i am in the ER again. 30 min go by. place is packed. i get up and am pacing back and forth again. sat down. repeat couple of times. the whole time getting madder and more wound up over how the day started of nice then went to crap. while waiting, i decided to read my records from today. checked my GAF score. It was previously 65, 62, but today it was 55 before all this hellstorm occurred. a couple of dudes walked in smelling heavily of cigarettes. few min later, i start wheezing so i move around corner. asthma gets worse. tried to calm it naturally through controlled breathing deal recommended by my psychologist. that crap didnt work. coughing and wheezing got a lot worse, i took my albuterol. no change. most of the wheezing is in the upper and central chest. i think i had a massive panic attack triggered by the hell days i had plus the smoke off the cigarette guys. lucky me. getting dizzy so i know i am screwed so i tell the dude at the desk and they wheelchair me back quickly. just like deja vu again. 2 immediate nebulizer treatments and no change at all in my wheezing or coughing. it took two attempts for the nice nurse to get the iv port inserted. first try failed because i was coughing really bad and she kept missing because i could not remain still, so there was blood all over my arm. that hurt like hell. because of the daily aspirin i take for my heart, i have some nice bruises all over my arm. nice nurse was very apologetic. as a mater of fact, she was probably the best ER nurse i have ever work with me. my doc walks in and lucky me. it's the resident doc who treats me for my allergies each month. what a bit of relief to see someone who kinda knows me. the nurse gave me 130 mg of some steroid. over the next five minutes, my breathing improved quickly but my hands went numb for about 5 min. in between wheezes and coughing he took my recent history info and i explained how my day degraded. he was very attentive. he said he can give me toridol, but i reminded him i am allergic to toridol. doh, he should have checked my records first. i now got to thinking. for some reason, they did not give me an allergy bracelet, only a patient id. but they gave my both yesterday. doc said he could not order a narcotic because he is still a resident, but he would check with his attending. he was also worried about me driving myself, but i asked for my girlfriend to come and also for my psychologist to come. he said he wanted to get some meds in me first, then listened to my chest. nice nurse brings me the phone and i call my girlfriend. orders a chest x ray. i ask again about calling the psychologist, but he said he felt uncomfortable calling a psych doc in unless someone is homicidal or suicidal. i was in so much pain that i didnt have the strength to argue. some dude wheels me into the x-ray room. he helps me stand up against the target wall, tells me to grab the handles in the back. then he swiftly lifts the wall up and it hits me smack in the bottom of my chin. i dropped to my knees instantly, uttering profanity and in tears. i told him that my TMJ pain was the whole reason i was in the ER to start with. he was really apologetic. after a couple of minutes, i i overcame the initial shock of the pain and he helped me up. took x-rays carefully. wheeled back to room, apologized again. i was even more pissed because i came in with pain of a 7 and this dude's carelessness sent it straight to a 9 or 10. hands back on jaws, in tears. knees curled up and i am rocking back and forth. few min later my doc comes in and notices my condition. told him what happened and that i am seriously hurting like hell now. morphine ordered by the attending. i let him know that i only had morphine once after shoulder surgery and it made me nausaated. he requested another shot of somethign starting with a 'z'. nurse gives me both injections, very slowly. 10 min later, my pain gets better, now back to about a 7. breathing finally normal, but i my chest muscles are exhausted. i ask nice nurse if i could get something to eat because i was starving, she brings me couple of ham sandwiches, milk, orange juice and was even kind enough to get some hot sauce i requested. my sweetheart gets the food ready for me and i slowly sip down the orange juice over 20 minutes. it was tough. she gives me a nibble of the sandwich but it hurt so bad to chew it. pain goes back up to a 9 and i eventually just swallow the bite whole. couldnt eat anything else, so i told my honey that she could have it. explained to the doc that i could not eat because it was too painful to chew. doc ordered third breathing treatment. this time, i cant open my teeth wide enough to fit around the mouthpiece. doc said to just put my lips over it, which worked. an hour later, doc wants to release me. told doc i felt like it was a waste being there because the TMJ pain is still a 7, which was where it was when i came in, despite resolving the asthma. he said he could not give me any more pain meds. he tells me to change the way i take the prednisone pills from last night and also says he will get me some lortabs to deal with the pain over next few days. he would write it down in my release instructions he would give to my girlfriend before we leave. i asked what the x-rays showed. he said i did not have pneumonnia, but could have a mile viral bronchitis. 10 min later, nice nurse walks in to discharge and i tell her i think i am going to throw up. she walks out, comes back in shortly and gives me more anti nausea 'z' shot and another morphine shot, both injected slowly. i get all loopy and amost pass out. im sort of coherent after a couple of min, but still hurting. after a while doc comes in to check on me. TMJ pain level at a 4 or 5 now. i honestly did not care about anything at that point. finally ready to be released. i had to pee. nurse brought a plastic bottle and stayed with me because i was loopy and made sure i did not lose my balance. my pee color looked really dark, like tea, not yellow or clear. nurse wheels me the after hours pharmacy to pick up some lortabs. during the visit my heart rate peaked out around 130 or so, but spent most of the time between 90 and 100, o2 never got below 90 despite the coughing and wheezing. blood pressure was actually somewhat low, but only checked twice. gathered my belongings, and got wheelchaired to the car by the nice nurse.
Here's the real catch...
i was so stressed out and zonked out that i realized the doc never even examined or even ordered an x-ray of my jaw, even after the x-ray dude rammed the damn machine into my chin. that was the original reason why i was there to start with. the only thing i got was some morphine and a lot of unnecessary stress. that's just what i needed right now. swell... then i realized i never got given the discharge instructions when i was released. called er and talked to the doc. he apologized for overlooking this. he told me how to take my prednisone and also the lortabs. i wrote them down. repeated them back to make sure i got it right. also, as i finished typing this, he also failed to give me a work excuse for past two days, which he was supposed to write, but i will deal with that tomorrow.
got home. girlfriend makes me a fruit and protein smoothie, because i couldnt chew anything. she really loves me. i am so lucky to have her. i started to get my energy back after i finished the smoothie. my wonderful girlfriend said that the VA ER really sucks. they dont have pillows. plus, they did not even start an IV drip during either visit. i was thirsty as hell tonight. she asked if i could go to her hospital, but i told her i would have to pay 10%, which could be a couple of thousand dollars. she said when we get married, we're switching to her insurance because it covers 100%. very good point. after my experiences over past few days, it might be worth it to go into debt to get really decent care. if it wasnt for the kindness of that one nurse, i probably would have lost my mind.
i'm tired of being jerked around. i am all wired up, frustrated, still kinda shaky, but just plain worn out after the past two days. going to try to go to bed.
thanks to everyone for listening. what should i do now?
Question
Vync
just got home from from the VA Emergency Room for the second time in two days, and wanted to write all of this down while it was still in memory, along with a little bit of history. i'm going in order here of what happened, so i am sorry if this is so long and clumped together, but tonight, i am loaded up on a lot of IV steroids, two morphine shots, 3 breathing treatments, 2 shots of something for nausea, and a lot of albuterol puffs. i had a really crappy last 3 days.
Warning - some of this is really gross. i'm being straight up and honest about how i feel and what i experienced. It was AWFUL!
Day before yesterday
About 10 days ago, VA primary doc raises me to tylenol 4 and some miralax to help control my TMJ pain. i took tylenol 4 only when i was really hurting, but also took the miralax 2x day. after several days of rotating between squirts and agonizing constapation. i walk up to my girlfriend holding my tummy and nearly in tears. explained i took the dump of the millenium. asked he if she would look at it. she works in surgery, so this stuff doesnt phase her. she asked did 'that' come out of you? it was really huge like an orbiting asteroid. toilet paper had only blood on it, no poop. it even stopped of the toilet when she flushed, but she plungered it all down. she hugged me, i took my miralax and then we went to bed.
Yesterday - ER visit #1
i was at the VA hospital visiting a clinic. i felt my tummy telling me to hurry to a toilet. i found a private lockable toilet and it took me almnost 30 agonizing min to take a dump. felt like i was going to die. the heavy straining caused my TMJ pain to shoot through the roof from gritting teeth and lower back discs (previously herniated, currently degenerated) to hurt like utter mad despite getting my 3rd pain block last wednesday (which actually worked). glad i was wearing my tens unit on my lower back or it could have been worse there. pain from straining and everything was so bad that it sent me into a major asthma attack while i was on the toilet. glad they had those hand rails, but only on one side. finally got everything out. i stumbled into the ER and told them i couldnt breathe. they gave me a breathing treatment and hooked my up to an EKG which they said was haywire, like something they never saw before. i told them i had a tens unit and i turned it off, EKG was normal. asked nurse if my girlfriend could be called. also asked them to call my pschologist because she said if i ever experience extreme stress, to call her. this definitely qualified. loving girlfriend leaves work and arrives 40 min later. psychologist never arrives. After few hrs, my breathing stabilized. during the whole visit, my heart rate was from 32 to 90, but 48 is normal for me. my o2 occasionally dipped into the 70's, alarms buzzing. blood pressure was high once, heard the alarm but could not see it on the screen due to glare from the light. lady doc told me to come in and get a nebulizer next day. she gave me a 6 day prednisone taper, colace, and some supposotiories (gross). Was able to drive home slowly. went to girlfriends house because i didnt want to be alone when i slept. Took my tylenol 4 and my colace. she was glad i was with her. I woke up an hour later with a horrible nightmares about some bad experiences i had in the army. took asthma inhaler because i was short on breath. it worked. couple hours later, more horrible nightmares, asthma inhaler, breathing normal again. dozed off briefly then alarm went off. total maybe 2 or 3 hrs sleep.
Today - day from hell - ER visit #2
went to work an hour early. was awake anyway, feel like walking zombie. took my meds on schedule like always. less than two hours later, tmj pain was driving me nuts because i coudlnt concentrate. had minor asthma attack. inhaler took care of it. left and went to vet center. talked to counselor about my pain and problems. first visit, so he said to come back and talk again next week. nice guy. went to primary care doc to get my nebulizer. as i arrived, he had his coat on and said he was leaving, but i managed to talk him into seeing me due to the er visit. everythign was so rushed i felt like he cared more about getting out of there than providing me the care i needed. he ordered me a nebulizer and the liquid to put in it. he said he could not give me pain patches for my tmj, but chronic pain clinic can. got referral. went there because i am in some serious TMJ pain. they said they say the nurse was there about 20 min before i showed up. they said i needed a referral and then the nurse would have to schedule an appointment. i nicely explained i am in some serious chronic pain, worse than ever before, and felt like my head was going to explode. they paged and tried to call the nurse in charge of the clinic several times. 30 min later, she tried again. gave her my cell number, just in case the nurse returned the calls or pages and i went to pharmacy to get nebulizer stuff. went to visit psychologist to talk about the pain and frustration i had been having. i even presented her with a full clinical study showing showing i had classic symptoms of major depressive disorder due to dental problems, in addition to the less impacting adjustment disorder. we talked briefly, but she said she still felt i had an adjustment disorder with chronic mood, but asked me to present the clinical study for review by my regular counselor when i start seeing her next month. she said i very likely could be diagnosed with major depressive disorder due to chronic pain, but it would take several more visits to nail down. she also talked about what happened yesterday at the ER. i told her that i asked the ER staff to call her but she said nobody did. she said she would have came if they would have called her. she also got me a consult to see a psychiatrist today, in addition to my appt next month, because the anxiety/depression meds the primary care doc gave me had seriously unnerving side effects. i don't want to go into details about that here. went to his clinic, got seen an hour later he changed me to buproprion and got rid of a couple of the others. he basically said the primary care docs dont have a clue how to treat people with anxiety or chronic depression. he wants to see how these med changes do until i see him next month. back to pain clinic. they still could not get in touch with the person. i walk around pacing in circles for an hour with my hands on my jaws to try to alleviate the pain. still nothing and they were getting ready to close. i rushed to the travel office window next to the pharmacy. i hate this woman. every time i approach the window, she says i will be with you in just one moment. then she spends a few minutes finishing up some menial administrative task before attending to my request. yesterday, she walked around her office pulling stuff off the laser printer and reading it. today, the was hand writing some addresses on several envelopes. i gave her my id and she said i would have to get MH clinic to print my papers. great. just great. back up to there. the dude printed the papers and i rushed downstairs to collect my $8 and change. back to chronic pain clinic and i kindly the lady asked her to walk back and see if they were there. she checked, but nobody was there. she commented that they normally tell them when they leave, just in case. she apologized. i'm pretty pissed off by now and went to patient rep and she said called pharmcy, who said my primary care doc can write for the patches. told me to go back to primary care clinic and any doc there could review my records and write my pain patch script. i also complained about the rude travel desk nazi. the patient representative just laughed, nodded her head, and said she would address the issue tomorrow. from her reaction, i had a feeling that there have been other complaints. back to primary care clinic. dude at desk said all docs left early and he is only one there and was going to leave momentarily. he said i could call 24 hr nurse line and they would pager my doc who would then call me and call me a script into the pharmacy, which never closes. i did this 3 times in last month with no problem. i called the toll free nurse line. woman on phone was from another area and rude as all hell. she said docs dont call patients just because a patient wants to talk with them. i said yes they do. she said no you are wrong. i said let me explain. she said no you will not explain. my stress level went through the freakin roof! i said just please give me two minutes to explain and you will then understand. she did. i explained i needed my primary care doc paged to call me because i found out that he actually can call in the pain patches to the pharmacy which was still open. she said that primary care docs cannot do that. i explained that my patient representative just talked with the pharmacy and found out he can. she said she could send a messager, but i will not get a response probably until tomorrow morning if he is even working. got off the phone with the devil woman. talked to pharmacy. they said only option left is the ER. great, another wasted day, but my nerves were shot and my TMJ pain was a lot worse. went to release of information office and luckily they were still there. got printout of my ER, psychologist, and psychiatrist visits, but she said my primary care doc didnt note anything in the computer other than the referral to pain clinic and the nebulizer request. went to er. checked in. pain level about a 7, holding hands over side of head to compasate. the triage nurse was super nice and said she understood how i feel because she had two TMJ reconstructive surgeries. she started to tear up a bit by seeing what kind of pain i am in. when i was being triaged by the er nurse, i found out that lost 2 pounds since yesterday morning because i have not been able to eat anything at all today. i just wanted to get pain patches, get out, and eat, but nooooo i am in the ER again. 30 min go by. place is packed. i get up and am pacing back and forth again. sat down. repeat couple of times. the whole time getting madder and more wound up over how the day started of nice then went to crap. while waiting, i decided to read my records from today. checked my GAF score. It was previously 65, 62, but today it was 55 before all this hellstorm occurred. a couple of dudes walked in smelling heavily of cigarettes. few min later, i start wheezing so i move around corner. asthma gets worse. tried to calm it naturally through controlled breathing deal recommended by my psychologist. that crap didnt work. coughing and wheezing got a lot worse, i took my albuterol. no change. most of the wheezing is in the upper and central chest. i think i had a massive panic attack triggered by the hell days i had plus the smoke off the cigarette guys. lucky me. getting dizzy so i know i am screwed so i tell the dude at the desk and they wheelchair me back quickly. just like deja vu again. 2 immediate nebulizer treatments and no change at all in my wheezing or coughing. it took two attempts for the nice nurse to get the iv port inserted. first try failed because i was coughing really bad and she kept missing because i could not remain still, so there was blood all over my arm. that hurt like hell. because of the daily aspirin i take for my heart, i have some nice bruises all over my arm. nice nurse was very apologetic. as a mater of fact, she was probably the best ER nurse i have ever work with me. my doc walks in and lucky me. it's the resident doc who treats me for my allergies each month. what a bit of relief to see someone who kinda knows me. the nurse gave me 130 mg of some steroid. over the next five minutes, my breathing improved quickly but my hands went numb for about 5 min. in between wheezes and coughing he took my recent history info and i explained how my day degraded. he was very attentive. he said he can give me toridol, but i reminded him i am allergic to toridol. doh, he should have checked my records first. i now got to thinking. for some reason, they did not give me an allergy bracelet, only a patient id. but they gave my both yesterday. doc said he could not order a narcotic because he is still a resident, but he would check with his attending. he was also worried about me driving myself, but i asked for my girlfriend to come and also for my psychologist to come. he said he wanted to get some meds in me first, then listened to my chest. nice nurse brings me the phone and i call my girlfriend. orders a chest x ray. i ask again about calling the psychologist, but he said he felt uncomfortable calling a psych doc in unless someone is homicidal or suicidal. i was in so much pain that i didnt have the strength to argue. some dude wheels me into the x-ray room. he helps me stand up against the target wall, tells me to grab the handles in the back. then he swiftly lifts the wall up and it hits me smack in the bottom of my chin. i dropped to my knees instantly, uttering profanity and in tears. i told him that my TMJ pain was the whole reason i was in the ER to start with. he was really apologetic. after a couple of minutes, i i overcame the initial shock of the pain and he helped me up. took x-rays carefully. wheeled back to room, apologized again. i was even more pissed because i came in with pain of a 7 and this dude's carelessness sent it straight to a 9 or 10. hands back on jaws, in tears. knees curled up and i am rocking back and forth. few min later my doc comes in and notices my condition. told him what happened and that i am seriously hurting like hell now. morphine ordered by the attending. i let him know that i only had morphine once after shoulder surgery and it made me nausaated. he requested another shot of somethign starting with a 'z'. nurse gives me both injections, very slowly. 10 min later, my pain gets better, now back to about a 7. breathing finally normal, but i my chest muscles are exhausted. i ask nice nurse if i could get something to eat because i was starving, she brings me couple of ham sandwiches, milk, orange juice and was even kind enough to get some hot sauce i requested. my sweetheart gets the food ready for me and i slowly sip down the orange juice over 20 minutes. it was tough. she gives me a nibble of the sandwich but it hurt so bad to chew it. pain goes back up to a 9 and i eventually just swallow the bite whole. couldnt eat anything else, so i told my honey that she could have it. explained to the doc that i could not eat because it was too painful to chew. doc ordered third breathing treatment. this time, i cant open my teeth wide enough to fit around the mouthpiece. doc said to just put my lips over it, which worked. an hour later, doc wants to release me. told doc i felt like it was a waste being there because the TMJ pain is still a 7, which was where it was when i came in, despite resolving the asthma. he said he could not give me any more pain meds. he tells me to change the way i take the prednisone pills from last night and also says he will get me some lortabs to deal with the pain over next few days. he would write it down in my release instructions he would give to my girlfriend before we leave. i asked what the x-rays showed. he said i did not have pneumonnia, but could have a mile viral bronchitis. 10 min later, nice nurse walks in to discharge and i tell her i think i am going to throw up. she walks out, comes back in shortly and gives me more anti nausea 'z' shot and another morphine shot, both injected slowly. i get all loopy and amost pass out. im sort of coherent after a couple of min, but still hurting. after a while doc comes in to check on me. TMJ pain level at a 4 or 5 now. i honestly did not care about anything at that point. finally ready to be released. i had to pee. nurse brought a plastic bottle and stayed with me because i was loopy and made sure i did not lose my balance. my pee color looked really dark, like tea, not yellow or clear. nurse wheels me the after hours pharmacy to pick up some lortabs. during the visit my heart rate peaked out around 130 or so, but spent most of the time between 90 and 100, o2 never got below 90 despite the coughing and wheezing. blood pressure was actually somewhat low, but only checked twice. gathered my belongings, and got wheelchaired to the car by the nice nurse.
Here's the real catch...
i was so stressed out and zonked out that i realized the doc never even examined or even ordered an x-ray of my jaw, even after the x-ray dude rammed the damn machine into my chin. that was the original reason why i was there to start with. the only thing i got was some morphine and a lot of unnecessary stress. that's just what i needed right now. swell... then i realized i never got given the discharge instructions when i was released. called er and talked to the doc. he apologized for overlooking this. he told me how to take my prednisone and also the lortabs. i wrote them down. repeated them back to make sure i got it right. also, as i finished typing this, he also failed to give me a work excuse for past two days, which he was supposed to write, but i will deal with that tomorrow.
got home. girlfriend makes me a fruit and protein smoothie, because i couldnt chew anything. she really loves me. i am so lucky to have her. i started to get my energy back after i finished the smoothie. my wonderful girlfriend said that the VA ER really sucks. they dont have pillows. plus, they did not even start an IV drip during either visit. i was thirsty as hell tonight. she asked if i could go to her hospital, but i told her i would have to pay 10%, which could be a couple of thousand dollars. she said when we get married, we're switching to her insurance because it covers 100%. very good point. after my experiences over past few days, it might be worth it to go into debt to get really decent care. if it wasnt for the kindness of that one nurse, i probably would have lost my mind.
i'm tired of being jerked around. i am all wired up, frustrated, still kinda shaky, but just plain worn out after the past two days. going to try to go to bed.
thanks to everyone for listening. what should i do now?
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