Thursday, April 27, 2023

All's Well That Ends Well...

 

If you've seen the movie Terms of Endearment you have to remember the scene where Shirley MacLaine goes ballistic on the nursing staff because they were late with her daughter's pain medication. That would be me yesterday in Walgreens going so ballistic on the pharmacy staff that a strange man went out to my car to check on The Mister and tell him that I was in there raising a ruckus and I'd be right out. Let me explain....



First let me say that this outpatient surgery thing is for the birds. The staff was wonderful but the whole set up is woefully lacking. I was run ragged by the end of the day and at the end of the day I had another day's worth of work ahead once we got home. After they took The Mister back I was sent to get his prescriptions with instructions not to leave until I knew they had what I needed since we don't live close to this pharmacy. I drove up the road to sit in front of the pharmacy for an hour and a half before it opened and yes, I brought knitting but I really wasn't in the mood to knit.  The pharmacy told me they had what I needed but it would be a couple of hours so I went over to a medical complex across the street to use the facilities. I sat, and sat and sat. No text that the meds were ready for pickup. In fact, the surgery place called me to come to recovery so back I went down the highway to the surgery center. I'm 6 hours in at this point and fading fast. Our adventure had started at 4 am.



I had no sooner walked into the recovery room when I got a text saying they had one of the prescriptions but not the other. The doctor said fine. Get the one and sub some baby aspirin for the blood thinner they were out of until you get the prescription back and put it in a pharmacy near us. After sitting in recovery for three hours they loaded up a very wobbly Mister into my car to go home but first we had to go back to the pharmacy to get the pain meds. When I got there......NO prescriptions were filled yet. NONE. I was livid. I had a guy in a lot of pain in his pajamas squeezed into the front seat of our car and I wanted everyone to know it. That's where the strange man came in. He said he had noticed The Mister when he came in and went out to check on him for me. Nice guy. He made my day. So....I had to wait AGAIN for the pain medication and NO they wouldn't give me the script for the blood thinner. Today I have to go down to our local CVS and explain it all to them. They are supposed to be able to call the Walgreens and get it straightened out. I hope so. It won't be pretty if I have to leave The Mister alone and drive all the way back down to the Walgreens. It won't be pretty at all. 



After all that I still had to get a very miserable Mister out of the car and up all of our steps and get him tucked into bed which is no easy task with that leg. In fact both his legs have these inflatable contraptions on them that I have to keep charged that reduce the risk of blood clots. I also had to get him up to walk every few hours, put ice on the incision every few hours and give him meds every few hours. Not to mention feed him and help him to the bathroom. In Dad's day after we got him up to his room we kissed him goodnight and went home and got some rest. Sitting and waiting is very hard work. 


And...today would have been my mom's 87th birthday. I think. Don't quote me on that I've lost track of the years and am too tired to go look it up. She went through this surgery thing with my dad so many times I've lost count. I don't know how she did it. 






7 comments:

  1. I'm speechless! I can't believe the hospital didn't provide the necessary meds and instead sent you all over the place in search of them. I also can't believe they released The Mister wihout the proper meds on hand. For that matter, I can't believe they expect you to act as nurse immediately following a hip replacement. The whole ordeal sounds insane to me. All I can say is my husband better get himself a different wife before he get his replacement. Hope the healing process goes smoother than the getting home process.

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  2. It is definitely a different world and not in a good way. Hope you and the Mister can both get some rest.

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  3. I agree--the one-day-surgery center is a great idea for minor surgeries but not something like this! I am so sorry for the drama of inefficiency all around. hoping you get some time to doze today and the pain is tolerable for both of you!

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  4. Oh man! What a mis-adventure. Sorry everything seemed to be so botched. Hoping today is better and that the Mister is able to rest comfortably (you too).

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  5. Sorry that you and the Mister are dealing with this frustration. I hope today some of the wrinkles are getting ironed out and you can both rest.

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  6. Hopefully the hard part is mostly done, and every day gets a little better from here on out.

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  7. That’s a crazy turnaround. I just took a friend last week for her 2nd knee surgery procedure. She went in Tues. at 6:45am and I picked her up on Thurs. at 12:00noon to bring her home.

    Many good thoughts for you and the mister during his recovery.

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