Resting in a hospital is an oxymoron...

United States
March 15, 2009 7:51pm CST
Since last Saturday, March 7th, 2009, my dad has been admitted to the hospital because he felt like crap and looked like a limp dishrag. He also had very slight tightness of the chest and slight shortness of breath, with high fever and chills. We knew it probably was not a heart attack, because he had been feeling like this for three or four days prior; we figured it could be pneumonia. Mom and I had just got back from a friend's birthday party - we were not going to go since dad was so sick, but we had already promised to help her, and everyone else she had, had backed out at the last minute. So if we did not go help her, she would be stuck all alone trying to get everything put together for the party. Anyway, we went to the party and helped, and we did not stay long. We got back from the party, and dad looked worse, and five minutes later, dad started getting violent chills. It was so bad it was almost as if he was convulsing! He wanted to wait until the morning (Sunday the 8th), to go to the emergency room, and swore up and down he was not going to go until then. I kept telling him, what difference does it make if you go now or then? He said Saturday evenings are the busiest times, to which I replied, "That is rubbish! Since when would you know? ANYTIME can be a busy time in an emergency room! Suppose you go in tomorrow morning, and they have a gunshot wound, of all things, come in? You will be waiting there for forever and a day! Plus, don't you want to feel better sooner? Why wait? You look like hammered poop!" He still insisted that he was going to wait. After his chills went away, I went on home. One hour later, at around 10 p.m. that Saturday evening, after I had got home, my mother called me and told me she is dragging his butt to the emergency room. She said she had threatened him, "You can go the embarrassing way - with lights and sirens - so everyone knows your business, or you can get in the car with me and we will go quietly." lol So I met them at the emergency room, and not long after, they had him set him up in an emergency hospital room. Mom and I waited in the emergency room with him andd neither one of us went home until seven o'clock Sunday morning! Long story short, they ran all sorts of test on him. First, while he was in the emergency room, they took him for a computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan and chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia; they found it was not pneumonia, but they thought perhaps it would be gallbladder related. They wanted to admit him to the hospital for observation. Finally, around 12 noon, they find the only room available, which is - get this - on the fifth floor, oncology (cancer)/hospice floor!! They assured mom and I that it was solely because it was the only room that was available. The doctors came in and said that dad had a blood infection, and that they want to run several more tests to find out what type of viral blood infection it is, exactly. Long story short - he has been in the hospital ever since, and he has NOT been able to get ANY rest. Maybe a half an hour here or there, but never a solid hour, let alone a solid night's sleep. A phone will ring, someone will stop by to see him, or a nurse or doctor will come by and want to poke around on him, or someone will come by to take him to do some test on him. Anyone who started the saying about getting some rest in a hopital is an idiot. The words "rest" and "hospital," when used together in a sentence, make an oxymoron, because they do not go together. Now, the doctors and nurses are saying he will not get to go home until this coming Tuesday evening (March 17th), but they are also adding to that, "we will see," which does not sound promising.
1 response
@deejean06 (1952)
• United States
16 Mar 09
No you can never truly rest in a hospital but I'm glad your father is there anyway because that's the only place where he can be monitored well. I wish him a full and speedy recovery!
• United States
17 Mar 09
Thanks! he si feeling much better, but not a hundred percent. They sais he may get to come home today (Tuesday, march 17, or tomorrow).