Chocolate

Doctors are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. And, you always feel a little guilty but happy none the less after you eat them.

Forgive me for lagging a bit on my blogging duties, I've been stuck without Internet since my last entry.

I believe I last told you of the great foot problem of 2009. Bobby was going to have surgery on the 28th, but then he hurt his foot. When he went to the ER because the swelling was unbearable, they told him it was cellulitis, an infection of the skin. They admitted him with IV antibiotics.

After a day or so, the swelling went down a bit but not much. The redness was subsiding to a purpely color. Bobby had extreme diarrhea and stomach cramping, common if you are killing all the good bacteria in your digestive system with antibiotics. Not as common if there is a lot of bad bacteria for your body to focus on.

At this point, I began voicing concern to the doctor. She had not contacted the cardiac team that Bobby works with (located at a different hospital). They didn't even know he wasn't coming in for surgery. Bobby had not had a fever once since the whole thing started. The doctor assured me that the antibiotics were working because the swelling was going down.

I began to think, the swelling could have gone down just as a function of being in bed with his foot elevated. I did some research and his foot didn't look like any of the pictures I found of cellulitis. I began to wonder if there was ever any infection at all.

We told the doctor that we wanted a transfer to the hospital where his cardiac team was to get a second opinion. She said no.

She told us that she was working with other doctors in the infectious disease department and was sure, absolutely positive, that she was doing the right thing. None of these doctors had actually been in to see the foot. At this point, his heart surgery, a potentially life saving treatment, was being delayed indefinitely until an incompetent doctor who didn't know his case said it was safe.

We told her we wanted a second opinion regardless of what she thought, and she said no! I happen to know it is our right to get second, third and fourth opinions if we want them. She was not informing us of why she thought it was an infection, not giving the names of other doctors supposedly working on the case, and not treating him as a whole person. She had tunnel vision on the foot and was not making a point to monitor all the other parts of his body that might be affected by his heart.

We just left. We walked out of the hospital and it is in his chart forever that he went against medical advice and refused treatment.

We went to the good hospital the next day and guess what. There was never an infection!!! The doctor there said she didn't know why anyone would have thought there was!!! He could have had the surgery on time!!! Now it has been rescheduled twice already. Three times really. Once they told him there were no openings until July. We were able to get on calender for the 6th of this month, tomorrow, but found out today that the nurse who booked us made a mistake. Now it is on for a week from Thursday and I have had to call my bosses over and over to request time off and on and off again.

How unlucky can this guy get? I mean, this is enough for me to deal with, but how about him? You're going to live, nope die, wait we can fix you, but not for a few weeks. All I have to say is that after that much college, people should know how to organize a bit better.

Bright side: We have an extra week to get in some extra sex before the surgery.