We had an interesting week to say the least! Wednesday morning, Phillip thought he was getting a cold…sore throat…yuck! I was sick a couple weeks before, then Ricky was sick, so no surprise about a cold I guess. It has just been going around. Wednesday evening though, all of a sudden Phillip had a terrible pain in his lower back on the right hand side. It was awful! He thought right away it must be a kidney stone. Sure enough, the pain got worse and made him get sick several times. The pain would come and go every 20 minutes or so. It was finally too much to stand and he gave in around 10:00 and agreed to go to the hospital. Ricky came over to help us, saw what bad shape Phillip was in, and realized Phillip wasn’t going to be able to walk there. He called Shish, a first year doctor at the hospital, for help. Shish came over with his car to drive us to the A and E (accidents and emergency) entrance. Shish dropped us off at the door and went to park the car. I was totally overwhelmed when we walked in the hospital door. (Good thing the guys were helping us because I wouldn’t have known where to go or what to do!!!!) Ricky told Phillip to go sit and wait while we checked him in. Ricky had already called Jerry (a doctor who was working that night) so Jerry was expecting us to come in. Ricky and I started giving the receptionist Phillip’s details and Shish soon joined us to help. After we checked him in, I went to wait with Phillip while Ricky and Shish went into the hospital to try to get things moving faster for Phillip. I freaked out at one point when I overheard the lady next to me say that they had already been waiting for 2 hours!!!! Thank goodness Ricky and Shish took matters into their own hands and found Phillip a bed in Ward 2, which is CDU (clinical decision unit). You usually have to go through emergency first before you are placed in CDU. They talked to Jerry, who prescribed meds. Ricky started Phillip’s IV. It still took forever for the pain meds to kick in, but at least he was out of the waiting room and making progress after only 30 minutes or so of waiting. I can’t imagine if he had to wait there for over 2 hours in that much pain!!!! Shish managed to get an x-ray set up for Phillip that night, which I guess typically doesn’t happen that late! The x-ray didn’t show any kidney stones, but they weren’t surprised at that because it only shows them like 10% of the time! They scheduled more tests for the morning. Everyone was almost positive kidney stones were the problem! Once the pain medicine finally kicked in, Phillip was soooo happy to be out of pain. We even joked around some and took some pictures of him in the hospital! We especially like the picture of Ricky since his shirt says “almost a doctor.”
They finally gave Phillip a real bed (instead of a cot) and some pj’s. They then informed me that visitors aren’t supposed to stay overnight. So I made sure Phillip had everything he needed and walked home at 3am by myself! (Thank goodness we live on hospital grounds or that would have really freaked me out! Our flat door is super close to one of the hospital doors, so Phillip gave me directions on how to walk through the inside of the hospital to get to that door. It would be so easy to get lost in this hospital!!! I found the door though and then only had about a minute or so walk to get to our door!) I slept for about 3 and a half hours, then headed back to the hospital the next morning. Phillip only got about 2 and a half hours of sleep!! We waited around for awhile and then they sent us at 10:00am for a CT Scan. We went to radiology to wait for the scan. We had to wait for 2 hours because they were waiting for the doctor there to look at his x-ray first! They finally sent us back to his ward because they didn’t know how long it would take. So we walked back across the hospital to his ward, only to find out that radiology was ready for him! We went back and he got the CT scan quick that time! We went back to the ward. They served him lunch…actually had a decent menu to choose from! The doctor came and told Phillip the kidney stone was in his bladder. That means the worst pain should be over. They gave him lots of painkillers and some medicine to help “make him 25% more likely to pass the stone.” Then they sent him home at 2:00pm.
All in all, in was a good experience with the national healthcare system. We are very grateful for our doctor friends who got him in faster and helped with everything! We must admit, it was very nice to walk out of there with free medicines and not owing a penny for the hospital visit!!!! Hard to believe!!!
Phillip was still in a little pain for the next couple of days, so did take some more of the pain meds. He did end up with a cold to top it all off, so was just really worn out from everything! We had a lazy weekend and tried to catch up on sleep!!! (I think the thing that upset Phillip the most about all of this was missing out on a weekend of exploring and sightseeing!!! He did NOT like staying home!!!) We did get out today for a nice walk though. We walked to the little grocery store, which is about 20 minutes away, got some groceries, and walked back. It was 65 degrees, sunny, and beautiful outside!
Here’s to hoping for a better week…
No comments:
Post a Comment