Forgotten but not gone

Hospitals are busy places, there is a lot going on. The paperwork alone in these institutions rivals any overregulated bureaucracy. You can forgive these folks for missing an item here or there on their checklist. They do have a checklist I hope. But it goes beyond forgiveness, I think, when they forget to order breakfast for the patient. This happened this morning, Renee was just laying around waiting for her morning meal and I had to tell her to hit the button and ask for breakfast. After she informed the nurse over the intercom that she did not get a tray, I heard a howl from the nursing station followed by, “This is unbelievable!” I guess she discovered that no one got fed. Unbelievable, I have to agree, yes it is. It goes beyond oversight when it turns out they forgot to order breakfast for the entire unit. The folks in the kitchen were probably sitting back saying, man, it’s a light day. But nobody noticed that an entire wing of the hospital didn’t get fed?

Renee was sent home from Cleveland with strict dietary procedures. She is supposed to be eating six small meals a day. All of these are supposed to be Soft GI, foods that are easy on the digestive tract, no nuts, raw vegetables, or roughage. Not only are they forgetting to feed her in the “BEast,” that’s shorthand for Baptist Hospital East, but when they do she is getting foods on her tray that are on her forbidden list. Certain vegetables even when cooked should not be eaten. She got a huge helping of broccoli for dinner yesterday. They did try to cook it until there was nothing left of it but the smell, which had me reaching for the gag bag it was so overpowering, but this still does not qualify it for her post-op fare.

Renee is doing much better and is wishing she could get up and leave. No one wants a repeat of this little adventure so that is not going to happen today. The doctors are still trying to figure out what’s behind the high output and watery consistency from the ileostomy. If this function doesn’t slow down and firm up then the cycle will continue and Renee would be back in next week with dehydration. She really can’t risk putting her kidney through renal failure again. Her blood doctor says all the tests are coming back positive, white counts and platelets are moving in the right direction. They should be switching her to an oral antibiotic soon for the UTI. They did a test for C-diff and it came back negative. They are planning on removing Renee from the fluid IV today to see how she fairs without it. All of this is great, but they still don’t answer the question why.

Her regular GI doc is supposed to be consulting with the surgeon in Cleveland for some answers but they said this after Renee’s setback following her last surgery and it didn’t happen. I emailed the surgeon just to let him know what’s going on but we’ve received no indication that he has been in touch with her doctor here.

It looks like Renee will be held over for the weekend on the summer circuit of the Hospital Blues Revue. There are some tickets left. Don’t miss the show! Let’s just hope the promoters don’t forget she’s still on tour.