and yet another parathyroidectomy story

[aharris2]

Rolando is next to me, snoring peacefully. He had his parathyroids removed yesterday. We are staying in the hospital until his calcium level stabilizes.

It was a long day, beginning at 5 am for a 6 am arrival at the hospital. I don't know why they needed us there so early since we weren't even called to register until 9:30. The surgery was performed by the doctor featured in Black's post (thanks, Black) - apparently world renowned, and practicing right here in Tampa.

http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=2124.0  Parathyroid Disease and Treatment - Excellent Site!

The surgery went well. Rolando has one small incision, about an inch in length. They had a drain in, but removed it this morning. He was on an IV drip (calcium) yesterday, discontinued today. They'll be monitoring him for a couple of days to make sure his calcium level is stable and then home we go!!!

One comment, Rolando was unpleasantly surprised by the amount of pain he was in immediately after surgery. It was substantial. He was given morphine. The pain has diminished, but not enough to stop using the morphine. Maybe by morning...

Well, they have just rolled in a recliner for me, so, good night. Neither one of us have had much sleep the past two nights. We will share more as the effects of the surgery become clear, but most dramatically and almost immediately, his pth level has dropped from 1000 to 23. Now maybe his broken leg will heal.

[petey]

thinking of you both...sending hugs and prayers your way!  Hurry home!

[flip]

My prayers are with you both.

[thegrammalady]

hope he'll be feeling better soon.

[Ang]

hope  he  gets  better  soon

[Sluff]

Thinking of you both and praying the surgery was a success.  When Epoman had his done they nicked his vocal chords and messed up his speech a little. A buddy of mine in Ohio who does not have kidney disease just had his taken out last friday becuse he had an extremely high calcium level that without surgery he could have died. When he told me about this, I asked him if he had kidney disease cause I never heard of this outside of ESRD. Well I hope you slept halfway decent Alene and I'll lift you both up in prayer today. 

[2_DallasCowboys]

My thoughts and prayers are with you both!

Sending best wishes for a speedy and painless
recovery for Rolando, I hope he is home in no time
at all.

Anne

[willieandwinnie]

  Will continue to be thinking and praying for you. Please keep us updated.

[aharris2]

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. That alone should be enough to heal Rolando and ease his pain.

How's this - everyone knows how noisy it is and difficult it is to sleep in the hospital even with the door closed. Even so, I was going to close the door...close the door...close the door? There's no door!!! In fact, there's no wall!!! Rolando is in a "private" room with 3 walls and a curtain instead of the 4th wall . What the H*LL is up with this???

Private?   But the joke's on us.

[willieandwinnie]

No door? That is about the most stupid thing I have heard lately. They call it a private room. I heard of cutting corners but......... no wall, no door. What will they do next? Oh forget I said that, because I'm sure there is still more they could and will do. I hope you got some rest. I will be thinking about you. 

[Sluff]

aw..geez how ridiculous is that.

[Ohio Buckeye]

You are both in my thoughts and prayers.

[kitkatz]

Bring on the headphones for peace and quiet! You all sneak into the hospital on us and have surgery!  I hope Rolando recovers quickly and gets out soon!

[monrein]

Thinking of both of you and hope you're back home soon.

[aharris2]

Hi everyone. It appears that we will be getting out of here tomorrow after a "special" three hour dialysis session (he's usually Tu, Th, Sa). Please keep your fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong.

We just did battle with the nurse nazi robot creature. Rolando's blood sugar was 275. By the doctor's formula, that blood sugar requires 6 units of Novolog Aspart. Our medication list clearly states that 1 unit of insulin drops Rolando blood sugar 50 points. Doing the math, 6 units would drop his blood sugar to negative 25 - to dead and beyond. So we asked her for 3 units, but that was not an option. We either had to accept 6 units or no units, 3 was not an option! So we had no choice but to refuse the insulin. Then, the nurse begins lecturing us. A blood sugar of 300 is high, it's very bad and your incision will not be able to heal blah blah, blah blah, blah blah...
 
...if he's dead it won't heal either. This kind of stuff makes me crazy. Rolando has been insulin dependent for almost 30 years. His A1C is below 6. He knows how to manage his insulin. If this lady cannot exercise common sense and good judgement, she might as well be replaced by a robot.

As a result of our experience during his January hospitalization when, checking it ourselves as we always do, we watched his blood sugar step up to 300, 350, 400, 450 sharing it with the nurse at every point only to have her say "he's not due for his next accucheck until blah, blah" and refusing to do anything about it, we have decided to carry our own emergency supply of insulin. (That nurse finally relented at a blood sugar of 475 and administered insulin). I am expecting that, by some magical means, Rolando's blood sugar will be around 125 at the next accucheck even though we had to refuse the insulin.

Folks, as many of you already know and practice, we cannot leave our loved ones alone in the hospital at the mercy of these automatons. Nurses are supposed to be the first line of defense, the patient's advocate, not mindless drones blindly goosestepping to the doctor's orders... jeez, am I ranting again???

[The Wife]

I'm so glad you're there with him.  Geez, what next?  It's bad enough he has to go through this but when we have to fight the medical staff, grrrrr....

Hang in there and thanks for the link. 

Sending love.

[kitkatz]

kicking ass and taking names in the hospital again!

[spacezombie]

Glad you are there to keep the nurse drones at bay. I just had my parathyroid removed in February and I am feeling great.

[cris]

Alene,
when i saw your photos in the other section, i felt close to you and Rolando. You two make an awesome pair that radiates love. Rest assured both of you are in my prayers always. You make a great knight for Rolando. With my Mom, we always make a point that we list everything administered to her in the hospital, medicines, injections, and we always insists on reading the lab results ourselves. I guess more often than not, we have to assert ourselves and make a point, we may not be in a medical profession but what's at stake is the life of a love one.
Go, go lady, educate them, they only manage to graduate but they need a lot of common sense and compassion.
love,
cris

[aharris2]

Thanks again everyone. We are home. The nurse nazi saw us off. She scolded us at the doctor's request because Rolando's blood sugar is "out of control". She spoke directly to him and told him to never refuse insulin, he's already had amputations and he doesn't want to lose the other leg to poorly controlled blood sugar. That f**king b***h! I am livid!!!

1. His blood sugar is only out of control at the hospital and only because mindless drones are responsible for controlling it.
2. Rolando lost his leg to calciphylaxis, not out of control blood sugar. His well controlled blood sugar is part of what allowed him to heal.
3. I do not appreciate being spoken down to and I do not appreciate having Rolando spoken to like he is a naughty child!

Now that Rolando is safely tucked into his own bed under his own control, is there any reason why I should not go back there and beat her until I am no longer angry? I can't think of a single one right now.

[monrein]

Well, it is Kit's big stick but I bet she'd tell you to whack her and hard.

[willieandwinnie]

Alene, I'm so happy that you got Rolando away from that crazy ass nurse. I'm with you on the you can't ever leave your loved one alone because most of the medical community doesn't have a clue of what they are doing.  I'll say a pray that everything starts going better and if it would make you feel better, I'd go use this  on the nurse and I'll come bail you out if you need me. You get some rest now and keep us updated. We're always here for you. 

[petey]

Just say the word, Alene -- and we gather up a posse and go help you!  Take this nurse  and this  and this 

Glad Rolando's home.  Now he can get the tlc he needs.