What a long day

Mom and i were heading out for a late lunch around 3pm when Jeremy called. His grandma had called him to tell him that his mom was having trouble breathing and wanted someone to go check on her. So, seems how mom and i were near her place, we stopped in. OMG....we got htere and she was a mess. She was breathing so hard, it was like a fish out of water or something. My mom and I quickly decided that we had to call an ambulance. Of course, the look of sheer terror on my mom's face as she flashed back 10 + years to her own mom having these bad breathing spells, was enough to put me over the edge. The ambulance got there and requested an emt to meet them en route to the hospital. My car was at my moms, jeremy was home wihtout a car, so we decided for me to go with my mom back to her place to get my car and pick jeremy up, while the ambulance took his mom to the hospital. But wait, it gets even better:

She only has a county sponsored health plan (for low incomes). it doesn't cover ER visits or anything. So, the ambulance driver asks what hospital. We tell him her insurance situation and he assures us it doesn' tmatter what hospital she goes to. We always thought that with no insurance, your best bet was Hurley, the state funded hospital, bc they cannot turn anyone away for no insurance. Well, seems how driver said it didn't matter, she said Mclaren, bc that's where her dr works through. Well, BIG FAT MISTAKE! They gave her a breathing treatment en route, hooked an iv up and when she got to the hospital, they ran a ct scan and chest xray, drew blood, yada yada. mind you, this takes place at a very slow rate and over several hours. Then, after almost 5 hours in this place, and telling us she has pnumonia and one lung was full of fluid, the other half full, they write a Rx for an antibiotic, tylenol 3 (bc every trip to er warrants a pain med anyway, its standard...lol) and an albuteral inhaler. They freakin discharge her!!!! Well, she is still breathing like a fish out of water and after a call to gma (her mom), we decide to take her to hurley..bc there is no way she is in any shape to be home alone.

So, we get to hurley. They had to rerun all those tests and everything, but they were appalled that mclaren discharged her, bc just in the 15 min drive btwn hospitals, her O2 saturation was 79% and that is horribly low. They called a resperatory therapist in right away and started her on breathing treatments. When the doc came in, he said they would probably admit her, bc she was running a fever, and even during a breathing treatment her O2 sats were still only at like 94% at best. So, they had to wait for her doc to answer their page, to find out they had to page the oncall doc, etc. By the time that was said and done, we learned that they had to transport her back to mclaren for ins. reasons. Yippee. They can't take care of a freakin rat there, it seems. Even after hurley knew she was being moved to a diff hospital, they continued to treat her, medicate her, etc. I was amazed. Well, after 12 hours of this fiasco, the ambulance finally arrived to take her to McLaren. My poor jeremy was sleeping on the cold hard nasty floors bc he was so exhausted. So, she said it would be fine for us to go home and get some rest and she would be ok. I was a bit hesitant, bc i dont know what kinda treatment she is gonna get at that damned hospital. I tell ya though, gma was ready to rip them a new rear end when they discharged her. They don't wanna mess with that hot headed polish mamma! LOL. I am completely exhausted, yet my adrenaline is too high for sleep. I certainly had some lessons in patient advocacy. Geesh. After about 10 hours, i was just plain fed up with the whole ordeal. She is sick. It didn't take a medical degree for me to recognize this. We called a damned ambulance, knowing she will be billed for it. Trust me, she is sick. Make her better.

I have to get in the morning and take care of some business for her, work related. I know i should be in bed. I realized today that when it comes to her care, it is going to primarily fall on my shoulders. She has two sons. Jeremy has to work and michael is 20 mins away without a car and has college and work. That leaves me. Well her mom, but gma is in her 60s and just can't do a whole lot. I have to go clean her apartment bc it is a mess. She was sick for a week, prior to getting this bad. I hate to clean. Don't ppl know this! Look at my own place. It's a heap of junk piles, dust, toys and clothes. Don't forget hte sink full of dishes. But, if i don't do it, she is going to attempt it and get worse. im sure they will discharge her tomorrow, so it has to be done.

well, thinking of that has worn me right out. LOL. I do need to try to rest my weary head.