We arrived at the hospital at 7:00 am. The surgical center was hopping. They took Ethan back and prepped him. They then came and got me. I told Ethan that if at anytime he felt more comfortable having me there, he could ask for me and tell them I am his advocate. I felt comfortable that he could handle things on his own.
As I was waiting, there was a lady watching videos at full volume on her phone. Apparently she didn’t get the memo about how annoying this was to everyone around her. Trying to focus on work with obnoxious music and clearly some sort of person swimming and screaming was not ideal. Why are there people like this?
She also started reading news articles out loud to her friend. She also was watching ads about “clearing out stuck poop”. The waiting room was small and I couldn’t get away. Grrrr!
I know I am sensitive to noise but almost every person in the waiting room had their ringer on. Every text message would ping them. The volume turned up as loud as possible. Some of the people were actively texting and would get pinged every 20 seconds. I understand that they don’t want to miss a text or phone call but it is SO annoying. This is something that has gotten worse for me with age.
They called me in to sit with Ethan until his procedure. They put in an IV catheter. Ethan said they missed the first time. He was actively getting fluids.
We listened to the people around us getting the same questions we got from the nurse. The man next to us was watching tv and the next thing he remembered was waking up in a hospital. He had a brain aneurism, was taken to the hospital and placed in a coma for 21 days. He had to learn how to walk again. He was there to have an angiogram to see how his brain looked now.
What a hardship. I looked at my young adult sitting before me, able to use his arms and legs, able to talk, swallow normally and live a relatively normal life now. He has also been through so much. I am thankful it wasn’t worse for him.
They took him back and I went to the waiting room. I continued working and listening to everyone’s ringer go off. I was silently raging. It also made it hard to focus on my work. I get so distracted by the noise, I have to read things like 5 times.
After the procedure I joined Ethan in his room. He said he got to watch the procedure on a tv. He also learned that transplanted kidney’s don’t have feeling because they don’t have nerves that are connected. Huh! I wonder if that is why he can’t feel his kidney stone?
I noticed Ethan’s fluid rate was slow. I asked the nurse if we could speed it up. I do feel like this was crossing the line for me. I was VERY respectful, asked if there was any way to increase the fluid rate as Ethan could use a little flushing out of his system. The nurse was great and sped it up.
I also advocated for Tylenol to help with the pain cycle, swelling and to keep Ethan comfortable. They promptly brought in the Tylenol.
Multiple times today we both said “can you imagine if we had to drive 6 hours home after this?” We are thankful we are close to home. We miss our team in NYC but the convenience of having this appointment close by is amazing.
Ethan made ZERO complaints today. Not one! He was ready to go, he was respectful, he was cooperative, he smiled. Who is this kid?
We are still struggling getting our follow up scheduled. I have reached out daily for the past several days met with crickets.
When we arrived home Ethan went upstairs. Jiminy followed him. A little while later I went to check on Ethan. He was fast asleep with a little Jiminy curled up beside him.
So glad we are so close to home now.
He has a limb alert every time now because of his fistula.
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