Sunday, November 18, 2012

Emergency Room

We knew Rhoda was sick before church so once church was over was sent a text to find out how she was feeling. The reply came back not good, vomiting 10-15 times and can't stand up without fainting. By the time we arrived home, she called to ask for help. She called prompt care and they told her to go straight to the emergency room for fluids. As she was too weak to drive, vomiting every 15 minutes and not able to sit up without feeling faint I left immediately drove to her place then headed to Proctor arriving before 3:00pm. They didn't waste much time getting her in a bed. She was pretty severely dehydrated and the first step was to get liquids into her body by IV.
The first RN named Logan pictured below tried to put the IV in twice, once on each arm before giving up and asking for help.
The next RN Heather (an expert on IV's) came in and tried 3 times, twice on one arm and once on the other before giving up and asking for help.
At this point they discuss how dehydrated she is and how her veins keep collapsing causing the IV to blow. Heather decides to try wrapping Rhoda's arms in warm blankets. By this time she is feeling a bit like a living pin cushion.
The 3rd RN Tammy arrives, states she works at St. Francis, is an IV expert and came to put in Rhoda's IV. After 2 unsuccessful tries, she tells Rhoda, I'm going to try one more time.
By the 8th needle jabbing into some part of her arms or hands Tammy has success.
Finally the IV was in and running. The Physicians Assistant starts Rhoda on anti-nausea medicine then leaves her to rest while the IV bag empties. By the time that bag was emptied and the medicine taking effect a bit they discharged her with a prescription for Zophran more anti-nausea medicine, told to take every 6 hours and we could get it filled at any pharmacy. We drove straight to Walgreens only to find the store open but the pharmacy closed. Next we tried Walmart, again the pharmacy was closed. What good is a prescription that can't be filled? We gave up and drove to the farm with plans for Rhoda to stay the night on the couch (the beds here are still not set up) only to find Mark laying on the couch sick and vomiting. Here we go again!

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