Hospital Week

To say it's been a long week would be an understatement however it's a necessary evil at this time. I checked in to the emergency room on Saturday the 27th of December and I come from you live from my hospital bed in the transplant unit in said hospital.

I was feeling very tired and sluggish in the days leading up to checking into the ER thinking (wishing) it would be a quick stay but really, I know those don't exist. This is my eighth trip to the hospital since September and I've become some sort of a hospital patient professional. Knowing the time of shift changes of the nurses to what time the custodial staff shows up to, to when the doctors are supposed to visit. I now realize not taking anything for granted when it comes to my health. Do not take anything that said or done in the hospital for granted, as it might change but similar to life, none of us should take anything for granted as it is such a blessing to be on this earth.

What has happened on nearly if not all of my hospital stays is I go in for one thing and around day two or three in the hospital, just as I think everything is good to go and the problem is fixed, another problem arises. At first this would make me so mad as I felt like a prisoner who was not allowed to leave his jail cell. After some thought and prayer I now realize that if they didn't hold me back and fix the new problem I would have been in big trouble in a couple days at home and would just have to recheck myself back into the emergency room.

The Emergency Room: The first of many hurdles of a trip to the hospital

The best way I can compare the emergency room waiting room is it’s like waiting in line at the DMV on steroids. It doesn't matter who you know or how much money you make, checking into the emergency room is the same experience for everyone. It is honestly one of the saddest things you can ever see. Trust me, the last thing I wanna do is be political on this blog but this isn't even politics; our health care system in this country is completely and totally broken. In this last waiting room the lineup was myself who looks perfectly fine, some guy holding a towel to his bleeding head, an old lady with an oxygen tank gasping for air on each breath and last but certainly not least somebody who is completely strung out on drugs. When they call your name it couldn't be a bigger relief, they take you back to triage take your blood and your temperature and the rest of your vitals then immediately send you back to the waiting room. After that the order in which you're seen is determined by who got there first and how crowded it is. I've sat in that chair for 20 minutes and up to 7 hours before receiving treatment.

Once they call your name they check your blood and vitals one more time you and are either admitted or they tell you you're fine and go home, unfortunately I've never been told “you're fine head on back home here's an aspirin”. So you're admitted and it is a long night of no sleep until you get a bed available and once you do that's when it truly begins. IV's going in random medicine given to you and every hospital's favorite line “We are waiting for the doctor on that”. Just as you get settled in is just when you get taken to another room for a scan or a ultrasound or one of the million different treatment centers inside the hospital. It's like a scene out of one of the mob movies where they tell the guy “just get in the car don't worry about where we're going”. Luckily I've never ended up in the back of a trunk. Once you're done with that test back to your room and wait. Now I want to get this off my chest, I have nothing but the utmost respect for all of these hospital workers and everyone who works in healthcare. It is a thankless job, you're underpaid and you have little to no control over your schedule. I used to get pissed when someone moved our teams meeting back 30 minutes much less your boss assigning you 12 more hours of work at the end of a long day.

So after about 24 hours of tests and blood draws they usually figure out what is wrong and have an answer to fix it. Now the selfish part of you says great let’s fix it now, it just doesn't work that way in healthcare. A single nurse has eight people under their watch each doctor has four to five nurses under their watch and things just can't get done that quickly. If you're lucky after 48 to 72 hours in the hospital they have fixed what you came in for, but with the disease I have that's never enough. Because the liver works with so many different organs in your body, once you fix one areas problems the little son of a bitch moves to another part of your body. And that's why I'm still in here and going to be for a good amount of time.

This blog was a little bit of a word vomit but gives you an idea of how awful this disease is and what my day-to-day schedule has looked like for the past week or so. One of the things that it has has given me is time; time to vent, time to cry, time to think, and most importantly time to think about my relationship with God. I have been listening to a podcast on how to pray, and there are so many more layers to the act of prayer then just dropping to your knees and reciting the Lord's prayer. For instance, I have learned to ask God not to fix my issues or give me the result I want to hear to ask but instead for him to please grant all of his powers to the doctors and nurses that are in charge of my care. It has been quite interesting and helpful.

Anyways, as I finish up watching what has to be my 100th football game from this bed I would like to wish all of you a wonderful week and whatever you're going through remember; this too shall pass.

Song of the day https://youtu.be/sPZGXIk98xQ