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I need to write this, to tell anyone who'll listen. It'll be filled with hopelessness, deadly invective, and a bizarre mystery.
Roughly a week ago, my roommate calls me out to the living room, late at night, to tell me she fell at work, and now her left leg and arm are numb, and she's almost constantly dizzy. She tells me she did NOT inform her supervisor of the fall, under the apparently mistaken impression that her job does NOT have workman's comp (a fact my sister in law, who works in workman's comp, disputes).
So, I'm automatically worried, as those're signs of a stroke to me. After some hemming and hawing, I finally convince her to let me take her to the hospital, although she constantly tries to get me distracted, she needs juice, she needs to leave a note for the other roommate, would I write it please? Take out 'stroke-like symptoms', you'll just worry her... Eventually, though, I do get her out to the car, and on our way to the hospital where other roommate works. Only to wait about six or seven hours before she gets admitted to the 'overnight' ward. Overnight turns into three days, as they run every sort of 'stroke-related' blood test they can think of. The doctor releases her, saying, "There's nothing more I can do, but I want you to follow up at this free health care clinic, for blood work with results that are pending."
Excuse me? You're releasing her before you know what's wrong?
We get her home, it's late (somewhere around 11 PM) she goes to bed.
The next morning, she can hardly walk short distances without falling to the ground. And, seeing as nurse roommie is going out of town for the weekend, I get really scared, I'm in no shape to take care of her all weekend alone. Not with the falling, so I eventually get her to go back to the hospital with me.
They readmit her, again, 'over night' for vertigo related issues, and dehydration. Fun, but she'd been on an IV drip the entire time she was there previously. But, whatever. Sunday rolls around, nurse roommie finally calls me back, asks what's up, I update her, and head home after a 9 hour shift that day (of sitting there, watching roommie's television, and watching her sleep, or eat...)
Monday, nurse roommie works, and she checks up on roommie, and gets told by a nurse on that floor that they're concerned since roommie doesn't have someone there to watch over her 24/7. No shit? Of course she doesn't, we're not family, just roommates. Her family's in TX, we're in OK. Nurse roommie has a job to go to, daily, and I have a life and a short fuse for hospital visits.
Anyway, nurse roommie says, upon return home, that roommie has been upgraded to high fall risk. Lovely, says I. Couple hours later, we get a call from roommie that she's being released, they can't find anything wrong, so go home.
Uh?
Nurse roommie, future roommie, and I, pile into my car and go to pick her up. She worries on our way out that she lost her prescription and work release forms, so she needs to go back and get them. She heads in, alone, from the far side of the hospital, while I sit idle in the pick up dock, blocking traffic, and loitering. Roommie's cell phone was disconnected for nonpayment, so we have no way of knowing why she's taking so long, is she lost, what have you. Eventually, she returns, no papers in hand, saying nurse roommie can pick them up tomorrow.
We go home, future roommie heads home for the night, nurse roommie goes to bed, I head to my room to hit up some WoW, and hear roommie stand up, but no footsteps. I poke my head out into the hall, and see roommie standing there, swaying back and forth. "Roommie? You okay?" I call. No answer. So I get up and go out to her, and repeat my question. Still no answer, so I shake her shoulder, amd she slumps back into the chair behind her, nurse roommie apparently hears that and comes running, five or ten minutes later, we three are packed into my car again, headed to a different hospital.
This hospital emergency room sends all the resident nurses in to get her story, as its apparently really bizarre. 3 AM Tuesday morning, roommie gets admitted at a second hospital. Nurse roommie and I go home, nurse roommie having gotten the day off, as her coworkers are all as confused and scared as we are.
NR and I spend the day doing errands, to her hospital, to roommie's job with work release note, to various places unrelated. She gets a call from roommie, they're releasing her, and have scheduled a tentative appointment with an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor, to be done outside the hospital. Plus, a few prescriptions to be filled soon...
Roommie and I pile into the car today to get her to the free clinic hospital number 1 referred her to. We get there, we wait, she gets called in to get her information as a new patient. They tell her she might be seen today, but no guarantees... she goes over to the window, signs in, gets called back, and asked about her situation, the secretary apparently called her boss to see if they could see her today, gets the okay, roommie comes back out and waits with me. Five minutes later, she gets called back again, only to be told the doctor nixed any possibility of seeing her today. Roommie comes back out in tears, we get up to leave, roommie slumps against the wall as we walk out, another secretary sees this and calls out, from across the room, "Are you okay?"
I barely hold back from snapping, "No, she's not okay! She's been in and out of hospitals all last week, and the doctor just said, 'Not today! Make an appointment for a week from now, and if anything happens in the mean time, go back to the ER' ! Meanwhile, her two roommates are scared out of their minds that something terrible will happen to her in her sleep, and her parents are showing no concern about it!"
I do say, "No, she's not okay... she needs medicine, and she doesn't have the money to get it filled. The doctor told us if anything happens between now and her appointment, to take her back to the ER, where she'll just get admitted for a day, and the doctor will throw up her hands and go, 'IDK, my BFF, Jill?', basically."
Secretary hands me some information about a nearby clinic that might at least be able to fill her scripts for her. We drive there, only to find out they're closed for August. But here's another place to try to get her scripts filled. I call, and they're right at the cut off for taking in scripts for the day. So, no go there.
We head home, and I nearly get rear-ended as I'm attempting to merge out of the lane that's fast dwindling to nothing, going the construction zone speed limit of 55, by a truck going 70. I avoided it, luckily.
Then, to top it all off, nurse roommie's GPS box starts giving me bizarre directions, not liking it when I take the detour around the construction. And then, my car starts pinging the 'low fuel' light at me. I'm running out of money, and it's not even the 15th!
Roughly a week ago, my roommate calls me out to the living room, late at night, to tell me she fell at work, and now her left leg and arm are numb, and she's almost constantly dizzy. She tells me she did NOT inform her supervisor of the fall, under the apparently mistaken impression that her job does NOT have workman's comp (a fact my sister in law, who works in workman's comp, disputes).
So, I'm automatically worried, as those're signs of a stroke to me. After some hemming and hawing, I finally convince her to let me take her to the hospital, although she constantly tries to get me distracted, she needs juice, she needs to leave a note for the other roommate, would I write it please? Take out 'stroke-like symptoms', you'll just worry her... Eventually, though, I do get her out to the car, and on our way to the hospital where other roommate works. Only to wait about six or seven hours before she gets admitted to the 'overnight' ward. Overnight turns into three days, as they run every sort of 'stroke-related' blood test they can think of. The doctor releases her, saying, "There's nothing more I can do, but I want you to follow up at this free health care clinic, for blood work with results that are pending."
Excuse me? You're releasing her before you know what's wrong?
We get her home, it's late (somewhere around 11 PM) she goes to bed.
The next morning, she can hardly walk short distances without falling to the ground. And, seeing as nurse roommie is going out of town for the weekend, I get really scared, I'm in no shape to take care of her all weekend alone. Not with the falling, so I eventually get her to go back to the hospital with me.
They readmit her, again, 'over night' for vertigo related issues, and dehydration. Fun, but she'd been on an IV drip the entire time she was there previously. But, whatever. Sunday rolls around, nurse roommie finally calls me back, asks what's up, I update her, and head home after a 9 hour shift that day (of sitting there, watching roommie's television, and watching her sleep, or eat...)
Monday, nurse roommie works, and she checks up on roommie, and gets told by a nurse on that floor that they're concerned since roommie doesn't have someone there to watch over her 24/7. No shit? Of course she doesn't, we're not family, just roommates. Her family's in TX, we're in OK. Nurse roommie has a job to go to, daily, and I have a life and a short fuse for hospital visits.
Anyway, nurse roommie says, upon return home, that roommie has been upgraded to high fall risk. Lovely, says I. Couple hours later, we get a call from roommie that she's being released, they can't find anything wrong, so go home.
Uh?
Nurse roommie, future roommie, and I, pile into my car and go to pick her up. She worries on our way out that she lost her prescription and work release forms, so she needs to go back and get them. She heads in, alone, from the far side of the hospital, while I sit idle in the pick up dock, blocking traffic, and loitering. Roommie's cell phone was disconnected for nonpayment, so we have no way of knowing why she's taking so long, is she lost, what have you. Eventually, she returns, no papers in hand, saying nurse roommie can pick them up tomorrow.
We go home, future roommie heads home for the night, nurse roommie goes to bed, I head to my room to hit up some WoW, and hear roommie stand up, but no footsteps. I poke my head out into the hall, and see roommie standing there, swaying back and forth. "Roommie? You okay?" I call. No answer. So I get up and go out to her, and repeat my question. Still no answer, so I shake her shoulder, amd she slumps back into the chair behind her, nurse roommie apparently hears that and comes running, five or ten minutes later, we three are packed into my car again, headed to a different hospital.
This hospital emergency room sends all the resident nurses in to get her story, as its apparently really bizarre. 3 AM Tuesday morning, roommie gets admitted at a second hospital. Nurse roommie and I go home, nurse roommie having gotten the day off, as her coworkers are all as confused and scared as we are.
NR and I spend the day doing errands, to her hospital, to roommie's job with work release note, to various places unrelated. She gets a call from roommie, they're releasing her, and have scheduled a tentative appointment with an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor, to be done outside the hospital. Plus, a few prescriptions to be filled soon...
Roommie and I pile into the car today to get her to the free clinic hospital number 1 referred her to. We get there, we wait, she gets called in to get her information as a new patient. They tell her she might be seen today, but no guarantees... she goes over to the window, signs in, gets called back, and asked about her situation, the secretary apparently called her boss to see if they could see her today, gets the okay, roommie comes back out and waits with me. Five minutes later, she gets called back again, only to be told the doctor nixed any possibility of seeing her today. Roommie comes back out in tears, we get up to leave, roommie slumps against the wall as we walk out, another secretary sees this and calls out, from across the room, "Are you okay?"
I barely hold back from snapping, "No, she's not okay! She's been in and out of hospitals all last week, and the doctor just said, 'Not today! Make an appointment for a week from now, and if anything happens in the mean time, go back to the ER' ! Meanwhile, her two roommates are scared out of their minds that something terrible will happen to her in her sleep, and her parents are showing no concern about it!"
I do say, "No, she's not okay... she needs medicine, and she doesn't have the money to get it filled. The doctor told us if anything happens between now and her appointment, to take her back to the ER, where she'll just get admitted for a day, and the doctor will throw up her hands and go, 'IDK, my BFF, Jill?', basically."
Secretary hands me some information about a nearby clinic that might at least be able to fill her scripts for her. We drive there, only to find out they're closed for August. But here's another place to try to get her scripts filled. I call, and they're right at the cut off for taking in scripts for the day. So, no go there.
We head home, and I nearly get rear-ended as I'm attempting to merge out of the lane that's fast dwindling to nothing, going the construction zone speed limit of 55, by a truck going 70. I avoided it, luckily.
Then, to top it all off, nurse roommie's GPS box starts giving me bizarre directions, not liking it when I take the detour around the construction. And then, my car starts pinging the 'low fuel' light at me. I'm running out of money, and it's not even the 15th!
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