Friday, February 11, 2011

Randy's hospital stay....

Wow, it has been a month since I have blogged. Granted I have sat down a million times since then, planning on blogging, but never actually put words down. A lot has happened…a lot of funny stuff….some troubling things….life changing moments…and just down right “can’t believe that happened”…things….so here is everything about Randy in a LARGE nutshell:

January 8, Randy had passed out again in the livingroom. The boys ran downstairs and woke me up.  Took me almost 2 hours to get him awake and dressed, and feed the boys spaghetti (they were already cooking it, so I had them eat while I was getting things together). I had told them it was a scavenger hunt and wrote down a list of everything we needed to bring (see previous blog if you are confused).

By the time we left, we had a backpack on wheels and a large duffel bag with us.  Why you ask….I will tell you. Remember my list….well this is what was packed for a trip to the ER (which I figured would take a few hours) :
Ø  A bottle of water for each boy and me (5 total)
Ø  2 DS machines, with chargers
Ø  Case of DS games (at least 30)
Ø  Game boy with charger
Ø  3 cell phones (with internet access and chargers)
Ø  4 books
Ø  Gallon size Ziploc bag of animal crackers
Ø  6 packs of Pokemon cards including 30 dice and chips
Ø  Notebook and 6 pens
Ø  $7.85 in CHANGE

Now you might think that is a lot, and I know the valet thought I was crazy and moving in, but if you have kids, you know how long they will sit still….about 10 nano seconds!

So anyway, we camped out and took up one whole corner of the waiting room at Bellin Hospital (we went there instead of St. Mary’s). Randy was checked in and I started rearranging the furniture. Thankfully on a Saturday night at 7pm, it wasn’t too busy and we were the only ones there.



The boys were VERY well behaved, I was amazed! Even the security guard had come down and said how good they were being (I thought he was going to yell at me, because I kept leaving them alone to go to the ER room and check on Randy).

They were finally able to get an IV into Randy around 10:30pm (yes that is 3 ½ hours AFTER we showed up…and 30 pokes later….all over his arms/hands/legs/feet). The doctor had come in and talked to Randy about the test they were going to be taking. His blood pressure was 53/43, his temp was 103.2, all since he had come in and they believe for at least 8 hours.

Around midnight, the doctors had come back and said they thought he had mono….I told the doctor…”no, he can’t have mono…find something else”. The whole time I was thinking that if he had mono, then I had mono, then the boys would all have mono, then they would bring it to their father’s house and give it to their 1 week old baby brother…and that wouldn’t be fair.  About 20 minutes later the doctor came back and said, “You were right, it is not mono….it is kidney failure, and we need to get  him up to ICU right away!”.

 I took one look at the doctor and said, “um, can we get mono back please? We will take that one.” The doctor looked at me funny and said, “you can’t really choose what you get. You can’t switch one for the other.”

Then I explained to him that I wanted what was behind door #3….he said nope. I looked at Randy and said, “damn, I forgot to say No Wammy!” I was stunned….I didn’t know what to think. Here I am looking at my 32 year old husband hooked up to IV’s and now being told his kidneys are failing….this wasn’t fair….this isn’t why I brought him to the hospital…I wanted some new meds and be able to take him home….I was not expecting him to have to be admitted…and to the ICU…no less.

               I went back to the lobby, stood by the doors and watched my boys playing Pokemon, video games, and sleeping across 2 chairs. Oblivious to the seriousness of what was going on…they were just enjoying staying up late, and teaching the security guard and valet how to play Pokemon.


                I called up Jehrad (my xhusband) and asked if he could take the boys for the night. I explained that we were only a few blocks away and what was going on….and he told me it was ok. Granted my boys didn’t want to go, they wanted to sleep at the hospital…but I knew they needed to get some sleep, and in a real bed.

                I dropped them off and headed up to the ICU floor to get settled. As soon as I realized how nice and HUGE the waiting room was, I was thinking it would have been really easy to keep the boys with me. I made a few phone calls to keep everyone updated, and checked on Randy.

                They had convinced him they needed to get an IV into his neck, since the ones in his arms weren’t going to hold for long (they had to get an ultra sound machine on his arm just to find veins to poke). He wasn’t too thrilled, but he ended up HAVING to let them put the neck IV in.

                To make a long story short, he spent 3 days in the ICU, before they realized that his Pitutary gland had stopped working. The pituitary glad produces cortisone which helps keep your blood pressure up. Because it wasn’t working, his blood pressure started dropping (and with the high blood pressure pills and water pills he was taking…it dropped dangerously low). With very low blood pressure your kidneys will stop working and begin to fail.

                After a hundred or so different tests, and specialist, he was finally given the right meds to control his low blood pressure and fever and his kidneys started to work again. Thankfully he didn’t need to have dialysis and they do not believe he developed permanent damage.

                He was moved to a “normal” room on Tuesday afternoon, and was released by Thursday afternoon. At least the doctor was able to get him home before my birthday….that made me happy…that and knowing that my husband would be getting better!