During the stay....

So, Jake was admitted to the hospital on April 11th. Here is a time line of what happened...

April 11th- Jake was admitted for a small bowel obstruction. He had 3-4 doctors coming in asking him about the pain he was feeling. He just kept talking about his headache. He was extremely sensitive to light and sounds. Everything had to be dark and quiet. I had left to make arrangements for the kids. I ended up taking them to the Looman's house. When I got back to the hospital I noticed Jake had a rash. I mentioned it to the nurse. It wasn't long before the General Doc was back in to ask questions. After a brief assessment we were informed Jake had to be put in "contact isolation". They put him in a private room and we had to wear face masks. They started him on an antibiotic, ordered a cat scan and lumbar puncture (spinal tap) STAT. Oh and by the way, they decided he did not have an obstruction but a paralyic ilius (spelling???). That means his bowels were imobile due to excessive irritation (diarhea). They said they would start working again on their own. In the mean time, Jake was not allowed to drink or eat anything. Not even water.

April 12th- Still wearing face masks, still no water or food, still sitting in the dark, his fever had gone down. The infectious disease (ID) doc comes in and looks at Jake's file. She tells me his lumbar puncture numbers were "unimpressive". She said his flu test was negative. "He does not have the flu, so he can stop taking the Tamiflu (med for the flu...it has to be taken within 48 hours of the onset of flu symptoms...he had been sick for a week at this point). Just then the nurse comes in with a cup of water and some meds. She gives Jake the pills. It was Tamiflu. I thought it was odd that he was allowed to take pills now, since he isn't even supposed to drink water. The ID doc suspects a virus. She informs me she is going to stop his antibiotics. She leaves and 5 minutes later returns to tell us that Jake has Influenza. Hmmmmm. Didn't she just say he didn't have the flu? I think she thought I didn't know Influenza was the same as the flu! She explained that Jake was responding to the Tamiflu he had been taking. I asked her if they had been giving him Tamiflu in his IV and she said it was only in pill form. I explained to her today was the first time he had taken them. She changed the subject....very smuggly I might add. After she left I caused a big rukus with the nurses and come to find out - he had not taken that medication until she was actually in the room and really he shouldn't have been given it because he wasn't allowed to have anything in his stomach. So, his first diagnosis was based on misinformation. The next two docs that came in said he had Viral Meningitis. Also, all the docs agreed he could eat something. No one ordered it in the notes. So, Jake didn't get to eat (or drink). Oh, one more thing. They all agreed the Cat Scan was fine. GI x-rays looked fine. A surgeon, neurologist, ID doc and general doc all said these things were fine.

April 13th - Still in the dark, still not eating or drinking, no face masks! He woke up in the morning with a fever of 104. They gave him something for it and later checked him. It was 102. The nurse had obviously been tipped off that I was "difficult". She was completely rude to me. The docs all came in and didn't really say much. I missed the ID doc but she didn't changer her diagnosis. I also complained that Jake's chart didn't say he could eat yet. His head was still killing. Jake started hallucinating all day. His IV wasn't in a good place and each time he would bend his arm it would beep. Jake kept thinking it was the alarm clock. I asked her to move it and she almost laughed at me like I was ridiculus or something. As soon as the night nurse came in she moved it. It took 5 minutes. I didn't see the day nurse for 4-5 hours so I went looking for someone to take Jake's temp. When they took it, it was 105! Suddenly Jake had a lot of attention. Meds, oxegen, phone calls, specialist..... It was scary. His pupils were fixed and dialated. A different nurse was on by then and she called all the docs. None of our real ones were on call so we got their co-workers. Luckily. One ordered an MRI of Jake's brain. One ordered a massive amount of antibiotics. Another nurse came in and helped me strip Jake down and sponge him with cool water. His temp finally came down. He was hungry and at 10 PM Thursday Jake finally got to eat.

I'll tell you more later.