The Rest of the Hospital Story...

April 14th - Jake's fever went down. The ID doc came in and asked me why her partner prescribed Jake antibiotics. She was pretty much accusing me of talking him into giving him them. I never actually talked to the man. She said his MRI was "clear" and there was no reason to have him on the antibiotics and she was taking him off of them Sat. Morning. He would get to finish out the cycle that was started. I questioned her about the fact that his fever went down and she told me with the flu (mind you....His second flu test came back negative) his fever would go up and down and it was just a coincidence that his fever had gone down while taking the antibiotics. I told her when Jake was coherent enough to talk he was complaining about his ear hurting. I asked her to look in his ear. She told me she didn't have the equipment to do so. I asked her if she could go get it and she said NO. The Neurologist came in and also said the MRI was fine. I told him I had noticed a distinct change in Jake's personality. He told me the hospital could do that to people. I told him about the hallucinations and explained that Jake had been very "distant" and almost "cold". He blew me off. He said it was the fever, drugs or effects of meningitis. "Jake is getting better", he said. The General Practioner came in and informed us that everyone had overreached the previous evening. He also said they would stop the antibiotics in the A.M. We told the GP about Jake's ear ache and he asked Jake if it still hurt. Jake said no because, after taking strong narcotics, it didn't hurt anymore. Plus he was seeing flowers and zoo scenes on the wall...Nothing hurt at that point. So, the GP didn't look at his ear. Friday evening, his nurse from Tuesday came in to work. She looked at his file and was very confused. I started talking to her about some of the stuff that went on during the stay. She talked to a few other nurses and they all agreed something was seriously wrong. So that night while I slept she started digging. By the next morning she had found the infection in his ear from the MRI report. THREE Doctors missed it but a nurse could see it. She had called supervisors, management, patient care people... I told her I wanted the ID doc removed from the case.

April 15th - The ID doc came in and told me she was the only doc in for the week-end and wanted to know if she had permission to give Jake care. I told her if she was our only choice that was fine. She was very humbled. This is what she said...."Your husband has mastoiditis. It is an infection of the mastoid area. We will be keeping him on the antibiotics." She turned and walked out. I chased her into the hall and I said, "Can that effect his brain?" She said "yes, but we have no reason to think it has". GREAT. No reason except my husband's entire personality had changed and he is seeing things that aren't there. So, I talked to the day nurse and asked him to page the GP because we had a lot of questions and we would like an ear, nose and throat doc to come in and speak with us. She told the nurse, "He doesn't need one and if she wants one she can hire one herself or argue with the other GP on Monday about it." Aren't these people lovely. She did come in later during the day. She did not identify herself and listened to Jake's abdomen, heart and asked him if he needed anything. She left and we didn't even know it was her for a few hours later. No explanations. No bedside manner. The Neurologist came in and we questioned him about the MRI results. He said it was his job to look at the brain, not the rest of the results. He was smug. Jake woke up and talked to him just fine. I told him, he was not normal and something was still wrong. He said it was the narcotic.

Easter: April 16 - I woke up at 5:30 A.M. I watched Jake twitch and hallucinate for two hours before I went home to get ready for Church. He had not taken the narcotic for 12 hours and had not had a fever for 48 hours. I was convinced they had messed my husband up. Sunday was so hard for me. I didn't know if I would ever get the real Jake back. I decided to have him transferred to the Cleveland Clinic. The on call GP was extremely rude and asked me if I thought I knew more than the doctors. I told her that didn't matter. I had lost all trust in the docs at the current hospital and I wanted to go somewhere else. She was so rude about the whole thing. The Neurologist came in and said he was taking Jake off some of the meds he had prescribed. I went home and looked up the meds. I decided Jake would be back tomorrow. The meds were making him crazy.

April 17 - The phone rings at 6:50 A.M. It was Jake. He was back!!!!!! He transferred to Cleveland around 3 P.M.

That was Monday. He was home by Wednesday.

So, the moral of the story is....Don't trust everything a doctor says to you. They are human and they make BIG mistakes sometimes. If something doesn't seem right, you have to say something.

Have a good day.