i hope, you get your wife’s health back on track soon.
Very sorry to here of the anguish the dissonant medical staff have imposed on you and Cris; Ray. Best wishes for a sound recovery and smother rail…
What ever happened to “Common Sense”?
Michael
Wow Ray, that is a bad and a wrong deal, You and Cris will be in Martha and my prayer list, thanks for sharing and allowing us
and others to lift you guys up in our prayers. Blessings will and are coming your way.
Dennis
Ray,
Like everyone here, we are sorry this happened for both of you. Thank you for the confidence to share this with your friends. You guys will be in our prayers and thoughts. Please keep us informed.
Hope everything works out for the best, Ray, and we’ll keep you and Cris in our prayers
Thanks, everyone, for the prayers and well wishes. It’s very much appreciated.
Here’s a brief update:
Today they told me that the guy who screwed everything up (Dr. Karripot) is the only psychiatrist available, and they couldn’t put anyone else on the case until next week. But I kept pushing and tomorrow they’re putting someone else on the case. The guy taking over is Karripot’s boss, so I’m hoping it’s not going to be more of the same bad advice. They also restarted a couple of her other meds, but not all of them yet. Tomorrow I’m supposed to meet the doc who is taking over the case, and also a psychiatric team.
Cris is still really messed up, very fearful, anxious, depressed. Says she was hallucinating last night and is terrified it will happen again tonight. She’s distressed about being in the hospital and the fact that she won’t be going home soon. In fact she’s probably going to be transferred to a mental hospital. She also thinks she’s going to be “ugly” because of the injuries to her face, despite my reassurances.
She’s also still having trouble with her heart rate. They give her medication for it and it goes back to normal but after awhile it’s high again. This afternoon it was up around 177. This issue first started a day or two after the surgery, and I suspect their failure to give her the Lunesta is what caused it.
On the plus side, they removed the drain from her belly, as well as the staples on the incisions.
As for malpractice, I’m not very litigious but in this case I think it is certainly warranted. I will be looking into it eventually, but at the moment I’m just totally focused on Cris and getting her the treatment she needs.
That’s good news and yet not good news. Tell Cris hello for us.
This seems relevant, https://themighty.com/2017/09/having-dreams-and-hope-while-sick/
The Importance of Having Hope and Dreams on Your Bad Health DaysSeptember 14, 2017
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”
…
"And I have wanted to give up so many times because it has taken so long… and some days were so dark and I literally had nothing but that dream and my thoughts and the pain.
The progress has been slow and excruciatingly hard. Holding on to that one reason or goal when there were no other reasons left, or my only reason has been a far off goal that seems impossibly hard – it has been worth it.
I can tell you that this dream has slowly started coming to reality for me, and that I am glad I held out. On days when things are bad again, and I can’t do much or can’t work as much, I spend that time planning my next steps and what I will do when I feel better.
Never stop dreaming. You were put on earth for a reason. Don’t give up.
Find your reason, and hold on to it."
Our prayers are with you, Ray. You may have to be the strength for both of you for a while. You can do it. Have faith.
Ray Dunakin said:
…
As for malpractice, I’m not very litigious but in this case I think it is certainly warranted. I will be looking into it eventually, but at the moment I’m just totally focused on Cris and getting her the treatment she needs.
Ray, I sent you a message that I first wrote out here, but then thought better of before hitting the Post Reply button. I notice for me that NOT hitting the Post Reply button if I have any doubts has never been a bad thing! (Unlike the opposite!) If you think it would do any good to put it on the forum, feel free to do so.
Ray and Cris prayers are with you from NEPA.
Glad to hear they have relived Dr Crackpot, Hope thay can get her back to a level she can rest in. I am sure the anxiety is not helping the heart rate, you will be in our prayers Ray and Cris
Ray,
Holy moly! I lay of LSC and all this happens?! I hope that everything gets resolved, from you guys’ health to, well, everything. You’ll certainly be in our thoughts and our prayers.
joe
Prayers from my wife and I as well. She is still going thru bowel related issues, she spent nearly 2 months in the hospital herself this past winter/spring. Thankfully, I tend to wear autism related T shirts as well as my wrist medical ID bracelet. The social worker assigned to the ICU wing where my wife spent several weeks noticed this and not only made sure my wife was being taken care of, she also made sure I was ok and helped me manage things that without her help, would have been to overwhelming for me to process. Thankfully her care has been 1st class. I pray they get your wife back on an even keel soon. Mike and Michele T
Some good news… First, because she was on it for so long, and has only been off of the Lamictal for two days, they were able to safely restart her on it at the full dose rather than slow increments. This has already helped tremendously, and Cris has shown considerable improvement today. Also her heart rate has not gone up since yesterday.
And late this afternoon I finally got to see the new psychiatrist that is now handling her case. I expressed to him my concerns, both about how her case was mishandled, and about how we will be proceeding. At this point it is unclear whether she will ever get back on the same combination of meds, but for now we are making some small progress. He has added in one more of her meds starting this evening. He wants to proceed cautiously, which I agree is the right course. (I also pointed out that such caution SHOULD have been shown prior to cutting off her meds. He agreed.)
Cris will be transferred soon to a mental health facility, where she will continue treatment towards developing an appropriate course of medication, whatever that may be. We’re not opposed to making changes if necessary, since we’re forced to start over anyway. We just want it done properly and we want to make sure that ALL factors of her case are taken into consideration, including long-term stability. (Short-term is easy… making it last is the hard part.)
Cris has come to accept that she will not be able to go home right away, though of course she’s still not happy about it.
Last night I was unable to sleep most of the night. I couldn’t get my mind off Cris’ situation and the things I could have done to prevent it. Isn’t hindsight wonderful?
Anyway, I used some of my sleepless time to research malpractice lawyers, and contacted one this morning. I will be following up on Monday.
Good news Ray…Keep punching…
Glad to hear that, Ray. There’s something about hospitals and their desire to control everything. My wife has Parkinson’s and she has medication that she has to take on a regular basis; but when she was in the hospital they decided they could do it better. Of course they didn’t. I made a little medication card for her - printed out all the medications on it and had it laminated; that seems to help, but we can still do it much more regularly than they can.
As you have discovered you really have to stay on top of it or they let it slide.
Aw man, I wish we could make this hard time for y’all less hard and much shorter.
Here’s a wish for success on that, “(Short-term is easy… making it last is the hard part.)”
This is not the first time I have heard of a hospital visit actually making things worse, but what choice do we have? I’m glad things are looking better. I really hope you and Chris recover from this trying episode of your life and are better for it.
I am so glad that things are getting better for your wife and yourself. The stress of caring for someone at home can not be under estimated and I wish you both a speedy resolution to the situation.
Regards
David