The Chemo Saga
Ok the hospital that my grandma gets her chemo at is so freaking stupid!
There is an order of draw for lab work for a reason. First you fill the blue top tube because it has to be completely full or it's no good. Then you fill the green tube because that's what is used to check electrolytes and stuff. THEN you fill the purple tube because it has EDTA in it and EDTA contains potassium (which is a lyte) and binds up all your calcium. Anyways, the nurse that was drawing the blood off of my grandma's line attached the line, flushed it like she was supposed to, drew off waste like she was supposed to, drew the syringe for lab and then laid it down on the table while she flushed the line again. So she let the syringe sit while she finished messing with the line and then she tubed it. My jaw dropped when I wateched her fill the purple tube first, then the blue and then the green. I was really expecting them to have to repeat her labs, but they didn't. So I sat with her until they got the lab results back. In that time grandma got thirsty and wanted coffee but they didn't have any on the floor, so I went down to the cafeteria and got both of us some coffee. Two hours later they have the lab results and are starting the first chemo pre-med. I know that she's going to be there all day and so I ask what time they expect her to be done and they said around 4:30. I told my grandma that I'd be back around 4 to see how she was doing and to pick her up because I had other things to do during the day.
Fast forward to shortly before 4pm. I get back up to the hospital and they're just starting the last med which takes an hour and a half to infuse. No big deal that it's taken longer than expected. Grandma wants a snack so she gives me some money and I go down to the cafeteria and get her the cup of ice cream that she wants. I run back upstairs and tell her that I'll be back in an hour, I need to go to the store to get some stuff for dinner that we're gonna have at her house. I run to WalMart for salad stuff and spend $70 (yeah, I bought more than just salad stuff) and ran home, put the groceries away and went back up to the hospital.
The wing that she's in is deserted. The outpatient nurses have all gone home and all the rooms around her are empty. There's a nurse from the inpatient end of the unit that is checking on her occassionally. But she can't hear the alarm going off on the IV pump when the meds are done running and I have to go find her because she has her own load of patients that are in house too. Not to mention that my grandma is 76 years old and has absolutely NO short term memory. What if she would have had a reaction to the meds and couldn't press her call button or holler for help?
Don't get sick. That's all that I can say.
There is an order of draw for lab work for a reason. First you fill the blue top tube because it has to be completely full or it's no good. Then you fill the green tube because that's what is used to check electrolytes and stuff. THEN you fill the purple tube because it has EDTA in it and EDTA contains potassium (which is a lyte) and binds up all your calcium. Anyways, the nurse that was drawing the blood off of my grandma's line attached the line, flushed it like she was supposed to, drew off waste like she was supposed to, drew the syringe for lab and then laid it down on the table while she flushed the line again. So she let the syringe sit while she finished messing with the line and then she tubed it. My jaw dropped when I wateched her fill the purple tube first, then the blue and then the green. I was really expecting them to have to repeat her labs, but they didn't. So I sat with her until they got the lab results back. In that time grandma got thirsty and wanted coffee but they didn't have any on the floor, so I went down to the cafeteria and got both of us some coffee. Two hours later they have the lab results and are starting the first chemo pre-med. I know that she's going to be there all day and so I ask what time they expect her to be done and they said around 4:30. I told my grandma that I'd be back around 4 to see how she was doing and to pick her up because I had other things to do during the day.
Fast forward to shortly before 4pm. I get back up to the hospital and they're just starting the last med which takes an hour and a half to infuse. No big deal that it's taken longer than expected. Grandma wants a snack so she gives me some money and I go down to the cafeteria and get her the cup of ice cream that she wants. I run back upstairs and tell her that I'll be back in an hour, I need to go to the store to get some stuff for dinner that we're gonna have at her house. I run to WalMart for salad stuff and spend $70 (yeah, I bought more than just salad stuff) and ran home, put the groceries away and went back up to the hospital.
The wing that she's in is deserted. The outpatient nurses have all gone home and all the rooms around her are empty. There's a nurse from the inpatient end of the unit that is checking on her occassionally. But she can't hear the alarm going off on the IV pump when the meds are done running and I have to go find her because she has her own load of patients that are in house too. Not to mention that my grandma is 76 years old and has absolutely NO short term memory. What if she would have had a reaction to the meds and couldn't press her call button or holler for help?
Don't get sick. That's all that I can say.
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