Rough weekend

So.

Dave's been having more problems with his anxiety lately, and had put in a call for a new doctor to help him with it.

The soonest new patient appointment he could get was at the end of June, which seems absurd to me when the new patient is in crisis mode.

Anyway, he dropped me off at work on Friday morning, and went along to his office.

A couple of hours later, he called me saying that he thought he was having another heart attack.  He had called 9-1-1, and someone would let me know where they were taking him.

Fortunately, they took him to the hospital right across the street from my office, so I did not have to have someone take me home to get my car.  I told my supervisors, and ran across the street.

LONG story short, Dave had a FULL cardio work up (including a stress test), was kept in the hospital under observation, and was declared as healthy as he can be!

He does, however, have anxiety attacks!

The last time we went to the e/r for chest pains, that was also declared non-cardiac, and purely anxiety related. That was in 2011.

Anyway.... here comes the long story.....

We waited for over six hours for them to discharge him from observation. That was absurd.  I'm documenting it all here so that we will remember everything when we get our survey from the hospital.

After his stress test came back "A+," (in the cardiologist's words to Dave in person), the nurse on shift, Angie, said that he was released by the cardiologist, and that we could get him whatever he wanted for breakfast, and that she'd be back in a bit

After he ate, he got dressed, because all of the monitors had been removed after the cardiologist declared him healthy, and he was not being treated for anything, not even having his vitals checked (after a while, anyway).

Then, maybe an hour after he ate his breakfast, the nurse came in and said that the hospitalist didn't want to release him yet, because of what the cardiologist had said.

???

What the cardiologist had said was that Dave is in practically perfect health!  He declared the event an anxiety attack, and said that the pain was chest wall pain from Dave tightening up during his panic.  The nurse herself had used the words "he's released you."

So that made ABSOLUTELY no sense. We asked for a clearer explanation, and all she said was that she would call the hospitalist and "challenge" her decision to keep Dave another night.

Dave kept going out to the nurse's station and asking what was going on.....and she just brushed him off.

She'd say she'd be in to talk to us, and then she'd sit there and chat with her friend, and never come into the room.

One of the times he went out to talk to her, she said that the hospitalist was on the unit, and would be by to see us.

I SAW the hospitalist walk by our room, and she never even looked in.

She had no intention of talking to us.

There were only 3 or 4 patients in the unit, so it wasn't like it was taking her hours and hours to make rounds.

Then she left!

It was extremely aggravating.

Dave went out to the nurse's station several times, and got nowhere.

Finally, he went out and asked where the ice machine was, and Angie FINALLY said that she was working up the discharge papers.

What, she couldn't be bothered to come in and tell us that he was being discharged?  Or WHY it had taken 6 hours?

Guess not.

When she FINALLY came in to discharge him, she was really abrupt and rude going over the discharge instructions.

I said I had a question, and she said "LET ME FINISH."

Wow.

I wonder if she got in some kind of trouble for not discharging us at 11 am, and she was taking it out on us?

We have a feeling she was the one who actually dropped the ball, because as we were leaving, she said that the hospitalist was the one who wanted to just let us leave, so her story switched completely.

If the hospitalist had wanted to keep him another night, she would have come IN to the room, instead of just walking by.

We are pretty convinced that Angie was lying to us, that SHE had made some kind of mistake, and that we were supposed to have been sent home at 11 am instead of 5:30 pm.

Anyway, Dave's son DID come to the e/r.  That was a good thing.

Then he took me home (after they moved Dave to observation), so I could get my car, and go back with Dave's med information, pajama pants, and electronics.

But he did not come back in the evening like he said he would.

Whatever, at least he showed up at the beginning (and kept in touch via text yesterday while he was at work).

Friday night, Dave insisted that I go home before it got fully dark.  We both needed to rest.

SO, I came home.... and did all of the laundry, vacuuming, cleaned the litter boxes, cleaned the bathroom, did the dishes..... I wanted all of that stuff done, so that I wouldn't have to mess with it over the weekend.

It also helped me to relax to just do normal stuff.

As it turned out, it was good that it was done, since I didn't get home until about 7 Saturday night (after going to get Dave's car so he could take it home,  I went to do half of the errands that we didn't get to do Friday night like we usually do).

Dave had some issues last night, which is understandable after everything he'd been through, but he is doing MUCH better today.

I am about to go out and start mowing the grass, and he is going to get the groceries.

He is going to take tomorrow off to follow up with the PA he normally sees, and inquire about a referral to a doctor who can help him with his anxiety NOW.