Bad Day for JC
I think JC knew
it wasn't going to go well when the usually competent nurse got
distracted while draining his catheter and filled up one of his
tennis shoes. Then after sending his blood draw to the lab the
results came back horribly bad. Really, horribly bad!
A hemoglobin
count of 9 calls for a one unit (about a pint) transfusion of good
old type o+ which he usually gets a couple times a month, but this
lab result showed a hemoglobin count of below 5! They immediately
started pumping two units of blood into him and scheduled him for
another unit in the morning.
The nurses were
shocked and amazed that he was getting around as well as he was and
that he had driven himself to the clinic with such a lousy blood
count. (I couldn't drive him because I was in Corvallis seeing my
doctor.)
I can't imagine
how discouraged JC was driving home that afternoon with insufficient
hemoglobin and a pee soaked tennis shoe, but it had to be bad.
Thankfully,
later that evening a nurse from the hospital called, apologized and
explained that the lab had made a terrible error and that JC didn't
need to come in for another transfusion. Much relieved he went to
bed.
He awoke
realizing that he had rolled over on the remote for his adjustable
bed and was being folded into a very uncomfortable position. With his
free arm he fumbled for the remote and knocked it onto the floor
where it came apart letting the batteries fall out.
Oh yeah, I
almost forgot. Later that night his catheter bag broke and soaked his
bedding.
It was just one
of those days (and nights!)
