It's a little after 9 PM Tuesday evening and I'm still sitting next to Hunter's hospital bed on the fifth floor of Children's Hospital. The lithium level has come down further and appears to no longer be a major concern. MY major concern, however, continues to be the blood in his urine. Maybe it's my lack of sleep or the overprotective mother bear in me rearing its gnarly head but I find this knowledge to be much more alarming than the nursing staff appears to. I even said as much to the current shift nurse. I don't know if she was just blowing smoke but she did seem genuinely concerned that this bloody urine problem wasn't higher on the priority list. Like somewhere other than, say, the bottom?
The latest dipstick urine shows some bacteria - so we may finally have a reason for the bloody urine. I'm holding my breath though because the test was done on urine that had sat for more than 30 minutes and was collected in a non-sterile container using a non-clean-catch method.
I'm doing my level best to not drive the staff crazy. I know just enough about the medical profession and procedures to be dangerous. I am not -- and do not -- come across as a know-it-all. I just make sure the staff knows that I am not "ordinary citizen" and I will not be satisfied with having only minimal information. I am in my absolute glory that this hospital has a wireless Internet so I can research all the medical stuff to stay prepared to ask the right questions.
Around 8 o'clock tonight Hunter settled in and drifted off to sleep. 30 minutes later he was screaming and fidgeting and inconsolable. After a lot of babbling it was determined that he needed to use the bathroom so I helped him out of bed. He was wobbling all over the place and totally out of it. He did his business and as I was helping him re-dress I noticed he had wet himself -- which he NEVER does. Red flag.
I helped him out of his wet clothes and was getting a fresh hospital gown on him when he had a full body tremor and crumpled to the floor. Red flag. Thank God I was standing right behind him and was able to catch him on his way down. If I hadn't he would have for certain hit his head on the sink, toilet or floor. After he was cleaned up and dressed he wobbled back toward the bed and almost fell over again. I sat him in the chair and the nursing assistant and I changed his bed. He continued to have tremors while sitting in the chair so the shift nurse was summoned. Followed closely behind by the doctor on call. They witnessed a couple of his tremors and essentially scratched their heads because they have no idea what is causing these to start up again. So for Hunter's safety they thought we should raise all the rails on the bed -- so I did. Neither one of them had any idea how the bed rails worked! And they're caring for my son! Somebody just shoot me now.
The latest dipstick urine shows some bacteria - so we may finally have a reason for the bloody urine. I'm holding my breath though because the test was done on urine that had sat for more than 30 minutes and was collected in a non-sterile container using a non-clean-catch method.
I'm doing my level best to not drive the staff crazy. I know just enough about the medical profession and procedures to be dangerous. I am not -- and do not -- come across as a know-it-all. I just make sure the staff knows that I am not "ordinary citizen" and I will not be satisfied with having only minimal information. I am in my absolute glory that this hospital has a wireless Internet so I can research all the medical stuff to stay prepared to ask the right questions.
Around 8 o'clock tonight Hunter settled in and drifted off to sleep. 30 minutes later he was screaming and fidgeting and inconsolable. After a lot of babbling it was determined that he needed to use the bathroom so I helped him out of bed. He was wobbling all over the place and totally out of it. He did his business and as I was helping him re-dress I noticed he had wet himself -- which he NEVER does. Red flag.
I helped him out of his wet clothes and was getting a fresh hospital gown on him when he had a full body tremor and crumpled to the floor. Red flag. Thank God I was standing right behind him and was able to catch him on his way down. If I hadn't he would have for certain hit his head on the sink, toilet or floor. After he was cleaned up and dressed he wobbled back toward the bed and almost fell over again. I sat him in the chair and the nursing assistant and I changed his bed. He continued to have tremors while sitting in the chair so the shift nurse was summoned. Followed closely behind by the doctor on call. They witnessed a couple of his tremors and essentially scratched their heads because they have no idea what is causing these to start up again. So for Hunter's safety they thought we should raise all the rails on the bed -- so I did. Neither one of them had any idea how the bed rails worked! And they're caring for my son! Somebody just shoot me now.
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