June 8, 2007

I was finally set free after 6 nights of what seemed like a prison sentence. At 6 am, my final temperature reading was normal, so after 36 hours of normal readings the protocol allowed my release. I couldn't go back to sleep since I was so excited about leaving the hospital, so I started getting ready to go. It took until after 1 pm for the discharge papers and prescriptions to be written, even though the intern responsible for the paperwork was on the floor by 8 am. Obviously, I wasn't a priority. Luckily, Joanne came by at 9 am to keep me company while endlessly waiting. A few tough lessons learned during my hospitalization were that the hospital (4B) is staffed completely differently on nights and weekends (when I was admitted). Evenings seem like a dangerously inadequately staffed time where the experienced doctors have gone home and the newer doctors are left in charge of many areas, some of which they have little experience in. I felt like the doctors working on the weekends (a well as the evenings) knew less about the HiCy protocol than I did. The nurses on the night shift and on weekends did not specialize in IPOP or HiCy protocols, so the care was completely different than on weekdays. An example of a mistake made by people not familiar with the protocol was giving me magnesium citrate shortly after admission last Saturday. It was a treatment used to prep for a colonoscopy to cleanout the intestines. I was not scheduled for a colonoscopy. Had the weekend staff been aware that the high doses of antibiotics would have a similar effect, they might not have given me the unnecessary treatment which caused a week of major stomach aches, intestinal cramps and diarrhea. The bottom line is be as aware as you can about what you are being hospitalized for and have a family member or friend visit regularly to keep an eye on things.