Poor Ol' Rooster

#1026

Glad to hear it!

Shizzle Popped · #1027

#1028

Good to hear, Foghorn. Figured you must be back because I started getting logged out again. That "flush neonzx session cookie" button works well.

realist · #1029

Foggy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 9:26 am Home again, details whenever. Gonna survive.

Glad to hear you are better.

#1030

Ol' Wifehorn sprung me. Long story, but I'm tired.

Right now:

Blood pressure 131/77
Blood sugar 122

A fuck-ton healthier than in hospital. I am reviving. Still dreaming of all the needles they stuck in me, definitely a new record.

More later ...

#1031

Been a little concerned, not obsessively refreshing the thread or anything. Nope.

Glad to hear!

#1032

Ol' Wifehorn texted when I was gone that she missed me a ton, and today twice she's said she's thrilled I'm home.

#1033

Here's a way to treat diabetes: Cut off my metformin for two days and feed me clear liquids, like sugary Jell-O and apple juice, until my blood sugar spikes at 206, and then inject insulin directly into my belly. Twice.

I prefer the other way. I just don't eat a lot of sugar or carbs.

I never had insulin before.

I can report:

That whole weekend was No Fun on a scale of No Fun At All.

sugar magnolia · #1034

Foggy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 3:18 pm Here's a way to treat diabetes: Cut off my metformin for two days and feed me clear liquids, like sugary Jell-O and apple juice, until my blood sugar spikes at 206, and then inject insulin directly into my belly. Twice.

I prefer the other way. I just don't eat a lot of sugar or carbs.

I never had insulin before.

I can report:

That whole weekend was No Fun on a scale of No Fun At All.

Sounds like your local medical people are a bit......ummm.......clueless, between the lack of communication with your docs after surgery, and now this.

As an aside, I messaged my surgeon on Friday afternoon about 4:30 with a question about getting my scar tattooed and heard back from 2 of his nurses within 30 minutes. My medical portal has spoiled me.

#1035

I like stories with happy endings, Foogy.

Welcome home!

#1036

Pshew!

#1037

I never thought I'd ever self-discharge from a hospital, but it wasn't entirely my decision. Ol' Wifehorn was extremely angry about what she saw yesterday, and she couldn't sleep herself. As y'all know, she is highly intelligent and has my best interests in mind. If she had any doubt that self-discharge was the right move, I'd still be waiting for transport to the big hospital, still starving, still in massive pain, needles sticking out the yin yang. She wouldn't drive me home unless she agreed 110%. She decided to bust me out at 5:30 a.m., about half an hour before I called. She was polite but firm. She takes way better care of me.

And I have been monitoring my vitals today, showered, yogurt and hot soup, took my meds, and I feel a ton better than I did when we got home this morning. We will tell my primary care lady and get referrals for the echo cardiogram I didn't get.

Weirdness - my dad had a heart episode of some kind last night. He got an echo cardiogram today, I didn't. He needed his, mine can wait.

#1038

Foggy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 3:18 pm Here's a way to treat diabetes: Cut off my metformin for two days and feed me clear liquids, like sugary Jell-O and apple juice, until my blood sugar spikes at 206, and then inject insulin directly into my belly. Twice.

Yeah, OK. That ma,especially tons of medical sense. Uh-huh. It shore does!

WTF were they thinking? Good grief! Glad youre OK, Foggy!!

#1039

What prompted the hospital visit? Why didn't they treat you like a diabetic? What does the high echocardiogram have to do with the high blood sugar? (It could be my age but I'm missing something here.)

#1040

So happy you are doing better!!

Many people still remember you as Baloo and your star turn with this classic, The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book:

Love you!

#1041

Pipi, somehow this is what I’ve come up with:

Very bad Care Team who didn’t do enough -or all the wrong things - to manage pain. Pain makes the liver do weird things with insulin which Care Team wasn’t paying any attention to.

How far off am I, Foggy? ? A mile?

Lani · #1042

I hope Foggy is sleeping well at home tonight.

#1043

Phoenix520 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 3:59 am Pipi, somehow this is what I’ve come up with:

Very bad Care Team who didn’t do enough -or all the wrong things - to manage pain. Pain makes the liver do weird things with insulin which Care Team wasn’t paying any attention to.

How far off am I, Foggy? ? A mile?

I had no idea pain could affect my sugar levels. That probably has something to do with why my sugar is so volatile. I'll have to talk to my doctor about that. Thanks for posting that!

#1044

pipistrelle wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 10:40 pm What prompted the hospital visit?

That's the embarrassing part.

I was taking too many antacids. Tums, to be precise, I've been having stomach issues for months and treating myself, and apparently there's a thing called too much magnesium. Saturday morning ol' Wifehorn and Numbah One Son drove down to Wilmington for the day, but I was having stomach issues and vomiting, so I thought I'd take a few Tums, and then I spent the entire rest of the day vomiting and with terrible stomach cramps.

When ol' Wifehorn came back and found me, she called 911. She could have driven me, but then you sit in the waiting room for seven or eight hours, and I was too sick for that.

Tums is not in my diet anymore.

They gave me morphine and Zofran and I was fine again.

BUT, here's where it went off the rails:

It's a hospital, and they didn't know everything that could possibly be wrong with me, so they decided to test EVERYTHING. They gave me an EKG and a CT scan and an ultrasound (I didn't need to know the sex of the baby, because I am not pregnant) and looked in my ears and between my toes and every other goddamned thing they could think of, because they were bored or sumpin'.

And when they were all done, they said they found a "possible" anomaly in my heart rhythm, maybe nothing at all, but maybe a good idea to investigate further by giving me an echo cardiogram.

Which, yeah, was not what I came in for, but there it was. Echo cardiogram, but I was at the satellite hospital and they can only do the echo thing at the main hospital, so even though I was cured of the magnesium problem, they kept me on bed rest and clear liquid diet and IV fluids and lots of morphine, and I was in pretty bad shape, so I forgotted to mention I'm a diabetic.

I don't think of myself as a diabetic, I avoid sugars and carbs and take my meds, and my A1C is 6.5. So I know I have diabetes, but I keep it under tight control. I know I'm diabetic, but it isn't always the first thing out of my mouth, because I just control it.

But I was doped to the gills and starving to death - I spent all day puking Saturday and now it was Sunday morning, and I had eaten nothing. The lady gave me a menu and I couldn't read it (no reading glasses), so when she said clear liquids I said "Jell-O and apple juice and covfefe" and I was so out of it I forgot to say "sugar free".

But they could have asked, too also. How many 70 year olds don't have diabetes now?

But I was still starving to death, and I didn't have any of my usual medications and they wouldn't give me metformin, and they wanted me confined to bed even though I only had a "possible" anomaly (and I had an EKG 19 days earlier before the shoulder surgery, and they didn't find any anomaly then). And they had so much fun sticking needles in me! Ol' Wifehorn said they came and drew blood five times for five different tests, plus four blood sugar tests and godonlyknows what else.

And I couldn't leave because I needed to be transported to the main hospital, but there weren't any beds at the main hospital, so I was just supposed to lie in bed for days on end ... with clear liquids and none of my meds and getting sicker from everything they did AFTER they fixed the stupid magnesium problem. And they couldn't tell me when a bed might open up at the main hospital, so I might still be lying there for days, which means I would probably still be there right now, and I would be a lot less healthy than I am right now.

So ol' Wifehorn decided that was extremely stupid, and she decided to bust me out and fix me herself. So we busted out.

But I will go see my primary care doctor and get referrals for cardiology and I guess gastrointestinal to find out what I was self-treating with the antacids.

Edit: Now that I focused on it, I remember I did refuse sugar for the covfefe, and I definitely told the CNA who got my breakfast that I couldn't have sugar because I was a diabetic. So it wasn't that I didn't tell anyone - the real problem was I didn't remember that Jell-O has a lot of sugar in it, and so does apple juice.

I loftily and manfully refused sugar in my covfefe, exactly as I should have done, and then I wolfed down two sugary Jell-O cups without a care in the world.

But when I told the CNA, "No sugar for the covfefe, I'm a diabetic," SHE should have realized that sugary Jell-O and apple juice were not good choices. My excuse is that I was half dead and doped to the gills. What's her excuse?

#1045

There's the perfect birthday gift idea: a wrist band with your medical alerts.

sugar magnolia · #1046

They didn't have access to your medical records?

Remind me to never get sick or injured in NC! My friend almost died from a blood sugar level of 800+ and they treated her for everything but that and blamed it on her weight. Kept feeding her orange juice. She's healthier than I am and outweighs me by 200 lbs.

#1047

I just finished reading aloud your travails to Hubby who asked for an update first thing this morning. We are so glad you are home and better.

Ask your GE about metformin. My cousin's husband was on metformin for many years and developed a bleeding ulcer because of it.

June bug · #1048

What great news that you’re better and at home, Foggy - Kudos to Wifehorn!!!

#1049

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 8:40 am Ask your GE about metformin. My cousin's husband was on metformin for many years and developed a bleeding ulcer because of it.

I will do that.

#1050

sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2023 8:37 am They didn't have access to your medical records?

Y'know, that's an excellent question, but there are two big medical groups here, Duke Health and WakeMed (from Wake County). They're competitors, and I don't think they share medical records, especially with HIPAA.

I am a Duke Health guy, and I have all my records at Duke Health, and normally I am very happy with them. Any doctor in Duke Health can see all my meds immediately.

But the ambulance took me to WakeMed North, because it's really close to my house.

And WakeMed hadn't seen me in a long time.

All that is wrong. Ol' Wifehorn just gave me the right info, so lemme write it up.

Here we go:

Yes, ol' Wifehorn says that Duke Health and WakeMed share medical records, and that was the first thing she did when we showed up at WakeMed North, was she said all my records are at Duke Health, and they said they could access them.

She also says she told them several times that I was a Type 2 diabetic. She wasn't half dead, and she's nothing if not professional.

So the Jell-O episode was me and the CNA, but my chart shoulda said "sugar free clear liquids" instead of just "clear liquids" maybe.

Whatever, ol' Wifehorn swooped in yesterday morning like a whirlwind and rescued my sorry butt. I blinked a couple times and she had the whole room packed, even remembered the phone charger I had plugged in, clothes, everything. She takes charge, that lady. It's a sight worth seeing.