Thanksgiving in the ER

There is never a "good" time to get sick, but the holidays are definitely a bad time. I was reminded of this over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, when my mother had to go to the ER for a nosebleed. I was also reminded of all of the wonderful health care providers who do have to work on holidays.

The drama started near the end of Thanksgiving dinner. Mom had a nosebleed earlier in the evening, but was able to stop it. About halfway through the turkey, it started again and we knew we had to seek help. Off we went to the ER. Fortunately, we got right in to see the doctor and they were able to temporarily stop the bleeding.

She did fine that night but as soon as she got up on Friday morning, the bleeding started again. Thus began our 12-hour journey to three hospitals and the office of an ENT. The first ER couldn't find an ENT on call, so after two hours they sent us to the nearest bigger city ER about 45 minutes away. We waited another three hours there until they finally located someone who could see my mom. In the meantime, she had a giant clamp on her nose but the blood started coming out of her eyes and down her throat. It was like a bad horror movie, and we felt so helpless in not being able to stop the bleeding and not being able to get her any help.

Finally, late in the afternoon, a wonderful ENT was able to treat her (thank you, Dr. William Moretz of ENT Associates of Savannah). While he couldn't stop the bleeding or identify the source, he was able to pack her nostril to (hopefully) prevent more bleeding. He decided to admit her to the hospital until we could find a more permanent solution. As we were registering at the hospital, however, the packing literally bled out and we were back at square one. Without too much gory detail, I can honestly say that the fear in my mother's eyes was terrifying. I had to yell at the attendant and later a nurse, but we eventually got her into the room and again stopped the bleeding. The ENT came right over and repacked her nose. This was Friday evening, and she is still in the hospital today, but the worst is over and the bleeding has (mostly) stopped. They are working to get her blood pressure evened out (it's either too high or too low), so they can remove the packing. I can only imagine the discomfort and massive headache she has endured for four days and counting, not to mention having to miss the entire Thanksgiving weekend.

So, what's the moral of the story? I am always appreciate of people who have to work on holidays, whether it is flight attendants or restaurant workers or the checkout person at Walmart...and certainly for the doctors who are on call in case of emergency. No one plans to get sick over the holiday, but it happens, and having a doctor available can mean life or death to a patient and their family. For all of our young alumni who are the low-person on the totem pole for holiday duty, I hope you always remember how important you are to people who are in need at inconvenient times.

My other observation is that at four different health facilities, we had to give my mother's complete health history to each one. Fortunately, we had most of it written out on a piece of paper, but we still had to go over every detail and enter it into every computer. It took a lot of time at each place, thus costing time and money to every facility, not to mention the repetition for us. It seems like there should be a centralized health depository that protects the patient's privacy but still provides a consistent record for every health care provider.

Finally, and most importantly, I was constantly impressed by the many people in the hospitals and the doctor's office who treated my mother with great kindness and care. So many of the nurses were so understanding of my mother's fear and pain, and did their best to care for her. All the physicians who spoke with her were very reassuring and were truly doing their best to find the right specialist to see her. The medical student who carefully took her history and asked all the right questions wasn't able to treat her, but hopefully did learn something from the case. And, while my parents come from the school of thought that says, "physicians are always right and you shouldn't ask questions," I come from the belief that you should ask as many questions as you have and make sure the provider explains exactly what is happening. Even though my questioning at times bordered on interrogation, I think the nurses and physicians understood my concern and did their best to provide thorough answers.

So, my dear mother is at the hospital but she is making the best of things, catching up on reading and taking lots of naps. Dad is able to visit her every day, and my brother and I check in by telephone. While my Thanksgiving was more eventual than restful, I was glad I was home to help both my parents during this unplanned ordeal. And after all, family is the most important part of the holiday, and we came together this past weekend to celebrate that. I hope your holidays were more traditional and less action-packed but certainly just as meaningful.