Another Trip to the Hospital

Friday, February 27, 2009 - 12:55 PM    Here we go again!   My home healthcare nurse was supposed to have been here Tuesday. She did not show up until yesterday morning. Just a tad bit late, I would say.   Yesterday, I was having a lot of pain due to what I thought was another UTI. I talked it over with my nurse, and she decided to call her Director of Nursing at the home healthcare agency. After the two of them had a brief conversation, I was told that I needed to go to the hospital by ambulance. Since I was actually having a lot of pain, I decided not to make an argument out of it.   Before calling for the ambulance, I called my brother to let him know where I would be going because I knew that the paramedics would notify him automatically, and I did not want him to be worried. After doing that, I pressed the Lifeline button that I wear around my neck whenever I am home.   The paramedics got here quickly. They said that this is not exactly considered an emergency, so I had to be transferred to another unit. The second unit came within 10 minutes, so at least I did not have to wait a long time. As it turned out, I was only kept at the hospital for one hour.   This time, I went to a hospital closer to downtown Denver. I used to get my physical therapy at that hospital. By the time I arrived there, they were ready and waiting for me. They called my doctor and talked with him about my situation. After that, they gave me a prescription for 875 mg of amoxicillin. This is a much larger dosage than what I usually take. I am to take two capsules (which I call a horse pills) every 12 hours for 10 days.   I believe that they have helped with the UTI, although not so much with the amount of pain I have been having. In order to try and alleviate the pain, I am using the pain medication that I have been taking for my back pain. The combination of the two medications seems to be helping me quite a bit.   My nurse was supposed to have called and made an appointment for me to see a urologist. Today is her day off, so I have not heard from her about that. I will check with her again on Monday to see if she did make that phone call for me. If not, then I will make it myself.   Having a UTI almost every month in a row for about a year seems to be taking away a lot of energy from me. It is also starting to make me somewhat grumpy. I need to put an end to this type of illness.   Stay tuned for another chapter on Monday.