And life goes on

As if I don’t have enough stress, the phone rang this morning about 7:30 so Andy answered it. I could hear a close-to-hysterical female voice on the other end but then Andy is saying “are you in the hospital?”. My first thought is “Of course, Julie SHOULD be in the hospital – where else would she be!”  It turns out it was Marta, my sister-in-law – apparently Steve has had a stroke. They were out last night and on the way home, stopped at Denny’s for a bite to eat. As they were leaving, Marta realized that Steve wasn’t opening the car door so she asked what he was doing. He wasn’t able to speak properly and was slurring his words. She got him into the passenger’s seat and drove him to the hospital. She waited until it was a reasonable time before calling us. From what she has said, at least before talking to the neurologist, he doesn’t have any swelling on the brain and he can move his limbs – it seems to only be his speech that is impacted. Once again, she doesn’t want Lisa told because it might impact her studies. We did visit and he will be in hospital for a few days because they want to run some tests before releasing him. Even in the few hours we were there, we noticed a definite improvement in his speech so I think he will come out okay in the end.

So, back to Julie: She wants to come home and I don’t blame her.

Among her “adventures” this week – she didn’t get to come home, her bedpan was improperly placed, and she has had tubes replaced and so on.

Earlier in the week she was told that she would be discharged on Thursday. Ryan had booked his flight for Wednesday and it was going to cost several thousand dollars to change it, so he figured he would leave because she would be heading home about 24 hours later and that made sense. He was in the Heathrow Airport when Julie found out she wouldn’t be leaving after all. It turned out that the insurance company had been dealing with someone, who I have decided to call Iqbal, at an intermediary medical company. Iqbal was supposedly dealing with Julie’s doctor, Dr. Roy and communicating between Dr. Roy and World Nomads. World Nomads were having trouble getting in touch with Iqbal so finally in desperation they contacted Dr. Roy directly and found out she was not ready to come home. Julie phoned Ryan but they realized that he was not able to return because you need a Visa to enter India and he had already left the country so likely wouldn’t be allowed back in.

Then, it turns out that when the respiratory doctor saw Julie, he said she could not travel with a bubble (neumothorax?) she still had in her lungs. Dr. Roy had thought it would be absorbed but the respiratory doctor said no. By this time, she had had one tube removed but the other tube was still in. This new bubble required another tube so on Thursday, they inserted another tube. Unfortunately, in order to put in the new tube, they had to insert it in between her fractured ribs and they moved her ribs a bit while she was under anesthetic. When she woke up, they didn’t tell her until she complained how much she hurt. She said that her nerve endings are also acting up so every time she turns, her skin hurts like very bad sunburn.

So, after she had tube 3 inserted, she needed to go the bathroom. A staff member brought her a bedpan but put her it under backwards. This meant that it was worthless and the bed and her clothes all got wet. She has been using the call button by her bed but they keep resetting it at the nursing station instead of answering it so she ended up sitting there wet for about 1½ hours before it was taken care of. The nursing assistant yelled at Julie for wetting the bed then the nurse yelled at the orderly (or whoever) who had put it in wrong then it sounds like everyone was yelling at everyone before Julie was finally cleaned up.  She has only had her hair washed twice and it was a matter of leaning her head over the edge of the bed to do it. She has a sponge bath each day but no matter how good those are, you just never really feel clean if  you are accustomed to having a proper shower or bath, North American style.

Julie says that Renu came by in the last day or two and when she found out about the bedpan episode she demanded to talk to the Head Sister then yelled at her. Julie didn’t understand a work as they yelled at each other in Hindi but the tone was quite apparent. Julie was talking to Arjun, the Indian coordinator for IVHQ, and he was saying that the dialect of Hindi that is spoken in Faradibad is a harsh somewhat guttural sounding language which doesn’t help either.

Apparently while Ryan was staying with Julie, he got invited to Renu’s (the housemother) house one evening for supper. Julie said that Renu had (and had is the important word!) a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. Someone offered one to Ryan then left the box out. A short while later, Ryan looked like a hamster with his cheeks full of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and there were NONE left. He did tell Renu they were very good!

Several of the other girls on the homestay came by on Saturday to visit so that was good. She has arranged to purchase some handicrafts to bring home so she is anxiously awaiting their return with her choices.

Apparently there is only 1 English language TV station Julie can watch. She says that she has seen every movie they show at least 4 or 5 times each.  Sounds like variety is not their strongpoint. There are 2 English channels but only is one is working in her part of the hospital. Yesterday the aide put on a Hindi Christian channel that involved lots of singing and praying.

Because she can’t get around independently she is rather room-bound. She sometimes has the use of a walker but she said there only seems to be one on her unit so they keep taking it and leaving her stranded.

If I remember correctly, tube 2 is now out so she only the third one in place. She was telling me that they have clamped off tube 3 now but what they did was to cut it and leave the scissors sealing it, fold it in half and stick the folded end into an empty syringe. It doesn’t sound too professional to me but what do I know! They are leaving this tube in place until she gets home, the theory being that if it is needed on the flight home, it will be there and can be used if necessary. I hope that the airport security don’t insist the scissors be removed for her to travel!

She still believes she will have to be in quarantine once she gets home because of being in a hospital, having blood transfusions and being a medical transport case – I guess we will have to wait and see.

Now, she has to wait until Monday before she hears when she will be allowed to leave. The insurance company will arrange for a medical person to travel with her – they will probably arrange for someone from Europe rather than North America because their travel and recovery time will be so much less. I told Julie to make sure they bring a wheelchair with them because the hospital is not going to allow one of their wheelchairs to leave the hospital.

I hope this coming week brings better news all round.