Valentine's Evening Update

And so it goes:

After Andy’s eye appointment yesterday, we went to visit Julie for an hour or so. She was in good form at the time. Just as we were living, the resident on the trauma team came by to meet with her.

I got this e-mail later in the day

=======================

From: Julie

Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2013 2:40 PM

To: Cindy

Subject:

Wanna come brush and braid my clean hair tonight? Ryan is atrocious at it....got my shower and they washed my hair so I'm feeling pretty good.

Saw the trauma team and am getting some more scans done. One of my abdominal area for my liver and then also my pelvis as my left side is pretty tender when they were checking me out. Also Got an answer on how many ribs I broke...5 on the right, 8 on the left. Ribs 2-7 and 2-10 respectively.

==============================

End result of her scans – she also has a non-life/non-mobility threatening fracture in her spine and she has a bruised liver. Apparently her liver was lacerated as well but the lacerations were not deep and they are healing, just slowly.

She is still getting 2 shots a day of heparin, an anti-blood-clotting drug. She says it hurts horribly for about 5 minutes after each shot.

I did get in and brushed and braided her hair so she felt a bit better. I also got her some fancy pink fuzzy socks with the non-slip spots so she can wear them around the hospital and not take a chance on slipping.

I talked to her again late this afternoon – we knew that Aaron and Maria were going to visit so we didn’t want her to be too tired or overwhelmed. And, I have been home all day just feeling under the weather – I think my last month is catching up with me – gee, I wonder why!

She is not eating well or drinking enough water. She still finds it difficult to get up and around. She says she isn’t really hungry and nothing has really appealed to her. I strongly suspect there is an element of depression there right now.

Her roommate is a man probably in his mid-sixties who is dying of stomach cancer which she finds hard to listen to. She says she is more aware of being injured here than she was in India. There she was in a private room and there just wasn’t the same hustling and bustling there that there is at Foothills.

She met with various and assorted doctors again today and, I believe, the occupational and physiotherapists. They are now suggesting the possibility that she might have to go to a rehab unit until she is more mobile. Their house is a 1½ story with the only bathroom on the main floor. Ryan won’t be at home during the day and she is not able to take good care of herself just yet. Needless to say, she is more than slightly discouraged. 

 Maybe she will get better news for Valentine’s Day.

You can choose your friends but not your relatives

We visited with Marta, Steve and Lisa yesterday. Steve was discharged on Friday afternoon from the hospital.

After Steve’s stroke last Sunday, Marta didn’t want Lisa told but she broke down and let her know on Monday so Lisa headed home immediately and got here on Tuesday afternoon. She is heading back to school in Cambridge tomorrow then she is off to Prague on Thursday for a weekend trip with a friend from school.

Steve had a heart attack about 15 months ago. At the time he said it was a minor attack and that he was fine. Even at Christmas, while we had a houseful of strong young men, he insisted on taking the turkey from the oven – even though he had been told to not lift heavy stuff etc.

Lisa managed to talk to the doctors and told Andy what the truth is rather than the "translated by Marta" version.

We thought he was getting better after his stroke but from Lisa said, he still has bleeding in his brain. I believe he will be doing some speech therapy starting in a few weeks.

Anyway, apparently the doctors have said that if Steve has another heart attack or stroke, he will not survive it. He is currently working with a heart that only has 10% usage.

He is planning to continue on his life in his usual fashion. He was off to a cribbage tournament yesterday afternoon. We think that means he will be smoking again but there is nothing anyone can do about it.

Marta had a heart attack last August and had a stent put in. In December she ended up in hospital again because the stent had become blocked so it had to be replaced with a medicated stent. I really hope this one works and stays clear forever. She is rather paranoid about her health these days, but I can understand why. 

At this point in time, I am the healthiest of the bunch.

Sunday in Calgary is a great thing!

We got to visit Julie for a little while this morning. She is doing really well and might be discharged by Tuesday.

The doctors are really pleased that she doesn't appear to have any infections so that is terrific. According to her x-rays, one of the reasons she was having so much chest pain from her last chest tube is that it had moved from being in her lung to being imbedded in her chest wall muscles. The doctors here clamped it off and she thinks the weight of the clamp pulled at it enough so that this morning she found it had in her bed. She asked the doctors yesterday how many broken ribs she has but even they aren't sure. Some of them are very clearly broken but the pneumonia in her lungs makes her original e-rays cloudy so they weren't sure. After the x-rays she has had at Foothills, she might have a more accurate count. 

She has lost some weight but she wanted to so that is not a bad thing. Unfortunately she thinks that she lost is muscle - which is not what she wanted to lose!

She has been moved from Indian meds to Canadian meds and from Indian food to Canadian food - she said she was really excited to have oatmeal for breakfast this morning. 

Her doctor was East West Rescue apparently was not as much help as she would have liked. At Heathrow she asked him to get her something with protein to eat - he brought her chips and coke and kept offering them to her. Apparently for the trip in his carry-on luggage along with everything else he had packed a pair of surgical scissors/clamp as well as a scalpel - not sure why the scalpel - but anyway he had to check his bag because security wouldn't let him on the plane with them. That meant an extra delay in Calgary while he waited for his luggage.

She said the plane from Delhi to Heathrow was really nice with comfortable reclining well-padded seats and was a good experience - at at least as good as you can have with a bunch of broken ribs. The plane was Heathrow to Calgary was an older one and just not as well padded. Also, Julie didn't have an IV so the only pain killers the doctor was willing to give her was Tylenol which is not quite as effective as morphine!

Ryan met her at the hospital because she was processed from the plane through Immigration & Customs into the ambulance so he couldn't get to see her. She really does need to update her name on EVERYTHING - her passport, the hospital and Alberta Health Care have her as Julie B but other stuff has her as Julie W so Ryan was waiting for a W to arrive at the hospital but she was arriving as a B - they did finally get it sorted out but this will be her next project. 

Anyway, she is home and safe and sound - she will heal and be back to creating havoc for all those who care for her. 

She's HOME

Julie arrived yesterday afternoon. We haven't had a chance to see her yet but will today!

National Geographic LIVE

Last night we went to National Geographic Live – what a fantastic show.  They are doing the series in the States and in Calgary and Toronto. We had tickets for all the performances last year and really enjoyed them so I bought season's tickets again this year as soon as they went on sale.

http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/

Bob Ballard was the presenter and the stories he told of his underwater adventures were great.

He talked about discovering the actual Titanic and how he wasn’t supposed to. He said that now that the Navy had declassified some information he could talk. He was sent to look for some submarines that had been lost and that had nuclear warheads on them. Because that was a secret mission, their cover story was they were looking for the Titanic. Because the crew had a few extra days during the mission, they decided to actually look for the Titanic and darned if they didn’t find it. He said that if Canada extends our territorial water limits, the Titanic will be on Canada’s property and he truly hopes we leave it alone. He talked about how the bodies and clothing would have disintegrated but there are all sorts of shoes on the ocean bottom from the poor souls who died and sank. It just seemed so sad to me to think of all these shoes lying there.

East West Rescue is Not living up to their name

Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 7:27 AM

From                        Julie

To                               Cindy

Ya, Orin and I talked. I expressed my absolute rage at the incompetence of EWR and demanded I be booked on a flight home Friday morning. I'll be filing an official complaint with the insurance company as well as this whole experience has been tainted by EWR.

Sigh, it'll all work out eventually.  An ambulance will be meeting me at YYC for transport to Foothills whenever I finally get home.

On 2013-02-06 7:43 PM, "Cindy" wrote:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Isn't Dr. C the one who screwed this up in the first place?  I guess you should give Orin your phone number again, or get Ryan to do it because he has all the country codes etc right.

From: Julie

Sent: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 6:13:36 AM

Subject: Fwd: RE: URGENT! RE: Julie / Medical Case

Are you kidding me?!?!?

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: "TG STP Medical SP"

Date: 2013-02-06 6:04 PM

Subject: RE: URGENT! RE: Julie / Medical Case

Julie,

I had hoped to call you regarding this but I am still receiving the same error message when I dial your number.  I have just spoken with Dr. C of East West Rescue who had been coordinating the efforts on their end.  The doctor assigned to escort you is actually just returning from another mission which is why they have requested we push back the itinerary by one day, or at least until the evening of the 7^th, and why the escort has not contacted you as of yet.  We were unaware of the fact the escort was returning from a separate mission.

When I spoke to Dr. C, he had recommended staying in the hospital for an additional night if possible.  Is that a possibility?  I would like to make certain you have a safe place to stay while we sort this out.

I am very sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.  We had not anticipated this problem and will work to resolve this as quickly as possible, but we would also like to have your input as well.  Dr. C believed there would be flights available for the evening of the 7^th but we must have our travel agents verify this and that the flights would suit your medical needs.  Otherwise, we may have to delay until the 8^th.

Regards,

Orin

Medical Assist Coordinator

From: TG STP Medical SP

Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 6:21 AM

To: Julie

Subject: RE: URGENT! RE: Julie / Medical Case

Julie,

We were awaiting finalization of the flights when East-West Rescue requested we delay the mission by one day to give the escort more time to meet with you.  I am attempting to reach the provider to ask if this will be necessary or if the mission can be run as had been anticipated, as EWR had indicated to us that the escort would be ready as of February 7^th.

I shall update you as soon as I know more.

Regards,

Orin

Medical Assist Coordinator

From: Julie

Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 6:10 AM

Subject: URGENT! RE: Julie / Medical Case

Has the flight been finalized? I still haven't met my medical escort and the hospital is preparing to discharge me based on the information I've been provided.

Please provide an update immediately

On 2013-02-06 2:30 PM, "TG STP Medical SP" wrote:

Julie,

I am attempting to call you at 011… but I am receiving an error message stating, “the customer I am calling is currently not reachable.”

Is there another means to call you?  If not, I can attempt to assist by e-mail as well.

Regards,

Orin

From: Julie

Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2013 2:46 AM

To: TG STP Medical

Subject: RE: Julie / Medical Case

Can you please call me at the number I provided to answer some questions?

On 2013-02-06 1:47 PM, "TG STP Medical SP"  wrote:

Julie,

I am very sorry about the delay, however our travel agent was able to locate the following flight options.  Please let us know which you would prefer.  Please know the return ticket will be for the medical escort.

Regards,

Orin

Medical Assist Coordinator

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.