We go to medical professionals when things get serious and we haven't been able to solve them ourselves. We go with the hope that we will be saved by those that should have greater knowledge and greater means of healing. Sometimes this works and sometimes it works not at all.
I haven't been in the mood to write well or much for a few years now and a very serious thing happened this past month that I have been goading myself to express. Someone dear to me called early one Saturday morning expressing alarm over her symptoms, and I rushed to her house because her symptoms alarmed me a very great deal as well. She had awoken feverish, weak and dizzy and said she felt as if she were dying. This person also stated that she felt she was having a miscarriage due to her bleeding and severe pain. I suspected so as well, having lived through my own experience of such a loss many years ago. When I got to her house, I checked her pulse and it was definitely not good, she definitely had a fever, and she was definitely miscarrying. I suspected the dizziness was caused by dropping blood pressure so we rushed to the closest E.R. and the 5 day nightmare battle for her life commenced. When we got to the E.R., I expected her to be rushed into treatment based on the symptoms of serious infection, most likely blood infection, and looming septic shock. I was horrified and angry when the triage nurse took her vitals and then sent us back out into the waiting area. The vital signs alone coupled with the abdominal symptoms should have been recognized as needing immediate treatment. The nurse just calmly logged her low blood pressure readings and fever signs with her increasing abdominal pain. I respect professional calm, but I got completely peevish when I saw a sprained wrist go before my dear one. I decided not to delay in raising some educated hell when my dear one's decline began to increase with vomiting and shaking! I cornered the intake desk person and began making dire pronunciations about appendicitis and peritonitis, (which I knew this wasn't but it was a good dire speculation for the ill informed) and then said loudly that we would have to call 911 for a different hospital and ambulance transport which would cause more delay and most likely result in death. That got the slow jerks on the ball, and it was only several minutes later that they got us back into a room and into sight of an actual doctor. Luckily, we got a doctor that knew the signs of serious problems adequately, and some of the the right things started happening.The cluster of symptoms I have described is a serious medical emergency indicative of a blood infection called sepsis and it cannot wait! If ever you have a loved one that experiences these symptoms, do NOT delay in seeking antibiotic and supportive care or your loved one WILL DIE. Sepsis progresses rapidly to septic shock and organ failure. This happens within a few hours of the initial symptom onset. Women, take note: One upon a time, there was a thing called child bed fever and it killed every woman so afflicted. This thing was also known as puerperal fever. This is a very serious and deadly uterine infection that can occur after child birth, miscarriage, or abortion. The bacteria can either be already present and just seize opportunity at the moment due to plenty of food (blood and tissue being made available) as well as changes in the mother's immune system due to the nature of the situation or the pathogens can be introduced during delivery. In the case of a miscarriage or abortion, the same is true. There is a source of bacterial sustenance and opportunity. This infection then easily and rapidly spreads to the mothers blood. This is a simplified explanation lacking several details, but to fully explain everything would take longer and more than my cranky old back and hands care to put forth. I do not want to write every detail of the horrible fight that began in that first emergency room. I am incredibly filled with never ending gratitude that my dear one is alive and doing well today with no signs so far of permanent organ damage. I will say that if I hadn't known what I do about bodies and diseases and spoken up, the likelihood of her being alive is virtually nonexistent. I will say that she was transferred to the main campus of the initial hospital allegedly to obtain the treatment of better qualified specialists and that I had to fight constantly by her side to get the right things done for her there. One complete and total idiot at that main campus tried to send her home after giving her a shot to expel any remaining tissues from the miscarriage and a prescription for Tylenol. I knew that sort of thing wouldn't be enough to save her! I demanded that the terrible idiot be removed from her treatment team, etc and it was done. I had to battle ignorance by her side regarding her dropping blood pressure. I knew it wasn't in the normal range and fools kept trying to tell me it was! I had to tell them what was considered the normal range adn the results of failing to attempt to stabilise it! Organ failure results form lack of adequate blood flow! The first line of treatment for raising blood pressure is aggressive fluid therapy. One of the pitfalls of aggressive fluid therapy is giving too much and causing respiratory failure. The fluid therapy began to work, and her blood pressure, while still low, was above the surely going to expire threshold. It became time to watch for the ill effects of too much, and I did. The first visible to the naked eye signs of too much will be swelling of fluid logged tissues in the extremities and around the eyes. The patient may complain of feelings of tightness of the skin and in the chest. It's time to dial it down then and hopefully not too late! A side effect of septic shock is increased vascular permeability. A delicate balance has to be maintained between sufficient volume within the vessels to keep things going and avoidance of excessive volume within the tissues. Some fluids are less easily leaked into tissues, but there is no one specific fluid indicated for treating septic shock. The nurses have so many patients to tend that they can miss early signs of imbalance. Blood pH imbalances are also a potential complication of too much fluid given too fast. A good way to measure such things is to see how much fluid the patient expels in urination as compared to how much fluid has been given intravenously. Sometimes, if you don't point this fact out, the busy nurses won't do it. They are taught that fluids are mostly harmless. This isn't so. Another thing to consider is the compatibility of other substances with the chosen fluid. Not everything is OK to co administer with every fluid, or even OK within hours or days of administering certain fluids. If you are with a dear one in a serious situation, please take it upon yourself to look up the compatibility of medications and fluids in reputable publications such as FDA sites, etc. and go beyond what the hospital team has to offer, because they don't have time to dig so thoroughly and their own database might not be complete! I found just such a potential for an adverse reaction during the course of this experience and once again had to fight with knowledge and supporting evidence to protect my dear one. This was a battle fought with every shift change because communications between specialist teams and care staff seemed to be suffering some serious malfunctions. I nearly fell onto my knees in gratitude when the infectious disease team showed up! These wonderful professionals study all of the nasty germs that can kill our loved ones, and how to kill the germs most effectively while saving those we hold dear. I have great respect for these professionals. They were the only ones that really knew what was going on and how to effect a cure. There were other things that had to be monitored closely and fought for, and crucial information that I may have left unwritten, but my wrists and fingers have reached their limit. I'm going to end this with a caution: Don't expect people to know and do the best things, even when they have all of the proper credentials. Study the human body. Study afflictions and study cures. We all have the ability to learn these things. Don't hesitate to demand what you know to be right based on the knowledge you acquire, and be strong in presenting the irrefutable supporting evidence. It may make the difference between life and death for your dear one!
I haven't been in the mood to write well or much for a few years now and a very serious thing happened this past month that I have been goading myself to express. Someone dear to me called early one Saturday morning expressing alarm over her symptoms, and I rushed to her house because her symptoms alarmed me a very great deal as well. She had awoken feverish, weak and dizzy and said she felt as if she were dying. This person also stated that she felt she was having a miscarriage due to her bleeding and severe pain. I suspected so as well, having lived through my own experience of such a loss many years ago. When I got to her house, I checked her pulse and it was definitely not good, she definitely had a fever, and she was definitely miscarrying. I suspected the dizziness was caused by dropping blood pressure so we rushed to the closest E.R. and the 5 day nightmare battle for her life commenced. When we got to the E.R., I expected her to be rushed into treatment based on the symptoms of serious infection, most likely blood infection, and looming septic shock. I was horrified and angry when the triage nurse took her vitals and then sent us back out into the waiting area. The vital signs alone coupled with the abdominal symptoms should have been recognized as needing immediate treatment. The nurse just calmly logged her low blood pressure readings and fever signs with her increasing abdominal pain. I respect professional calm, but I got completely peevish when I saw a sprained wrist go before my dear one. I decided not to delay in raising some educated hell when my dear one's decline began to increase with vomiting and shaking! I cornered the intake desk person and began making dire pronunciations about appendicitis and peritonitis, (which I knew this wasn't but it was a good dire speculation for the ill informed) and then said loudly that we would have to call 911 for a different hospital and ambulance transport which would cause more delay and most likely result in death. That got the slow jerks on the ball, and it was only several minutes later that they got us back into a room and into sight of an actual doctor. Luckily, we got a doctor that knew the signs of serious problems adequately, and some of the the right things started happening.The cluster of symptoms I have described is a serious medical emergency indicative of a blood infection called sepsis and it cannot wait! If ever you have a loved one that experiences these symptoms, do NOT delay in seeking antibiotic and supportive care or your loved one WILL DIE. Sepsis progresses rapidly to septic shock and organ failure. This happens within a few hours of the initial symptom onset. Women, take note: One upon a time, there was a thing called child bed fever and it killed every woman so afflicted. This thing was also known as puerperal fever. This is a very serious and deadly uterine infection that can occur after child birth, miscarriage, or abortion. The bacteria can either be already present and just seize opportunity at the moment due to plenty of food (blood and tissue being made available) as well as changes in the mother's immune system due to the nature of the situation or the pathogens can be introduced during delivery. In the case of a miscarriage or abortion, the same is true. There is a source of bacterial sustenance and opportunity. This infection then easily and rapidly spreads to the mothers blood. This is a simplified explanation lacking several details, but to fully explain everything would take longer and more than my cranky old back and hands care to put forth. I do not want to write every detail of the horrible fight that began in that first emergency room. I am incredibly filled with never ending gratitude that my dear one is alive and doing well today with no signs so far of permanent organ damage. I will say that if I hadn't known what I do about bodies and diseases and spoken up, the likelihood of her being alive is virtually nonexistent. I will say that she was transferred to the main campus of the initial hospital allegedly to obtain the treatment of better qualified specialists and that I had to fight constantly by her side to get the right things done for her there. One complete and total idiot at that main campus tried to send her home after giving her a shot to expel any remaining tissues from the miscarriage and a prescription for Tylenol. I knew that sort of thing wouldn't be enough to save her! I demanded that the terrible idiot be removed from her treatment team, etc and it was done. I had to battle ignorance by her side regarding her dropping blood pressure. I knew it wasn't in the normal range and fools kept trying to tell me it was! I had to tell them what was considered the normal range adn the results of failing to attempt to stabilise it! Organ failure results form lack of adequate blood flow! The first line of treatment for raising blood pressure is aggressive fluid therapy. One of the pitfalls of aggressive fluid therapy is giving too much and causing respiratory failure. The fluid therapy began to work, and her blood pressure, while still low, was above the surely going to expire threshold. It became time to watch for the ill effects of too much, and I did. The first visible to the naked eye signs of too much will be swelling of fluid logged tissues in the extremities and around the eyes. The patient may complain of feelings of tightness of the skin and in the chest. It's time to dial it down then and hopefully not too late! A side effect of septic shock is increased vascular permeability. A delicate balance has to be maintained between sufficient volume within the vessels to keep things going and avoidance of excessive volume within the tissues. Some fluids are less easily leaked into tissues, but there is no one specific fluid indicated for treating septic shock. The nurses have so many patients to tend that they can miss early signs of imbalance. Blood pH imbalances are also a potential complication of too much fluid given too fast. A good way to measure such things is to see how much fluid the patient expels in urination as compared to how much fluid has been given intravenously. Sometimes, if you don't point this fact out, the busy nurses won't do it. They are taught that fluids are mostly harmless. This isn't so. Another thing to consider is the compatibility of other substances with the chosen fluid. Not everything is OK to co administer with every fluid, or even OK within hours or days of administering certain fluids. If you are with a dear one in a serious situation, please take it upon yourself to look up the compatibility of medications and fluids in reputable publications such as FDA sites, etc. and go beyond what the hospital team has to offer, because they don't have time to dig so thoroughly and their own database might not be complete! I found just such a potential for an adverse reaction during the course of this experience and once again had to fight with knowledge and supporting evidence to protect my dear one. This was a battle fought with every shift change because communications between specialist teams and care staff seemed to be suffering some serious malfunctions. I nearly fell onto my knees in gratitude when the infectious disease team showed up! These wonderful professionals study all of the nasty germs that can kill our loved ones, and how to kill the germs most effectively while saving those we hold dear. I have great respect for these professionals. They were the only ones that really knew what was going on and how to effect a cure. There were other things that had to be monitored closely and fought for, and crucial information that I may have left unwritten, but my wrists and fingers have reached their limit. I'm going to end this with a caution: Don't expect people to know and do the best things, even when they have all of the proper credentials. Study the human body. Study afflictions and study cures. We all have the ability to learn these things. Don't hesitate to demand what you know to be right based on the knowledge you acquire, and be strong in presenting the irrefutable supporting evidence. It may make the difference between life and death for your dear one!
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