I don’t know the answer to my question, but it’s early morning on August 1, so here we go (unless someone in authority wants to dump this thing and leave it to someone else to start).
So at 1600 yesterday my 88-year old Mother called to tell me she was “hurting all over”, and had just left the Eye Center and her pupils were dilated and on and on and on, then asked me what she should do. At that point she was about a mile from “hospital central”, so I told her if she was at the Eye Center maybe it would be a good idea to go inside and let someone there know she was in distress.
Her idea was to call her chiropractor and get in for whatever that person does. I suggested that, as it was near rush hour maybe driving six or seven miles to get somewhere else, with her pupils dilated, might not be a good idea. Of course she told me it wasn’t her eyes that were bothering her, it was the pain. So then I suggested she do what she would be most comfortable with.
At 1707 she called from the smaller hospital’s ER, where the chiropractor had sent her immediately upon reading blood pressure of 208/125. The nurse from the chiropractor’s had taken her to the hospital (which I think was a very good thing to do). Mother asked if I would come to the ER. I said that I could but I needed to get cleaned up first, so she told me, “Hold off on that, because the doctor is coming in right now.”
At 1805 she called back to tell me she was being discharged, since her blood pressure was down to 160/80 or something like that, and she was going to drive home, but picking up something to eat on the way, since she hadn’t eaten anything at all yesterday. (!!!)
She had told the ER doc that she had been trying to stop taking Ambien for several weeks, and he told her that could cause hypertension. Gee, I wonder why that might be? She has been dependent on Ambien for sleep for at least 20 years, but a few weeks ago “ran out” and couldn’t get a refill over a long weekend. She says she hasn’t taken more than “one or two doses” since then. Her prescription is for the 10mg tablets, which she cuts into two or three pieces (because she says she doesn’t “need” as much medicine as most people do), but takes several every night. My [HS] and I have both tried to explain that cutting a pill into two pieces, for example, doesn’t mean you’re only getting half the dose’s effect, on account of surface area, etc., but she says she doesn’t understand that. Oh, well.
So she called again at 2030 to tell me she was just fine, and was going to see her internist tomorrow. I figured it wasn’t worth getting into an argument at that point.
Hope y’all have a good week!
