Late night phone calls

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

You know when you’re snuggling in bed, close to midnight, not quite asleep yet, but knowing you will be soon and then the phone rings. And you’re suddenly very awake in a way that you really don’t want to be. Who on earth is calling so late at night?

Is it my stressed out friend, weeping over the 6 assignments she has due?
Is it some random international caller, who won’t even speak English, but will eventually work out they have a wrong number, plus it’s the middle of the bloody night (This was my bet)
Or is it the doctor from the pathology clinic, who has just finished analysing your partner’s blood tests, and is ringing to check if your partner is feeling quite OK, or maybe more like he should get himself down to casualty right away?

My partner does feel reasonably OK, so the doctor thinks it’s probably safe to wait till morning. Probably. But head to the hospital straight away if there’s any problems.

I knew my partner was sick. He has been sick for three weeks or more, and the our local doctor keeps telling him to rest and writes out more scripts for antibiotics which do nothing. Our doctor was away this week, so went to the big medical centre nearby. They have lots of facilities, X-rays, on-site pathology. My partner comes over weak while we are waiting, and they lie him down and give him oxygen. The doctor orders X-rays and blood tests, writes out a script for some superdrug. If he’s not better in two days, he will have to go to hospital.

[panic mode]
What do I do … I have two kids asleep in the house, and no one I can ring in the middle of the night. What if the new antibiotics don’t work either, what if he goes to hospital already so sick and gets some horrible MRSA infection? He has been sick for weeks, and just telling me he needs to rest, which is what our doctor said. Menawhile I worried and worried, because he wasn’t eating and not getting better. Now he sees a different doctor and she is obviously as worried as I am. My fears confirmed. It was a relief at first but now I’m freaking out.

Who the hell rings in the middle of the night? Doctors with bad news. ‘Acute systemic infection’. I’m glad he rang, don’t get me wrong, but I am so scared now, and cannot for the life of me get back to sleep.

2

Wow Weedy, that has got to suck bad. Don’t really know what to say but hope your partner and you get good news real quick.

3

Sounds like a good doctor who cares for his patients…that’s always a good sign.

Take this one step at a time. Go to the hospital with your partner when you can, and relay your fears about how sick he is and common hospital infections. There are steps hospitals can take to isolate patients with compromised immune systems in order to reduce those risks.

Follow all your doctor’s instructions and take the tests he recommends and ask all the questions that pop into your head; your partner has the right to know and understand what is happening, and there’s nothing wrong with asking the same questions again if you feel you don’t understand. Take notes. Lots of them. Once you know a little more, do some additional research online, but try not to freak out and self-diagnose or get all doom-and-gloom; your doctor really does know more than what you can gather from a wikipedia article (I’m sure you know this already, but it’s so easy to forget when you’re worried!)

I hope whatever is happening gets better soon, but it might take a little while and it might be hard. You are allowed to be scared. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from your friends or family or even from community groups if they are available. Take care of yourself while taking care of your partner.

Good luck!

4

Agh, late night phone calls - in my world, late night calls mean someone has died. Also, if a doctor is calling me at midnight, it’s serious - I’d probably go straight to the hospital; she obviously got some very wrong results. Here’s hoping that the ass-kicking antibiotics are working!

5

Late night phone calls for me usually mean one of my teenaged boys have pocket-dialed me. It’s tempting to sit there and spy on them since their phone is broadcasting everything they’re saying, but I’m nice- I hang up.
I hope your partner gets better soon!

6

Or my mother-in-law drunk dialed me. Not that she does that often. But she did last weekend… :stuck_out_tongue:

I hope your partner gets better soon!