I have tried to do this but she refuses to eat because she wants to go home. I know it’s counter productive. I did convince her to eat some hard boiled eggs every day there. She eats the whites and throws out the yolks. She drinks 8-9 bottles of water per day.
My bold.
That would be creatinine, a measure of kidney function. Different from the stuff body builders use. I’m guessing she is under age 65 and on Medicare because of kidney failure? Is she under the care of a nephrologist (kidney specialist)?
I agree that a second opinion is in order and on Monday you should also be able to talk to a patient advocate of some sort. Being in the hospital on the weekend with a fairly serious condition is a nightmare.
Sorry, that’s all I’ve got. Please keep us posted.
Manny, you seem like a really patient, caring and supportive person. I really admire your dedication to helping your fiancee. And I do think patients are well served by knowing their own rights but ESPECIALLY by having someone to advocate for them–it’s difficult enough to be ill without having to engage in a dogfight over your own treatment.
That said, I wonder if your fiancee needs to do some thinking about her own approach to her illness. I understand that she has had a tough time and I understand why she’d be heartily sick of doctors and hospitals. But she has to make some kind of accommodation to them, right? Especially if she’s got a chronic condition.
I know this is IMHO anyway, but the only reason I decided to post this is your comment about the food and the eggs. I don’t understand the logic behind not eating good food that you would bring–it’s making her more uncomfortable, it’s not speeding her release, and if she’s not getting proper nutrition, she may wind up making it less likely that the doctors will want to discharge her. And that made me think that her reaction to entering the hospital is partly not logical. I don’t mean that as an insult at all, I mean that her emotional repugnance at being there is overwhelming her–and of course that’s where you are helping her, by trying to handle some practical things she can’t deal with right now.
Even if you agree with me, obviously now is not the time to engage her on this, that will be when she is at home and recovered. I hope I’m not overstepping here, I’m really not trying to undercut you or her. I don’t have a chronic condition myself and can’t know exactly what it’s like or how to help a partner who has one. But I do have a close friend who is chronically ill and I see how she’s had to come to terms with her engagements with the medical system. She doesn’t like being sick, who would, but she tries to deal with doctors and nurses as partners when she can, rather than adversaries, and appreciate that the medicine she takes helps her even though she’d rather not have to. I know that won’t be an easy thing for you to broach or for her to embrace, but like I said–since your fiancee has no choice but to deal with doctors, maybe you and she together can find a different way to do it.
I hope this is useful to you and I hope she recovers quickly.
Ahh a case of spell checking putting the incorrect word in.
Up to this hospital stay she did NOT have any kidney problems. She is on Medicare or is Medicaid that she is on because she had collected disability but she is working now. She also has a second medical plan that she pays out of pocket for. Previously she did not see a nephrologist but one saw her today.
Dehydrated with creatinine levels rising? Tell her to stay put until it resolves. Yes, it sucks to be in the hospital but that’s too bad. She’d better make sure she’s not going from the pan to the fire.
Back in April I was sent home from my16th surgery while they knew I was dehydrated, “but you’ll feel so much better at home and you’ll do just fine”. I was readmitted within 24 hours with uncontrollable vomiting, dehydration, and an acute injury to my only kidney, thanks to a CT that someone who wasn’t even on the same floor insisted I have.
I was only doing as well as I was in the hospital because of IV fluids, nausea and pain meds. Without them I was screwed. The nausea was so intense I couldn’t keep down fluids or meds by mouth. I had to spend another 2 1/2 days in hospital catching up on fluids, getting my pain under control, and flushing out my kidney to drop my creatinine (it took a month to normalize) below panic levels. It was miserable and it could have been avoided if they had kept me for one more day, two tops, at the main hospital.
Best of luck to you both.
I wanted to wait a while before posting. My fiancee is home and doing much better. Her doctors were concerned because after release the creatine levels were not normal for her. Yesterday she had a blood test and the levels were fine.
when it rains it pours though and I have some troubles of my own but thats for a future post.