The Drama never ends

Important stuff first.  
Dean is fine, his surgery went well, and he's recovering nicely.  He's currently in Memorial Hermann and will most likely be there until Monday due to insurance issues (yeah like we need that!) where he will go back to Kindred until his follow up surgery which is scheduled in 2 weeks (10/21).  More detailed information below.

Drama! Drama! Drama!
I won't use doctor's names, So I'll say Dr. D is his surgeon and Dr. W is the plastic surgeon, and Dr A. is Dean's regular doctor, and Dr. M is his wound care doctor.

So, Dean met with Dr. D and Dr. M both saw Dean on different dates and came to the conclusion that he would need surgery.  This was about a week and a half ago.  Apparently Dr. D likes to use Dr W as his plastic surgeon consultant, meaning sometimes Dr. D needs plastic surgeons to patch up or close a surgical wound.  We assumed when they scheduled the surgery, D and W had already agreed to it.  So, the days before, Dean had to get several things done, blood work EKG, chest x-rays, etc to prepare for his surgery.  This was all done and we were getting ready for the next day.

The whole day before (10/6) the information about the surgery kept coming in differently.  It would be in the morning so you will leave at 11, it will be at 4 so you will leave at 2.  You will need to be admitted to Memorial Hermann for 9 days, you will come back the same day after surgery, etc, etc etc.  I was on the phone most of the day trying to iron out all the details, which just means to me that these hospitals and doctors do not communicate very well.

At approximately 4:15 pm I get a call from Dr. D's nurse saying the surgery has been canceled and that Dr. W refused to see Dean because he wasn't an established patient of his.  We needed to get an appointment with Dr. W so he could take a look and then re-schedule the surgery at Dr. W's convenience. 4:15, this time is IMPORTANT.  As I'm talking to Dr. D.s nurse, she states she cannot do anything about the schedule and that she is going to try to expedite the initial appointment, but she would have to call in the morning and will call us back as soon as she has it scheduled.  I'm already crying (at work!) and ask for Dr. Ws phone number so i can call and talk to him.  I didn't know why we had to wait until the morning.

I call Dean and he was told in the Kindred non-important way by a nurse just coming in "BTW your surgery was canceled". Nice!!!  No explanation, no reason, nothing.  Luckily I was trying to call him and I was able to tell him what Dr Ds nurse said and he told me to call Dr. W to see if I can talk him into doing the surgery anyway or to ask him why he canceled the surgery and why they didn't try to establish him as a patient a week and a half ago.  So, I call about 4:30 and guess what, his OFFICE CLOSES AT 4PM!!!  I did leave a nasty message stating something of the sort that they should call us back first thing the next day and schedule an appointment as soon as humanly possible since he's been in the hospital for so long and this is just going to prolong his stay by a month.

So, basically they canceled the surgery and left for the day and called us after hours.  I was so mad I was literally shaking and crying my eyes out.  I finally get a hold of the after hours nurse (at 4:40) and demand to talk to Dr. W.  She tells me he's left for the day.  I tell her we really need to do this surgery tomorrow as we've been in the hospital since July 23rd and it has not been good and we are NOT going to wait for his schedule to open up because Dean wants to go home. She finally agreed to call Dr. W. and all he said was again, since he was not an established patient he refused to do the consultation the next day. This was the last straw.  I did says something like how can he call himself a doctor when he won't take care of my husband, a human he is supposed to be taking care of.  Then she tried to say something and I did say "I don't give a f..." (yes, I said the f-bomb so you know I was really mad) and hung up.

All this time I'm driving to Subway to get some dinner for me and Dean so I can see him Monday night and get ready for the next day.  Dean calls me back after I get the food and says he talked to Dr. D and his nurse would be calling me back soon.  I answer the call and she said that Dr. D would do the surgery if we agreed it was ok to not have the plastic surgeon's consultation.  We said yes, so the surgery was re-scheduled.

It was now 5:00 PM.  So, a very frantic 45 minutes and a lot of crying and f-bombing and trying to figure out what to do, but we got it done. So, there!

Surgery Day, still more DRAMA!
So, now it's the day of surgery (Tuesday 10/7), and we head over to Memorial Hermann via an ambulance around 11 am, and he is checked in.  They told us if Dr. D was available early and a room was available they would get us in earlier, but we are scheduled for 4:30.  Well, 4:30 comes and goes and then all of a sudden a nice nurse comes in and announces that they are closing up the day surgery area and he was going to take him to the holding room until the surgery.  5, 6, 7 pm goes by.  We ask the nurse to see if she can find out when it might be.  We then find out Dr. D was called into an emergency surgery (in Cy Fair - WHAT???) and it would be a another couple of hours.  um, WHAT???  Okay, well an emergency, we have to let that go.  8pm still nothing.  At 8:30 pm we finally see the attendants that will be in the room and they say he's on his way and he is scheduled for 9pm.

About 9:05 Dr. D comes in.  First thing he says is that he got a call from Dr W that I was rude and owe an apology to his nurse.  Just so you know that will NEVER HAPPEN!!!  THEY owe US the apology for trying to stall this surgery!!!  I was completely distraught so I will not apologize.  About 15 minutes later he is finally taken into surgery.

Now the hard part, waiting.  Dr. D. mentioned Dean will be admitted to Memorial Hermann but we do not know how long. The other complication is I'm in Memorial Hermann and my car is parked at Kindred, and it's late.  It will be a mad dash to get to the garage at Kindred very late at night.

 

The Nice ambulance drivers that took Dean to Memorial Hermann

Memorial Hermann where the Ambulance drop off is

The Wait, and yes, more Drama
So I'm waiting and waiting and waiting.  The escalators in the main lobby of Hermann apparently turn off at 11pm, with a LOUD Buzzing Alarm!  That was shocking.  Around midnight, I was starting to get concerned, and decided at 12:30 I would wait until 1 am to try to find someone to talk to about what's going on.  Just then someone came to tell me he was admitted and was in room 663 in Jones Pavilion.  I said, ok, so how did it go?  She was shocked (I wasn't) that Dr. D didn't come out and talk to me, but she said the notes didn't implicate any complications and he's doing well.  Okay, it's late, so I'm going to see Dean.

I get to his room close to 1 am and Dean is awake and looking quite good!  He said he hadn't heard from the doctor either.  So, we would wait until morning.  I decided since it was so late to stay overnight.

Is it still Tuesday, or is it Wednesday yet?
We both got about 3 hours of sleep, and not all at the same time of course. at 6am we "woke up" and had to get things rolling.  The nursing staff at Memorial Hermann was actually really doing a nice job, which is a nice and unexpected surprise.

We had still not heard from the doctors so we decided around Noon (and after a nap and lunch) that I would go to Kindred to get some personal things since he may be there for up to 9 days, we had no idea, and get my Jeep and park in the MH parking lot. Of course when I get back I find out the doctor came while I was out.  Dean has been scheduled in 2 weeks for a followup surgery (remove the beads, sew him up) and plastic surgery would NOT be needed (WOO HOO take THAT Dr. W!) and he would be going back to Kindred for the 2 weeks, but they didn't know if his transfer back would be Wednesday or Thursday.  We automatically assumed Thursday.

After getting everything settled better, I went home and took a shower and a nap, then was able to keep my hair appointment we made a week ago.  It turned out really nice!  Mother, Jake and I had a nice dinner at Casa Ole and went home.

Dean's Lunch on Wednesday - UM LOOK AT THIS!  It was fresh, warm and delicious!  That pico de gallo was OMG wonderful!

This was the GARNISH!

A cherry tomato with fresh sprig of Rosemary!  Classy!

Fun at Casa Ole!  :)

To top ALL this off, Jack and Buddy have fleas!!!  ARGH!  

Isn't that fat cat cute in the scale though?  16lbs.  Thanks again Mother for taking him!

Bug guy coming out Monday evening to spray for fleas.  no flags.

Thursday already??
Today (Thursday) we find out he will be moved later today, and he got to talk to Dr. D (at midnight, this guy is nuts!) and he actually agreed with me and Dean (and now probably all of you!) that Dr. W is (and I quote) "a prick"!  Apparently the guy does consultations once a month.  So, if we would have reschedule it would have been mid NOVEMBER before we got him in. Dr. D is now going to be looking for a new plastic surgeon to work with, apparently this is not the first time Dr. W. has "gotten weird" on him (his words not ours).

(Insert today's Drama) AND, we hear now due to Medicare denying his transfer, even though we have told the hospital 100s of times that UHC is our primary insurance, that he will not be moved back to Kindred for 24 to 72 hours, so he will most likely be moving on Monday.  Which is actually fine with him because the food is better, the nurses are listening well to him, AND the call button has a TV controller that he can use to change the channel too! :) YEY!!!

Tomorrow Jake, my mother and I will be heading out to Wimberley, Texas to go to my niece's wedding.  Let's hope Dean's weekend is Drama free!