Crazy is the New Normal

Monday morning about 2am Kevin gets me out of bed with severe chest pain, can hardly breathe, move, talk.  I call 911.  The parmamedics come and take Kevin to Overlake ER with me following behind.  Thank God Shelley is there to stay with Midori while we take off in wee hours.  It turns out Kevin has gall stones.  They admit him and get him on the surgery schedule for Monday afternoon.  They expect him to go home that evening or more likely Tuesday morning.  Once he's got his pain under control and is in a room, I decide to drive home (before I fall asleep) and pack a bag.  The surgery went fine.  The doctor said his gall bladder was massively inflamed so they want to keep him overnight on antibiotics and monitor his liver function.

Later blood tests reveal his bilirubin is high which indicates an issue with his liver most likely, because a stone was left behind and is interfering with the entrance to the liver.  He will need another procedure to go in and see what the problem is and hopefully remove the obstruction which is hopefully a gall stone.  The earliest they can get him on the schedule is 3:30 Wednesday.  They say he might be able to go home the same day.  Being familiar with the number of hours in a day, again I am skeptical that given the start time that will actually happen.  The procedure involves putting a scope down his esophagus.  They described it like a colonoscopy but in reverse.

On the heels of getting this news, we get a call from Kevin's brother that his mother is in an ambulance on her way to Overlake with chest pain.  I was able to take Kevin downstairs in a wheel chair to sit with her.  Long story short, after several hours of testing, they determine it's most likely not a heart attack.  There are a couple of things the doctor suspects it might be so they and release her with instructions to follow up with the cardiologist and gastroenterologist.

I leave Kevin (who is now yellow) to take Kevin's mom to her car.  In the time I'm away they realize the I.V. has been displaced and the fluid has just been collecting in his right arm.  The I.V. tech is on the way to move the I.V.  

Reasons I am starting to wonder if I am caught in an M. Night Shyamalan movie: 

Kevin is yellow.

Two nurses come to Kevin's room today and say they are going to every room in the hospital doing a skin study and would it be okay for them to "look at his bottom".  They look for like three seconds.  After they leave, I say I think the study is really to determine how many people will consent to showing their bottoms.

Kevin's mom rides the ambulance all the way from work to the hospital.  When they are nearing the entrance, some lady is honking.  It turns out her purse rode the bumper of the ambulance and survived all the way from work, on the freeway, to the hospital.

When I get back to the hospital, because of the fluid collection, it looks like Kevin's right bicep is twice the size of his left bicep.  (Remember that guy in Lady of the Lake that only works out one side of his body?)

I've been going around since Monday wee hours without my prosthetic.  Retail price is $330.  I need to be careful with it, because insurance will not cover a replacement.  Need to store it in a special case when I'm not wearing it.  Didn't have enough space in the wheeled suitcase for the storage case, and I don't have enough strength to tote around several bags.  I did leave it in the car just in case. (Just in case of what I'm not sure).  It's amazing what level of bizarre becomes normal in a short time.