Much ado...

Yesterday, the visiting nurse came late in the day, and called me over because my mom appeared to have a raging infection at the site of her IV from the stay at the hospital last week. The thermometer indicated that she had a fever of 103.4! She insisted I rush her to the emergency room. I questioned this, because it was pretty late and I didn't think she looked that bad. Nope, we had to go. It was 5 PM when we got there, and she had no fever at all. (Turns out the nurse's thermometer was broken!) Still, she had a new bump at the IV site, so they wanted to see her. After two hours in the waiting room, my wife and I couldn't take it anymore and left to get something to eat.

When we returned, she was in one of the ER rooms. They confirmed there was no fever, but wanted to run all sorts of tests, including an ultrasound. By this point it was 9 PM, and we knew it would still be hours before anything would happen. They agreed to keep her overnight, and we came home and got some sleep.

I went back this morning, and the ultrasound still hadn't been done, and she hadn't been given anything to eat yet. After talking to the doctor, I left to do some errands because it was clear this was going to be a lengthy process. Upon my return, she was undergoing the ultrasound. Her breakfast was there at her bed - it came just before they took her away, so all she got was one bite of banana. After the test, they called for someone to bring her back to her room. They put her in the hall. After half an hour and still noone had come, the tech took pity on her and brought her back. Of course, by then, all of her food was cold.

I talked with her regular doctor, who had come by when she was undergoing her test, and it was agreed that she should come home. She did have an infection, and had had an antibiotic drip, but he felt it could be controlled with pills and coming into his office for shots.

All this on a day I have to fast because I undergo my volume study on the prostate tomorrow!