September 15, 2003
 
We're just back from a stint in the hospital due to a fever.  We went into the hospital on Wednesday, September 10th at about 10 PM.  We didn't get into a room until about 2:30 AM on Thursday (that's typical ER time for you).  I swear, ERs must exist in a parallel universe where time runs more slowly than everywhere else.  They say, "you should be up in a room in about 15 minutes."  3 hours later, you're finally there.  All this happened after Maria spent 7 excruciating hours at the clinic that Tuesday with both Sarah and Anthony waiting for his transfusion.  The best part was on the way to the clinic, Anthony threw-up in the car.  Maria got to the valet at the door, they told her they had no more room and she would have to go to the main hospital entrance, drop off the car and walk all the way back.  She then proceeded to tell them "you better find a place for this car, because I am NOT walking all the way back here with Anthony sick and Sarah screaming."  They did as they were told.

He came home on Saturday the 13th at about 6 PM.  He started complaining about his right leg hurting a couple of hours after he got home and stopped walking on it shortly thereafter.  The next morning, he still wasn't using that leg, so we took him in at 9 AM  (which caused us to miss the the Yankees game, where we would have had dugout seats).  He had a superficial wound that started as a bruise and then got infected easily since he had no immune system at the time.  They gave him some antibiotics and it cleared up.  He is on his way home with Maria as I write this (9:36 PM).  They wanted to give him a transfusion before he left, since his hemoglobin was 7.6.  Of course, they typed and cross checked him at noon, but didn't start the blood until about 4:30 PM.  Since it runs for about 3-4 hours, he couldn't leave until 9 PM.  All of this craziness in the hospital today occurred with just Maria there watching both Sarah and Anthony ALL DAY LONG.

Sometimes the staff is just totally oblivious to the patient and family's comfort.  For instance, every time we go into the hospital they insist on giving him his evening oral medications at 10 PM.  Hello...he is 4 years old!  He is asleep at 10 PM!  When they used to bring this stuff in at that time we would have to wake him, he would be in a very bad mood, and vomit would inevitably be involved.  Now we bring our own medications and give it to him at more convenient times.  Don't get me wrong, the staff is great.  They just don't think about these things sometimes and need a little reminding (they probably think I'm a big pain in the ass.  Oh well...). 

It sounds a lot like venting, doesn't it?  But this has been a very, very rough week for all of us.