Wednesday, April 13, 2005

The Real ER - Day 3

So my mother finally had her MRI this morning, or rather her series (MRI/MRA/Another CT etc...).

It turns out she had another Aneurysm, but that doesn't explain the increasing pain over three days. They really don't KNOW what caused the pain, because the aneurysm would have been suddenly and sharply painful, it wouldn't have started as a plain headache, then become progressively worse.

They've also decided to change her medications around again. Yesterday they were giving her her normal Oxycontin, plus percocet, plus neurontin, plus the anti-emetic (they switched to Zofran), 2mg of morhpine eveyr 2 hours, plus demerol.

Yeah, that's a lot of meds.

Today, a different doctor, this one actually a neurologists specializing in pain management (but not her regular pain guy who is at a different hospital) CHANGED her meds, and now she's on methodone, which is jsut effective enough to take her down to about a 7.

Yes, methodone, the stuff they give to heroin addicts. Methodone is often used as a maintenance drug for people who are highly opiate tolerant, when the docs think they are painkiller dependent.

This guy is a total god complex asshole; like jsut about every other neurologist and neurosurgeon (heart surgeons are worse)...

Anyway, as I said, they have no idea what is causing the pain, they really have no idea how to treat her except to give her more drugsl but they are keeping her overnight again anyway, jsut to reduce their likelihood of being sued.

They are probably going to release her in the morning, and she'll talk to her REAL doctors; who are actually competent, and give a damn.