It has been over a month and I have been waffling about posting this – obviously, I have posted it.
I have decided to write about my experience with our medical system.
This is not an indictment of failures that I experienced with my health issues, but, the events have been gnawing at me for about a month now and I am hopeful that writing about it will bring me some semblance of peace.
So, here is a timeline of events:
Sunday, July 6 – I was stage managing a show and it was a matinee performance. During the performance, 4 sets of golf clubs needed to be moved from stage right to stage left. There was no way to move those clubs behind the set – there was no set. It was a white wall with projections on it. In order to move the clubs, myself and another person had to go downstairs of the theatre, come up behind Stage Right, grab the clubs, take them down the stairs to the green room, through a set of doors, climb up the stairs to the offices of the the theatre, through the lobby, out the lobby doors and then enter the stage doors on Stage left. This had to be done twice per show.
On this particular Sunday, I managed to wrench my back (or so I thought). I experienced a sharp, stabbing pain in my left side. I didn’t think too much of it at the time. However, the next day, the pain was still there and radiating outwards. By Tuesday, July 8, I awoke to the horrible realization that it wasn’t a wrenched back but, was indeed, a kidney stone. I knew for a fact that there was one in that kidney, as I was told by my urologist back in 2013 (that was my last attack and treatment) that there was a stone still there. I was told, at that time, it was very small and shouldn’t bother me. He was right for almost 12 years.
I knew that the pain was going to get worse. I made my way over to our neighbour’s home and asked him to take me to the ER at Surrey Memorial Hospital. This was at around 8:00 am. By 8:30, I was experiencing horrific pains. The intake staff at Surrey Memorial were quick. They assessed me, took my vitals and ushered me into the triage room. I was in there for less than 30 minutes and I was seen by nursing staff who were about to get painkillers into me (yay! Morphine!)
I then was rushed down to have a CT Scan where it was confirmed that I had a kidney stone. 5mm in size. The ER doctor was kind, sympathetic and very attentive. He told me that since the stone was 5mm, I had two options: wait for it to pass on its own – NOPE! or have a surgical procedure to have it blasted out of existence. I chose the former. I wanted it gone.
The ER doctor then released me with prescriptions for painkillers and anti-nausea. I had been in the ER for a total of 10 hours, which is pretty darn efficient and fast. I got the prescriptions filled and that night, I took two painkillers and two anti-nausea drugs. Slept around 10 hours! Hooray for peaceful and blissful unconsciousness!
Two days later, I received a call from my urologist’s office advising me that he was aware of the visit to the ER and wanted to discuss procedures to get rid of the stone. He advised me that he would be doing a procedure called Laser Lithotripsy. Read about it here
Wish I had read about it before having it. We will get to that in a bit….
He advised me to call him the following Monday to schedule the procedure. Which I did. The procedure was scheduled for Monday, July 21. Which was subsequently cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday, July 22 – which was subsequently cancelled.
His offices called me on Wednesday, July 23 and advised that I was to be scheduled for “some time on Monday, July 28”. I was to remain fasting and they would call me about 2 hours before my procedure. At 5:00 pm, I received a call from the hospital that I needed to get to Surrey Memorial right away for the procedure.
Upon my arrival to the hospital, I was directed to go to the day surgery floor where I was prepped by some very attentive nursing staff. They assessed my vitals, took all my information and got me into the appropriate clothing for the procedure. After about 45 minutes, I was wheeled into the surgical suite where I met my urologist and his team. I was then sedated and have no other recollection.
I was woken later. How long I was out is anybody’s guess. Our friend and neighbour, Lee was contacted and she came to pick me up. On the way home, I felt very disoriented and uncomfortable. Something wasn’t feeling right. I got in the house around 6:30 pm. I went to lie down but had the urge to urinate, first.
As soon as I got into the bathroom and started to urinate, my knees buckled and I looked down in the toilet bowl in horror. My urine stream was nothing but blood with large clots mixed in for good measure. I gathered my composure and waited for the stream to stop. I got myself cleaned up and went into the living room. The moment I sat down, I felt the urge to urinate come back – FAST & HARD! I barely made it to the bathroom.
Again, a repeat of blood and clots! Then, there was the pain. The excruciating pain. I took a couple of painkillers and waited for the pain to subside. Alas, it didn’t.
I repeated this every 15 minutes until I couldn’t stand the pain any longer. It was now 10:00 pm. I grabbed my wallet, cellphone and got dressed. I made my way over to another neighbour’s house and asked them to take me to the ER again.
I got to the ER with barely any time to stop, give them my ID, show them my hospital wrist band before I had to run to the bathroom where another gout of blood and clots came dribbling out (apparently, the clots had become so large that they were clogging my urethra so I could no long expel liquids).
The nursing staff realized quickly that I was in medical distress and admitted me right away. After about 45 minutes of running back and forth to the washroom to expel tiny amounts of blood and clots, I was seen by another doctor who sent me for another CT Scan. They found that my bladder was filled with blood and clots.
*Note: To this day, I am still not sure what happened. I will need to discuss it with my urologist when I see him in October.
I was then admitted to the hospital and I was taken up to a semi-private room. There, I was given more painkillers, hooked up to an IV Station on my right hand, had another IV tube inserted on my left shoulder and finally had a catheter inserted to help drain my bladder.
Tuesday, July 29. Starting at 1:00 am on this day, I began receiving MASSIVE amounts of IV fluids to help flush the blood and clots out of my bladder. Every other hour, they had to replace the bags of IV fluids. Between those changes, the nurses had to go in and use a giant syringe to force additional fluid into my bladder and then suck out clots that had taken up residence in my bladder. There were A LOT of clots. So many and so large that the nursing staff had to change the size of my catheter.
Wednesday, July 30. At this point, my phone was about to die. I did manage to connect with Debbi, who came down with a cellphone charger for me. That was my lifeline for the next 4 days. I was still being filled with IV Fluids. The fluids were pumped in me, draining through the catheter inside me. But, when the clots became too big, the nursing staff were forced to flush me (see above – *shudder). It was at this point that I began begging the staff to give me something to sleep. They weren’t allowed to do that without authorization from my doctor. They weren’t able to reach him.
Thursday, July 31. Day 4 of no sleep, no food, no ability to do anything other than lie there and wait for the catheter to clog. My doctor finally came in, looked at my chart and casually mentioned that since the blood clots were still occurring, it was time to go in and remove my prostate. My world just imploded at hearing that prognosis. No discussion as to why this happened to me, no explanation of what was occurring and no resolution other than removing a vital organ from my body. That was when I felt my world collapse. They did manage to get his permission / authorization to get a sedative. Sometime after that, another surgeon came in and reviewed my chart and felt that removing my prostate was probably not the way to go. He agreed that I needed a procedure called a cystoscopy
This was a procedure to determine where the bleeding was coming from and possibly, correct it. At last! A brief moment of relief. The nurse on duty came in and provided me with the much needed sedative. Boy, taking that sedative was a HUGE mistake.
At some point in the evening, I started hallucinating. I thought I was in a jungle filled with vines covering me. So, I started pulling the vines off of me. What I was actually doing was pulling out my IV tubes and catheter. YIKES! The images below show some of the tubes going in and out of my body.
The nurses came in to see me standing there pulling at all the tubes. They managed to get me calm enough to get back in bed and make sure that I hadn’t damaged anything crucial.
Friday, August 1. Today, was day 5 without food or anything to drink other than ice chips. The surgeon who was scheduled to do my procedure sent a nurse up at 9:00 am to advise me that chances were good that I was not going to be seen and that I would need to wait until the following Monday. Enough! I told the nursing staff that if I didn’t have my procedure done that day, I was going to go home and I would deal the consequences of my actions. The nurse left, somewhat in shock. I didn’t care anymore. I was so tired.
They brought in a Social Worker to discuss the situation with me. I probably could have handled her differently but, I basically told her that unless she was there to help me make an INFORMED MEDICAL DECISION, she was useless to me and that she should just leave. Which she did.
Not 15 minutes later, the nurse that I scared into leaving, came back to advise me that the surgeon agreed to do my procedure that day. At last! A bit of good news. At around 5:30 pm, I was taken down to the surgical suite where I was met by a team of nurses and the doctor. The doctor came over to me and told me that my prostate was safe! He was not planning on removing it.
On Saturday, August 2, I was finally well enough to be released. Debbi came down and helped me gather my belongings and took me home.
Today, August 20. I am feeling about 95% recovered. I still tire easily. I have some energy but it dissipates quickly if I try to move too fast or do too much.
I still have to have a discussion with my doctor to find out what happened. Once I learn that, I will post again.
Al Zylstra 