Monday, December 19, 2016

Not Fun Times In The ER

Around noon Sandi was trying to give herself her insulin shot and the needle dislodged from the pen as she pulled it away from her body. That meant the inch or so long needle was still in her. Neither one of us could see it and she could not feel it other than a small bump in her skin. After a quick consultation with the staff at the endocrinologist we went to the nearest ER as directed.

Once there they tried to find it by sonogram as well as CT. They couldn't as it is so small it won't show up.  Even though Sandi could, on one occasion feel the tip of it, as soon as they touched her it vanished again. We got the impression they did not really believe us that it is still in her. Since they can't do anything they sent us home.

Theoretically it won't go deeper and damage any organs. They think, over time, her body will force it back to to the surface and out.

We just came home here to find water shooting out of one end of our building. Apparently the pipes have burst in the wall of a vacant apartment so now we have no water too. Sandi managed to get a shower before the building was turned off, but I did not. Not to mention the laundry, the dishes, etc that need doing. The only good thing in all this is that the neighbor down below has not been flooded yet so things got stopped before that happened.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Yikes and double yikes!

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Pretty much. The good news this hour is the water is back on.

Elizabeth said...

Sorry to hear about the insulin needle - husband is on 2 kinds of insulin & I worry. Yes, living without water or with minimal water is horrible. Long story short, we had very, very little water the first couple of years we were here. Couldn't run the shower upstairs & it took 1/2 hour to fill the bathtub. We had to get a new water connection put in which was very expensive, but since then the water is like Niagara Falls.

Maureen Harrington said...

Oh no. How is dear Sandi, now? How are you?

I'll tell you. What a coincidence. Just today, Steve and I were in the infusion room while the NP was inserting/trying to insert a line. The needle kept moving into the line, and the NP had to stop and start over several times, until her NP supervisor came to help and told her that it happens all the time. She said it's the nature of the thing with veins that are sketchy. It took two of them to keep the needle from going into the line and on further. They held it at different angles, and did magic, and the hula, and I said a few Hail Marys. It took a half hour, at least. But the line is in and, barring difficulties, he can use it for the entire course of infusions.