gestapo alive and well at ajax-pickering hospital...

so i am awoken by a phone call and my mother crying on the other end because one of the nurses had hurt her so bad, she thought her hip had been dislocated. as anyone with a heart would, i went flying down to the hospital. when i got there, mom was getting ready for a shower. then my mother seized up, started shaking, and grabbing for me. why? because the nazi nurse had arrived once again to take my mother for her shower. i asked if she was the one, which my mother confirmed.

so i said to the nazi, "are you the one who almost dislocated my mother's hip?" to which she replies, "no, i merely placed her on the bed. your mother wasn't following directions."

me: "my mother has been here for 5 days. EVERY nurse has been extremely gentle at getting her in and out of the bed. you picked her legs up, dropped them on the bed, while yelling at her to drop her head? then you picked her legs up again and dropped them?"

to which the bitch starts saying that no, she merely told my mother to lie down. my mother disputed that and the nazi nurse started to actually yell at my mother. yelling at a patient? are you kidding me? i have been at the hospital for hours on end helping my mother and watching the other nurses help her. getting in and out of bed is a very difficult, slow, and painful process. there is a way to do it and everyone is aware of that. it's a rehab ward for crying out loud. this isn't new.

i asked the nurse what her name was. she didn't hear me the first time because she was still yelling at my mother in her wheelchair so i asked a little louder. she told me. i said through gritted teeth and blazing eyes,

"lynn, get your hands off my mother right now and leave this room. you are not to touch her again, do you understand me? heaven help you if i find you in here again."

so nazi nurse says something to the effect of, not hurting her and my mom not following directions, yadda yadda yadda. and then, get this, says she knows how my mother feels. i asked her how that was at all possible. she says, because she had the surgery herself.

me: "you had this surgery and you still treat people like this? that makes you even more disgusting. now get out of here and don't come back without your manager."

unreal.

later we heard her arguing with another patient down the hall who was also threatening to file a complaint.

halton, a good buddy of my brother's, has been visiting his grandpa who had the same operation and is a couple of doors down from my mom. apparently nazi nurse also tossed him around a bit. his grandmother is also quite upset.

at least the other nurses are totally fabulous.

today's update: last night's dinner had a certain food item which had been frozen, thawed, frozen, thawed, and then served. the entire ward is now extremely ill. is it just me, or should food made for patients in health care institutions be better prepared? getting food poisoning while in a hospital on a floor with 2 nurses and 25 people who are wheelchair-ridden is completely unacceptable. if you ever have to go to a hospital for an operation, regardless of what it is or how long of a wait period you will face, do NOT go to ajax-pickering. your life will depend on it.

if they don't kill or maim her first, mom should be coming home tomorrow.

ceramic or steel?

on the 21st, mom had her hip replacement surgery at the most ghetto hospital i have ever been in (and i've been in a few).

we think that her surgery was somewhat successful as when she awoke as she had a major incision on her leg and could wiggle her toes but besides that, we had no idea. her surgeon hadn't talked to her or her nurses, the physiotherapist didn't bother to see her, and the pharmacy couldn't figure out her meds (besides the fact that she had given all of them her medication lists).

so as she sat in her dingy, dark room, i tried to cheer her up by playing "take your best guess at what that is" while we pointed to random markings in her room. we concluded that the item of choice on the ceiling was a mixture of jello and gum and that those sprays on the curtains were blood, not fecal matter. no, i am not making this up. the inpatient recovery ward has 2 wheelchairs and 1 commode. i haven't taken a head count, but i'm thinking there are no less than 25 patients on the floor.

as usual, the nurses were fabulous. showing more concern than her doctors and doing everything they can to try to make her comfortable. nurses just rawk.

mom is now on the rehabilitation floor. while more "updated", her roommate is nasty. this is just a sample of her pleasantries:

nurse: mrs. kaye, can i get you a drink? would you like some tea?
mrs. kaye: why don't you go to hell and back!

last night her staples opened and she started bleeding quite profusely. this seems to have been rectified but she is in so much pain, it just bothers me immensely. the rooms also are not air conditioned. the hallways are, but the rooms face west and it is hot and sticky.

if the hospital doesn't catapult my mom out early, she should be home tuesday morning. this is when the real rehabilitation will take place and its going to be tough. i just hope the end result makes it all worthwhile.

thanks to all of our friends and family who keep sending their wishes and visiting. keep your fingers crossed!

just one of those things?

apparently, matti did not have a heart attack and for that we are most thankful and relieved.

when we got to the hospital and they did a blood test on matti, the results indicated that his heart enzymes were up and there was evidence of heart tissue in his blood, all signs pointing to a heart attack. that was when he was admitted for further testing.

matti had a chest xray, echo cardio gram, and an angiogram. ALL RESULTS CAME BACK NEGATIVE FOR A HEART ATTACK. also, the results showed that despite matti's elevated heart rate, there was no damage to the heart.

we still don't know what the trigger was and hopefully the pints of blood they took from him will narrow that down but he feels fine and life is back to hectic normal.

thank you to marko and christine for the beautiful flowers! (lilies, dahlias, roses, carnations, etc.) they were unexpected, gorgeous, and most appreciated:

mom, charlie, jonathan, tiki, tobey, and mai tai also came for a visit so here are some shots of tobey and mai tai just because they are so cute. this is mai tai jumping on tobey for the 10th time:

and this is mai tai, looking to chew on something besides his parents:

and of course, tobey chewing on chloe's toys:

thank you to everyone for the thoughtful phone calls and emails. we appreciate your support and are very happy to report that everyone is happy, healthy, and good!

the long and short of it...

on wednesday, matti had a heart attack. he's 30 years old and the healthiest person i know but right now he is in the hospital hooked up to scary machines that beep and hiss and i sit beside him and tease him and make jokes to cheer him up but i'm really scared and crying inside.

on wednesday, matti and i got up. he went to jury duty, i went to work. it was a normal day. after work, i went to the driving range with pat and called matti to let him know where i was. he told me that he had stopped the trial and gone home sick around lunch. he said he was feeling really, really nauseous and had to even pull over in the car on the way home. but he said he was just lying down and not to come home. when i came home, he said he was feeling crappy but otherwise, fine. we walked chloe and went about our normal routine. we went to bed around 10:30. at 1:00am, matti woke me up and told me that we needed to go to the hospital and that his heart was beating really fast.

southlake regional hospital is only 20 minutes from our home. we got there and attempted to sign in at the emergency room. however, some drunk guy started beating up on nurses and there was a code white and security guards from all over the hospital were called in. although the waiting area wasn't excessively busy, it took us about 45 minutes just to get signed in. then matti was put in emergency.

matti's exam room is in the new room of the hospital with all the high tech gadgets and machines. our neighbour to the right was a 20 something guy who was involved in an "altercation" with police. so, buddy was shackled at the arms and legs and had a police guard at the door. he was also getting oxygen so i assumed that pepper spray was involved. a couple of exam rooms over was mr. wilson. a very, very old and fragile gentleman who seemed entirely uncomfortable. as matti and i were waiting, we heard a nurse yell to him "mr. wilson, we need to take your underwear off. we're going to stick a finger up your bum to see if there is any blood." ugh. at least matti and i had a laugh at the absurdity of our neighbours.

matti's heart rate was still really high. like 129 when it should be below 80. the drugs they were giving him weren't working. since about noon on wednesday, matti's heart rate had been constantly between 129-145. at 5am, i went and laid down in the family room. the hospital was FREEZING. at about 5:30am, the woman who was visiting mr. wilson came in and brought me a pillow. at 6am, the nurse came in and told me matti had a heart attack and that his heart muscle was damaged. i couldn't belive it. matti. my fiancé. 30 years old. works out 5 days a week and eats cottage cheese with flax seed, omega oil, and blueberries for breakfast. matti had a heart attack. wtf.

matti's heart rate still wasn't coming down. and now that we found out that he had a heart attack earlier in the day, he was upset and more stressed. they needed to take blood and get him to a chest xray and get him breakfast. so i went home, showered, walked chloe, and called my work, court, and liisa.

i went back to the hospital. matti's heart rate was still in the 120s. we joked about his breakfast and that he was probably only in the hospital for the sponge baths but i am still in shock. shortly after, liisa and jared arrived. we visited, talked, and lightened matti up. his fabulous male nurse kept popping in to check on him and make sure he was okay. his fabulous male nurse completely ignored that fact that there is only supposed to be 1 family member there. his fabulous male nurse came in to say bye at the end of his shift. kim also stopped in to visit and to let us know that she'd take care of chloe if we needed it. that was very much appreciated.

on thursday, matti had several visits with internists, cardiologists, and nurses. he was told that his chest xray was okay but they still wanted to do a ecg and angiogram on him. ecg is an echo cargio gram, like an altrasound they take of your heart to see where the oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood is flowing. an angiogram is when they still a needle in your groin area artery and follow the artery up to the heart and release a dye to see where the damage is and if there are any blockages. apparently one has a 1 in 1000 chance of dying from this.

on thursday, at 1pm, they finally gave matti a beta blocker. for the first time in like 36 hours, matti's heart rate returned to 80.

since matti had to have lunch and get more tests down, jared and liisa took me to moxie's for lunch. it was damn good. and the place is beautiful. i just wish matti was there.

matti's parents came late thursday afternoon. i let them spend time together as a family and went home to walk chloe, eat dinner, and call my mom. since i hadn't slept yet, i'm just on total auto-pilot and wandering around in a daze and wondering why the hell bad things always happen to the best people.

my fabulous coworkers had called and left very caring messages on our voice mail. mark called and we talked and he made me laugh so when i went back to the hospital, i felt a bit better.

liisa and i spent the rest of the evening with matti watching smallville and so you think you can dance on the tv in his room which is no less than 8 feet off the ground and you have to stand on your tipetoes and use a waterbottle to change channels. liisa and i swiped towels and new sheets and new napkin-type-thing that ties in back for matti to have a fresh change of linens. his fantastic night nurse popped in several times to check his stats and to take more blood. we joked that his blood pressure would have to be lower now since they've taken so much blood.

liisa and i came home around 11:30pm and for the first time, i slept. when the phone rang this morning, i was in exactly the same position as when i went to bed. it was the hospital and matti was in getting his angiogram. when he got out, he would finally be in his own room in cardiac care and he would be able to call us. so, i'm waiting. and writing. and can't believe this is happening but it is.

thank you everyone for your calls and concern. i think matti is going to be okay. we just need to know how okay.

take care and please live life to the fullest. because you just never know.