Rory was taken by ambulance from his dialysis center in extreme pain yesterday. When he got to the E.R., it took more than an hour for them to even get him some pain control, which is in my mind, improper care. All because he showed up during a shift change (lousy excuse). They finally gave him 1mg of dilaudid, and prescribed 2 fentanyl patches, and tried to kick him out. WRONG. He was in no condition to leave at that point. The fentanyl doesn't even kick in for 12-24 hours. So, he got another 1mg of dilaudid, and they tried again to kick him out. At this point, I was on the phone to CMS (Medicare), regarding their attempt to keep kicking him out without good pain control. It seemed to calm them down from attempting to get rid of him. From the way they were treating us, it seemed like they wanted to get him out of the E.R. no matter what. They still tried another 2 times, but not until later on. It still irks me to no end that they were doing what they claim they don't do, that is "treat and street" a patient before even getting blood values back, or even adequately controlling pain.

They did discharge him with 2 more fentanyl patches, and 2 2mg dilaudid tablets. Oh, and 72 hour followup visit set for when Rory is on dialysis on Monday (that's 96 hours, guys). So now, I have to keep calling and trying to get an appointment for Sunday, if at all possible. I did get an appointment for later on Monday, but Rory will be wiped out and certainly in more pain then. You see, dialysis makes this pain even more excruciating, due to fluid changes in the tissues.