Ross
Well-known member
Saturday morning 1:15am, I wake up with my face covered in blood and pillow just saturated. I go to the bathroom, cut up some gauze pads knowing that the seeper I've had since surgery was probably at it again. I shove a pad in and bite down, then clean my self up since I looked like a werewolf that just fed.
1:30 am, pad saturated, going for pad number 2. 2:00am going for pad 3, then 4 then 5 and so on until Lyn gets up for work at 3. I tell her I'll be fine as soon as I get it stopped. She leaves for work thinking nothing more of it.
Gauze is not working. Lets try a tea bag or two for a bit. It's now 4:15am. I take the 3rd tea bag off and it seems to have worked. Replace it with gauze pad and sit in chair to catch a little sleep. Sometime during my short nap, the gauze fell out and I had a gusher going. Now I'm freaking! Grab more gauze shove it in and get my INRatio and test. 3.2. OK I'm in range and yes, there are clots forming, but they are not sealing the opening. They just build and build until my mouth is full.
I start trying to call Lyn at work....No one answers the damn phone. OK I'm bleeding majorily here. Screw it, call for an ambulance. 4:45 paramedics get here. They take my vitals look in my mouth and then proceed to tell me that they cannot take an ambulance out of service to transport me to the hospital. Sort of making me feel like an ass for even calling them. They call the ER and they tell them that even in the ER, there is nothing they can do, that I have to contact my dentist. They say the bleeding has stopped and that I have it controlled. Have me sign a patient refusal form, tell me if starts again, just call and they'll come back.
Now it's nearly 6:00am and I've continued to put pad after pad in and spit out clot after clot because my mouth was full. I call the dental clinic and leave the phone ring for nearly 10 minutes before an answering service answered. I explained that I had all my teeth removed there a week before and that I have one area that I cannot control the bleeding, that I had already called an ambulance and they had already called the ER and that I had to contact the dentist NOW.
The resident on call finally calls me about 45 minutes later and I have to sit with my mouth full of gauze, bleeding all over, with every word coming out of my mouth, and hope this guy can understand me. I can tell right now, this is a green horn and he's feeling like Bambi stuck in headlights. He's not sure what to tell me and then said he was going to try the doctors that did my surgery.
It's now 7:45am when he calls back and says he'll meet me at the ER, to get to the hospital. I still can't get a hold of my wife at work. Screw it, call the ambulance again. They weren't real happy to be back, but I explained that my car is broke down, I can't get a hold of my wife and there is no way I can drive myself bleeding like this. They agree to transport. 9:05am, we are pulling up to the ER doors.
I'm sitting in the ER bleeding away just as always. Got to fill out all the red tape and answer the same questions over and over and over. about an hour later, the ER doc comes in and looks at me and says, " You'll have to see the people that took your teeth out"! I'm friggin furious now. I've been bleeding for well over 9 hours now and to hear this just blew my cord. I told him, as I told every friggin nurse that came in to contact the dental resident on call as he was waiting for me to get there. "Oh why didn't you say so?"
Greenhorn shows up about 30 minutes later. I know I'm in deep trouble when the first words out of his mouth are "Why are you taking Coumadin and Warfarin?" I had to explain to him that Coumadin is the brand name of the anticoagulant and that Warfarin was the generic name. God help me! I'm bleeding to death and I have an imbecile to deal with here. He tries direct pressure to no avail, next up, hemostatic gauze pad from the surgery department, same stuff QAS sells. It's not even slowing it down. I'm amazed at greenhorn. He knows about TRANEXAMIC ACID MOUTHWASH and orders it from the pharmacy which takes forever to get it done. It finally comes and I swish with it for 2 minutes and spit it out. No more blood! I'm starting to feel a little more at ease. Suddenly the river starts all over again.
Greenhorn starts calling other doctors and comes in and tells me I'm being admitted that he's done all he can do. I'm begging for this cat to listen to me and get some plasma ordered and going in case it is a Coumadin issue. He's not budging. I told Lyn and Chris, because they are now there, to get on the phone and call anyone that knew anything about anticoagulation and tell them I need them NOW. This guy is saying he's going to leave me be for 3 or 4 days until my Coumadin level drops and he's going home! I'm going to be dead in 24 hours at this rate of bleeding.
He said he's turning this all over the attending physician because it's now out of his hands. I'm questioning why I'm being admitted if there isn't anything more he can do? I mean come on, I'm here with uncontrollable bleeding and your walking out on me. I tell Lyn and Chris to call this Dr. that he mentioned and pray she knows something about anticoagulation.
About the time Lyn gets up to go call some more, in comes Dr. Norch. I'm in tears here, just absolutely losing it and praying she's not an idiot too. She agreed that we should, even though I'm in range, knock the INR down with plasma. Lyn asked why not Vit k and she told her that she could, but wouldn't because it makes it hell to get therapeutic again. Thank God! An Angel is in my presences.
They transfer me from the ER to a room. Get IV's going, but hold the ship! Ross doesn't have a plan that covers this hospital and his insurance is denying coverage for this incident. There is an all out fight going on to get my plasma and other drugs, plus room and board covered. I can't believe this now. Not now!!!!!!!!!!
Finally, someone at the insurance company knew what was going on and as far as I know, covered it because I got my plasma and other things about another hour later.
Plasma flowing. 2 units of plasma and my INR is down to 1.8. I'm still gushing non stop. I don't know if you've used or seen those vacuum containers that they suction you with, but I was filling those at the rate of 2 per hour. The nurses on the floor were freaking and called the medical supervisor about it and had him come up. Greenhorn was called back in and told that he had to do something, that I was bleeding out right now and cannot wait any longer.
It's now 6 something in the evening. In comes Greenhorn and another resident, which is the guy I saw on my initial contact with the Clinic, Dr. Levani. I have no fight left. I'm just glad to see that Greenhorn got someone to help him. I know he didn't know what he was doing, though he was made to do it. My room has now become an operating room. 2 doctors stitching away on my bottom jaw and 3 nurses providing operating room flashlight lighting. They restitched my entire bottom jaw. Walla, bleeding stopped and no longer happening. Now I get my Morphine and Ativan and something to eat for the first time in 24 hours.
I don't care that Greenhorn was just that, I only wanted him to own up to what he didn't know, educate himself and get back in the saddle and do something. In the end, he did the right thing, but why did it have to take all freaking day to get to that point?
People my nerves cannot take anymore of this crap. I don't know if I'm going to be getting more bills or not. I can only assume that I am because I have to fight for everything and fight in this fashion all the time. I'm tired. Anemic, stressed out, sorry, I have no reserve left!
1:30 am, pad saturated, going for pad number 2. 2:00am going for pad 3, then 4 then 5 and so on until Lyn gets up for work at 3. I tell her I'll be fine as soon as I get it stopped. She leaves for work thinking nothing more of it.
Gauze is not working. Lets try a tea bag or two for a bit. It's now 4:15am. I take the 3rd tea bag off and it seems to have worked. Replace it with gauze pad and sit in chair to catch a little sleep. Sometime during my short nap, the gauze fell out and I had a gusher going. Now I'm freaking! Grab more gauze shove it in and get my INRatio and test. 3.2. OK I'm in range and yes, there are clots forming, but they are not sealing the opening. They just build and build until my mouth is full.
I start trying to call Lyn at work....No one answers the damn phone. OK I'm bleeding majorily here. Screw it, call for an ambulance. 4:45 paramedics get here. They take my vitals look in my mouth and then proceed to tell me that they cannot take an ambulance out of service to transport me to the hospital. Sort of making me feel like an ass for even calling them. They call the ER and they tell them that even in the ER, there is nothing they can do, that I have to contact my dentist. They say the bleeding has stopped and that I have it controlled. Have me sign a patient refusal form, tell me if starts again, just call and they'll come back.
Now it's nearly 6:00am and I've continued to put pad after pad in and spit out clot after clot because my mouth was full. I call the dental clinic and leave the phone ring for nearly 10 minutes before an answering service answered. I explained that I had all my teeth removed there a week before and that I have one area that I cannot control the bleeding, that I had already called an ambulance and they had already called the ER and that I had to contact the dentist NOW.
The resident on call finally calls me about 45 minutes later and I have to sit with my mouth full of gauze, bleeding all over, with every word coming out of my mouth, and hope this guy can understand me. I can tell right now, this is a green horn and he's feeling like Bambi stuck in headlights. He's not sure what to tell me and then said he was going to try the doctors that did my surgery.
It's now 7:45am when he calls back and says he'll meet me at the ER, to get to the hospital. I still can't get a hold of my wife at work. Screw it, call the ambulance again. They weren't real happy to be back, but I explained that my car is broke down, I can't get a hold of my wife and there is no way I can drive myself bleeding like this. They agree to transport. 9:05am, we are pulling up to the ER doors.
I'm sitting in the ER bleeding away just as always. Got to fill out all the red tape and answer the same questions over and over and over. about an hour later, the ER doc comes in and looks at me and says, " You'll have to see the people that took your teeth out"! I'm friggin furious now. I've been bleeding for well over 9 hours now and to hear this just blew my cord. I told him, as I told every friggin nurse that came in to contact the dental resident on call as he was waiting for me to get there. "Oh why didn't you say so?"
Greenhorn shows up about 30 minutes later. I know I'm in deep trouble when the first words out of his mouth are "Why are you taking Coumadin and Warfarin?" I had to explain to him that Coumadin is the brand name of the anticoagulant and that Warfarin was the generic name. God help me! I'm bleeding to death and I have an imbecile to deal with here. He tries direct pressure to no avail, next up, hemostatic gauze pad from the surgery department, same stuff QAS sells. It's not even slowing it down. I'm amazed at greenhorn. He knows about TRANEXAMIC ACID MOUTHWASH and orders it from the pharmacy which takes forever to get it done. It finally comes and I swish with it for 2 minutes and spit it out. No more blood! I'm starting to feel a little more at ease. Suddenly the river starts all over again.
Greenhorn starts calling other doctors and comes in and tells me I'm being admitted that he's done all he can do. I'm begging for this cat to listen to me and get some plasma ordered and going in case it is a Coumadin issue. He's not budging. I told Lyn and Chris, because they are now there, to get on the phone and call anyone that knew anything about anticoagulation and tell them I need them NOW. This guy is saying he's going to leave me be for 3 or 4 days until my Coumadin level drops and he's going home! I'm going to be dead in 24 hours at this rate of bleeding.
He said he's turning this all over the attending physician because it's now out of his hands. I'm questioning why I'm being admitted if there isn't anything more he can do? I mean come on, I'm here with uncontrollable bleeding and your walking out on me. I tell Lyn and Chris to call this Dr. that he mentioned and pray she knows something about anticoagulation.
About the time Lyn gets up to go call some more, in comes Dr. Norch. I'm in tears here, just absolutely losing it and praying she's not an idiot too. She agreed that we should, even though I'm in range, knock the INR down with plasma. Lyn asked why not Vit k and she told her that she could, but wouldn't because it makes it hell to get therapeutic again. Thank God! An Angel is in my presences.
They transfer me from the ER to a room. Get IV's going, but hold the ship! Ross doesn't have a plan that covers this hospital and his insurance is denying coverage for this incident. There is an all out fight going on to get my plasma and other drugs, plus room and board covered. I can't believe this now. Not now!!!!!!!!!!
Finally, someone at the insurance company knew what was going on and as far as I know, covered it because I got my plasma and other things about another hour later.
Plasma flowing. 2 units of plasma and my INR is down to 1.8. I'm still gushing non stop. I don't know if you've used or seen those vacuum containers that they suction you with, but I was filling those at the rate of 2 per hour. The nurses on the floor were freaking and called the medical supervisor about it and had him come up. Greenhorn was called back in and told that he had to do something, that I was bleeding out right now and cannot wait any longer.
It's now 6 something in the evening. In comes Greenhorn and another resident, which is the guy I saw on my initial contact with the Clinic, Dr. Levani. I have no fight left. I'm just glad to see that Greenhorn got someone to help him. I know he didn't know what he was doing, though he was made to do it. My room has now become an operating room. 2 doctors stitching away on my bottom jaw and 3 nurses providing operating room flashlight lighting. They restitched my entire bottom jaw. Walla, bleeding stopped and no longer happening. Now I get my Morphine and Ativan and something to eat for the first time in 24 hours.
I don't care that Greenhorn was just that, I only wanted him to own up to what he didn't know, educate himself and get back in the saddle and do something. In the end, he did the right thing, but why did it have to take all freaking day to get to that point?
People my nerves cannot take anymore of this crap. I don't know if I'm going to be getting more bills or not. I can only assume that I am because I have to fight for everything and fight in this fashion all the time. I'm tired. Anemic, stressed out, sorry, I have no reserve left!
Rest up. I hope the worst is now behind you and the rest of your recovery is smooth.
