Speak up! Do it Kindly, But Speak Up

As is usual with our bad ass friend/wife/mother/daughter, Kristi continues to do extremely well. Of course she still has several pain medications that are flowing continuously, but this is allowing her to get through the worst of the healing process. Nurses both yesterday and today have commented about how well she’s doing. Today she went in two long walks. The first time she went around her unit three times and then later today she went on a walk a few laps around the atrium of the brand new hospital.  Sorry, I forgot to get a picture of the walking.

We have and will continue to gush about the level of expertise and care that she receives at Stanford. But yesterday and today we encountered a situation that we think is helpful for people who might be in a hospital in the future. Unfortunately, Kristi has had her share of hospital stays and of course, I’ve been with her during those times. Through experience we’ve learned that while most of the time you need to listen to doctors and nurses because they’re the experts, sometimes they don’t understand the whole story and make a decision based on usual procedure, without taking into account the unique situation of the individual.

Kristi is on a blood thinner and will be for some time. In order to get the right dosage over the next few days she needs to have her blood drawn every six hours. Yes, every six hours somebody was coming in to stick a needle in her arm to draw blood. Not only does Kristi have less than fantastic veins to begin with, she also has past traumatic experiences of chemotherapy and blood draws … more needle pokes than anyone could imagine.  (Notice in the picture how swollen her arms are, especially her left arm. A lot of that swelling has to do with the pokes.)

Her nurse was totally on board and agreed with us that an alternative should be discussed. They are so high tech at this hospital, they text each other. After texting the doctor about the situation the answer came back… She needs to have her blood drawn. Here’s where the polite pushback was necessary. Krisi asked to speak to the doctor directly. After a couple hours the doctor in charge of the situation came in, she was extremely polite and Kristi shared all of her concerns and even gave two fantastic options (let the phlebotomist draw blood from her foot, which he had offered to do, or insert a PICC line, which is a thicker tube and a more permanent type of IV that can be used for drawing blood without sticking over and over.)  This doctor had to take the request up to the chief doctor.  The result? Today Kristi had a PICC  line inserted.  Not only will this line serve as her IV for the rest of her stay without the need to redo any of her IVs (they told her IVs typically need to be redone about every four days), all the blood can be drawn from this line. She shouldn’t have to be poked even once more during this hospital stay.

This is definitely a situation where communication was lacking (technology and a chain of command can sometimes convey a message poorly). The doctor was not fully understanding the situation. I’m so proud of Kristi for speaking up and knowing what is best for her and the situation. So, the lesson is, listen to your doctors and nurses… But when things don’t make sense, ask questions.

I came home today and my going to be home for a few days. I may be driving up and back to visit on Wednesday, and will definitely be going back on Friday to spend a few days. We sure hope that she is able to come home next weekend or Monday next week. The cat yelled at me for several minutes when I got home ... I’m sure he was scolding me for leaving him alone for several days (he did have a caretaker). 

One last thing I want to share that I think is funny and quintessential Kristi: The pain management doctor said to her, “You strike me as one of those individuals that pushes themselves a little too hard before you need to.  I thought it yesterday when I met you and again today.”