This is why I don't understand this stuff. One hospital told me what the white blood cell count was, because over 7-10 means "infection." Then next hospital starts talking in 100s, instead of single digits. And they aren't talking white blood cells, but as often as I ask, they keep saying the same stuff over and over again like if they say it often enough some magic knowledge pops up in either one of our brains and we go, "Ooooh, that's what it means."
I was told for normal healthy men, the number is 900-1100, and for women it's 1100-1400. For John, they didn't give him a transfusion until it hit 700 or lower in this hospital, but 750 in the nursing home. Even they can't figure out what a good number is.
BUT I was also told that because the bedsore penetrated into the bone, that screwed up everything. Blood is made by the marrow, and once there is damage down to the marrow, Marrow goes into hyper vigilant and won't produce more. I kind of pictured it like the body gives up sending blood to fingers and toes when someone is in hypothermia, because it's busy using the blood to protect the organs.
But, that's why it was good he got into the 900s. He finally hit the point that says his bone is healed and his body is back into producing blood again.
No mention of "hemocrit" no matter who ever tried to explain this to me. That might be a British word. And, yes, he was extremely anemic for quite some time, so they had him go over to the hospital every week for five weeks to get an IV of iron. It worked. He stopped being anemic.
And, yeah, I know all the bad things about Warfarin, but now that John's off it, he has a 5-7% chance of getting a stroke every year. The two problems he has was plaque on the walls of his arteries and a free forming clot in his leg, so sticky blood cells are coursing through his veins and other sticky cells are collecting on the walls of his veins. It took them four months to decide to take him off the Warfarin. (Well, he was on Heparin for two months, and, at one point, both for a few days, and he's still on Plavix and aspirin. At one point he was on all four, which MY doctor swears no one would do, but I've since discovered my doctor has a batting average of right thinking that is about .009. I could guess medical advice more accurately than he can. Law of Averages, not medial school training.) He's had to have at least 50 pints of blood, mostly because of the drugs to stop cells from sticking together. It terrifies me that they were more concerned he'd have a stroke than he'd bleed out internally, considering how often he was bleeding out internally.
Even John wonders if maybe he should go back on the anti-clotting meds. It's deciding between quality of life and quantity.
But, his latest blood count went up 10-20 more points. (Two tests), so it looks like he's back on the mends with that.
I just wish I could figure out what that is, now because they're telling him his lup-a-something-anothers are too high, which says he's not peeing enough and his kidneys might be freaking out, but, once again, the same numbers tell the nursing home doctor that he's fine.
And now he has diarrhea, which I suspect is like the MRSA they found in him -- a sign this hospital is unsafe on a sanitary level along with its incompetence levels. It drives me nuts that they either feel a need to talk in medicalese enough to make sure we don't understand or they lie to us about what the test say. And, I know they're lying because of this MRSA they found on him. The last time they found it, they had him on antibiotics for weeks. This time they said, word-for-word, the same thing they said last time, but to tell us why they aren't treating him with antibiotics.
If he can't get out of that hospital tomorrow, as they promised because of this diarrhea, I really want to transfer him to a competent hospital instead. That means we pay for what Medicare doesn't, but I would rather pay off a bill we can never fully pay off for the rest of our lives, then him stay there.
He wants to go back to that rehab, because he can get 2-4 weeks more free rehab. We're just about all set to go to send him to another rehab. We're waiting for a vacancy. We can afford two months easily, and after that would be a struggle, but as of Saturday, he only needed a couple of weeks in that one before he came home. Six weeks tops! He won't do it strictly because of the amount of money it would cost. We've been paying a mortgage for 25 years. We've bought cars with payment plans. We've been in debt to someone for decades, but this debt he cannot accept.
Six weeks in that hellhole again will break both of our spirits forever. He WILL give up and die. He's dangling by a thread every time he gets stuck in there. He's not allowed personal stuff because all the space is needed for the staff to put their supplies on. The two things he skips doing when there is read his Bible and Spurgeon's devotional. They're literally stopping God from comforting him, just because it's easier for them to plop needles, bandages and medication on HIS bed table. Both can fit, but it's less convenient for them.
If anyone has been hearing about the ineffectiveness of the VA system, this is one story. I met men with worst stories. I've followed a casket out of the building for one story. Last year that nursing home lost 100 patients. Yes, it's a nursing home, so that's ultimately what patients do, but I am pretty sure they have less than 200 patients in it.
