Tag Archives: Urinary tract infection

When naughty is nice……

Caregivers, Humor, Multiple Sclerosis, Uncategorized, , , ,

I have done something very naughty. I must even go so far as to admit I have done it on purpose. You will probably not agree with my decision, but in the end, was I right? If you’ve read any of my blogs….you know the answer to that.

Being a caregiver puts you in the ‘decider’ seat  more times than you care to admit. And sometimes you don’t want to be George W. Bush….you WANT someone else to be the decider. But alas, you’re it. You are the caregiver.

The hired caregivers, who do all the hard stuff, the bathing, the dressing, the cleaning up, keeping the list of needed items, they gladly call on the decider when well, when decisions must be made.

So, I get a call from Susan, head honcho caregiver:

“Cathy, your brother-in-law, is acting weird.”

“Weirder than usual,” I say, hoping that this is just happy conversation, knowing all the while that I am in for a project.

“No, not usual weird—- cranky, mean and kind of ‘out of it’ weird”, she says weirdly, knowing that I KNOW she wouldn’t call me unless there was a problem to be solved.

“Hmmmm, that sounds like, ‘you-know-what’, doesn’t it,” I say with regret.

“Yup,” she says, ” a UTI” (everyone’s worst caregiving enemy…the urinary tract infection). ” He’s weird, he’s ornery and his urine looks a little tinged with brown. So that ‘s not good.”

“Okey doke,” I say with false upbeat. “I’ll call the visiting nurse he has right now and get her to call the doctor.”

Now the reason I have to go this Chutes and Ladders way is because I have no medical authority to call the doctor and beg for an antibiotic, but since he just happens to be suffering from a bed sore right now, he has a visiting nurse once a week who I can ensnare to do my dirty work.

“Hello, Visiting Nurse? I want to ensnare you to do my dirty work,” Okay I really don’t say that.

“Hello, Visiting Nurse? I got a call from the caregivers and they think his behavior and his urine suggest a UTI. I would be ever so grateful if you would call his doctor for a prescription because it’s Friday, I can’t get him to the doctor for at least three days, and if it gets too far gone, he usually ends up in the hospital.”

“Ok,” says the Visiting Nurse, “I will call this morning and get back to you.”

By 4 o’clock, I haven’t heard from anyone. So I call the pharmacist to see if there is a prescription waiting. No, of course not. So I call the doctor’s office.

“Hi, I’m call because I know the Visiting Nurse called and the pharmacy  has no prescription.”

“Yes, we see that the Visiting Nurse called this morning, and it’s in the doctor’s inbox to process.”

“I understand that the doctor is busy,”I say patiently (really  I do) but it’s Friday afternoon, and these UTI’s can be very dangerous for this guy….so if you could just see if he can get it processed tonight……”

“I’ll put a reminder on it,” says the receptionist.

So, of course, at 8:30 that night the Visiting Nurse calls to tell me they called in a prescription, with the caveat that the nurse would take a urine sample and have it to the lab BEFORE we give him the medicine, just to make sure.

So she gets the sample (that’s it’s own blog, I’m sure). I get the meds into him the next morning, and two days later they call and tell me the sample is negative.

And here’s where I’m naughty.

Years ago, when my kids were toddlers, they would suffer from chronic ear infections. I would see it coming, take them to the pediatrician, no red ears would appear in the otoscope, and the pediatrician would send me home. A day or two later, I would be right back in that office with a kid with DOUBLE ear infections, because the symptoms were obvious to me, but not yet to the otoscope. And pretty much, every time, Dr. MOM was right.

Soooooo………I just kept on giving that antibiotic to my brother-in-law since his symptoms were so obvious to all of us caregivers, he gets really, really, REALLY sick if he gets an untreated UTI, and I just was willing to go for it. I am the decider.

I know. I know. Too many antibiotics, too must MERSA, too many super bugs. I know.

But here’s the kicker. THREE DAYS LATER, the doctors office calls me and says.

“Well, you know the test was negative for an infection, but all the other markers were questionable, and so we thought an infection was on the horizon, so just finish the antibiotic as given.

Yup, DR. MOM!!!!

You just have to Laugh……..

Cathy Sikorski

Walgreens on Main Street…..

Brain Injury, Caregivers, Humor, , , , , , ,

This is a continuation of  When UTI does not mean Understanding the Infirm only in the sense that that is why we are now at Walgreens on Main Street.

My dear disabled friend, who braves her brain injury with the utmost courage, must now go to Walgreens on Main Street to acquire her prescriptions. The PA  (Physician’s Assistant) has given her TWO prescriptions to relieve her infection and her discomfort from the UTI (urinary tract infection).

These adventures in medical care are half-day or whole day journeys for her because she must navigate her town by city bus or by walking. And although walking is a very healthy alternative that she often uses, sometimes it is too much for her and she must be at the will of the bus schedule(which for some odd reason changes constantly, because as we all know, people who NEED to use the bus have no problem not knowing when it will come and go, since they can just get on it, like the rest of us get in our cars)

Trekking from the doctor’s office on one side of town to the other, she gets to Walgreens on Main Street and unimaginably, her prescriptions are ready. And I might add here, that the pharmacists at this Walgreens are wonderful. I have been there with her many times and they are accommodating, understanding and extremely willing to help. But sometimes…….

The pharmacist tells my friend that the antibiotic is ready but that the other prescription needs more information from her doctor.

“You need to go back to the doctor’s office and take this form and have them fill it out, because Medicare won’t cover this drug without further explanation from your doctor.”

“But, I just came from there…it will take forever…..”

“Well, the only other thing I can do is send it to your doctor and then send it to Medicare, but then you may have to wait up to a week to get your medicine.”

“But, I don’t drive, and I just can’t get back there today,” says my friend, “it’s just too much, I can’t do it.”

The two of them stare at each other for awhile. Both of them locked in thought, and maybe even trying a “Sheldon’s mind meld” from the Big Bang Theory, to see who will crack first and make this better.

“Isn’t there ANYTHING else we could do?” says my friend, who is rightfully STILL worried about her brain.

“Well,” says the pharmacist, “you could just pay for it.”

So now my friend is thinking: “Okay, I’m on a very fixed income. I have to watch every incidental I pay for because I just don’t have enough money for everything. But I will bite the bullet this month and deprive myself of whatever is necessary to pay this exorbitant drug cost to protect my fragile brain. I know drugs are hundreds of dollars, but I just can not go through this one more day, or wait a week……”

“Okay,” she says with great trepidation,” how much is it?”

“Twenty-three dollars.”

You just have to laugh…….

Cathy Sikorski

When UTI does NOT mean Understanding The Infirm……

Brain Injury, Caregivers, Humor, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

I have a dear friend who suffers from a brain injury. We are writing something to share with the world soon, a blog, a play, a memoir, so I don’t put that here (and yes, I have another person in my caregiving queue)but I asked her if I could share this one little tidbit from this week.

So she has to go to the doctor for a UTI (urinary tract infection). When you reach our age, you know when you have a UTI and in the OLD days your doctor trusted you and you could just call and tell them that you have a UTI and they would call in a prescription for an antibiotic. This really doesn’t happen now, so imagine her surprise at this conversation:

“Hello. Dr.’s office? I need an appointment because I have a UTI.”

“Ok,” says the receptionist, “which doctor do you see?”

“I see Dr. S.”

“Ok,” what pharmacy do you use?”

“I use Walgreens on Main Street.”

“Ok, very good.”

And, after getting her name and address and birthdate, the receptionist hangs up. So………………..what would you think? You would think that they talked to your doctor and called in a prescription to Walgreens on Main Street, right?

My friend goes to Walgreens on Main Street. Nope, no prescription. And the pharmacist checks with other Walgreens. Nope, no prescription. So my friend calls the doctor’s office.

“Ummmm, I called earlier because I have a UTI and the receptionist took my name and pharmacy and there is no prescription here.”

“Oh, well, you have to come in and see the doctor, we can’t just send out prescriptions without and appointment.”

“Well,” my friend says, ” since I am disabled, I don’t drive, and I have to walk or take the bus everywhere, it would have been nice if your receptionist would have made an appointment for me rather than sending me to Walgreens on Main Street without that vital information.”

Silence. Dead Silence.

“Can I make an appointment for you?” Says this receptionist. “Can you come in now?”

“Not unless you’re coming in your car to get me,” says my friend. I need to get to the bus and then get to your office. So let’s make that appointment for tomorrow.”

She goes to the doctor ‘on the morrow’ and gets the prescription called in, with an additional prescription, but not before this conversation with the PA (physician’s assistant—and BTW I LOVE PA’s I think they have made the world ever so much better MOST of the time):

My friend says to the PA: “So I have had this for about a week, but I worry whenever I get any kind of infection because my brain surgeon said infection can be very dangerous for me, as I am already compromised.”

“Well,” says the PA, “I highly doubt that a UTI would get to your brain. He was certainly being overly cautious.”

I so wish I had been there. I would have said, “Look, you can be overly cautious with your brain, but I have 40 titanium coils in my head to stop a brain bleed and I have miraculously survived a subdural hematoma that causes permanent problems……so I AND MY BRAIN SURGEON choose not to be overly cautious.”

Next installment…..Walgreens on Main Street….

You just have to laugh…….

Cathy Sikorski

How to ask for help

Caregivers, Humor, Multiple Sclerosis, Uncategorized, , , ,

I haven’t really mastered the fine art of asking for help, which is probably why so many people keep ASKING ME FOR HELP.  After a luscious week of time with my daughters both home from far away, and lots of time with visiting family over the 4th of July holiday, I was pleasantly exhausted and ready for the messy structure of my life. My 90  year old Aunt came to stay with us while all the family was here, and my sainted 84 year-old mother kept Aunt J at her house until I had more room. During that time Aunt J developed an indeterminate pain to go along with the continuing pain from her shingles that I discovered on her last visit three months ago. Ultimately, my Mom determined that a walker was in order, and it seems to have done the trick to keep Aunt J upright, balanced, and less whiney(also wine seems to help). We did a mani-pedi day for all the ladies as a treat, and now I pay the price. This morning, as I try to get back to work, laundry, phone calls, grocery shopping, appointment-making, etc., Aunt J comes downstairs with a finger the size of a sausage. WHAT??? The only thing we can think of is that she got nicked at the salon and has an infection. She was treating it herself, apparently, with Band-Aids and Neosporin. So off to the clinic we go, the walker, the Aunt, and the sausage finger. The very sweet doctor(who happened to be the shingles doctor as well) lances her finger, squeezes out all “the badness” as Aunt J calls it, and puts on a Band-Aid and Neosporin and gives us a prescription for antibiotics. But wait my cell phone is ringing and the number is eerily familiar……

“Hello?”

“Cathy?”

“Yes?”

“This is your brother-in-law’s caregiver. We are pretty sure he has a urinary tract infection”,

Yup…. you just gotta laugh.