Transitions by Mike Hormek - HTML preview

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A LETTER TO CHUCK

Dear Chuck,

It was good to hear from your inquiry regarding my current status, and I must say there have been many challenges. Last spring, my wife and I were supposed to go to Hawaii. I prepaid the room and airline, but because she was having intestinal issues, I suggested she visit a doctor for some temporary relief.

The GI doctor performed an endoscopy and informed her she had Barrett's esophagus and that we should consider canceling the trip. "What's Barrett's Esophagus?" my wife asked. The doctor said it was pre-cancerous due to acid reflux. My wife argues she never had acid reflux, and he replied that it was silent reflux, a significant factor leading to esophagus cancer and a leading cause of women's death.

In April 2016, my wife entered a hospital for an esophagectomy (a total removal of her esophagus due to Barrett's disease, a pre-cancerous condition). The surgery was successful, but the subsequent series of events were not so much:

During the post-surgery recovery period, I assisted in helping her walk around the perimeter of the hospital floor. During one of the walks, we followed another patient, with two nurses assisting. He was recovering from stomach surgery and had a bad case of loose bowels: right on the floor, I might add. Having not noticed the accident on time, we both slipped and fell into the mess before they could clean it up. Nancy broke her hip, and I broke my arm in three places.

The wing was short of beds, so they put me in her bed, which was quite cramped with the casts.

In addition, we had to be in traction. That was OK, except the traction messed up. Each time they moved my traction, her leg somehow moved. She hollered out in pain.

So they gave her a morphine pump, but the pump was not working right. Somehow, it got reversed, and I got a hefty dose each time she pushed the button instead of her. It was pretty good for a while, as I was not feeling any pain, but apparently, the computer messed the dosage up. I woke up a week later. The Doctors said something about an overdose.

So when it came to Nancy's release time to a local rehab facility, there were problems with paperwork, such as a third-party approval from Medicare. To complicate matters, the hospital was short-handed with the Orderlies. They could not turn her over as they should have, so she developed terrible bedsores. The hospital was on a tight budget, so they cut back on the nurse's radios and used a bullhorn at the nurse's station. That wasn't very comfortable because everyone on the floor knew your business. For example, Nancy had some bowel issues, and she would call for assistance. The nurse at the station would yell out, "We need assistance for the patient in room 501. She messed up the bed, and we need someone to change the sheets."

Everyone in the wing heard it. There were also mix-ups with the charts in the nurse's stations. A doctor entered her room and said, "how are you doing, Mrs. Hormek? I understand you had colon surgery."

She looked at me, confused. "Well, no," she replied. "I had my esophagus removed." He looked at the chart confused and said, "OH, OK, well, anyway, how are you doing?"

We finally got into rehab, but her bed sores were worse. The hospital said the rehab people would take care of them. The doctor was from out of town and only came in once weekly, so he had to write the order to take care of bedsores. Shortly after she got there, the doctor had a heart attack.

Something about being significantly overweight: her bedsores worsened, and we had to get her back into the hospital. We found a different hospital that could treat her.

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Since she could not get rehab on time for her hip, it stiffened to the point where she could not walk and needed a wheelchair. There was a disconnect with Medicare. I received a bill for 2500.00.

They said she could make payments. The shock of this was so great she had a stroke. Her right hip stiffened, and her left side paralyzed. Quite a sight to behold when the orderlies were trying to get her to walk.

We found a new rehab facility where she remains today. Incidentally, we are still paying for the wheelchair, but the quality was poor, and the wheels started falling off. Someone suggested we put it on eBay for parts. So we did. It was not long after we received a bill from the state Department of Revenue for taxes. Something about the sale of medical equipment: I received a letter from the Feds a while later. Something about I violated interstate commerce for selling medical equipment over state lines. My lawyer is dealing with that. He says my bill may be in the thousands.

He thinks I may need psychological counseling and rehab. Regards, Mike Hormek

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THE SECRET OF THE OLEANDER BLOSSOM