ER Adventures

Last week my Dad’s foot was swollen so he went to the nurse practitioner (his dr recently retired) who diagnosed him with cellulitis and prescribed antibiotics. A few days later, the foot and ankle were blown up so he went to the ER. They took an x-ray, diagnosed him with gout, prescribed steroids and released him WITHOUT READING THE X-RAY!!! Saturday morning, he just happened to listen to his home number’s answering machine and there was a message from the ER doctor telling him he needs to come back! WTF is wrong with these yahoos in the medical profession these days???? When I saw it, it was huge, with a cankle and his toes were so swollen, it looked like a pig’s foot 😦

Turns out he has multiple breaks and parts of bone fragments inside his foot. The ankle and foot bones have separated and he will need extensive surgery with pins, etc. But they cant do the surgery until the swelling goes down. They had put him in a hard cast the second time he was in the ER but now he’s in a boot. His poor girlfriend has been through the ringer this week lol. My 4 & 9 year-old nieces asked if they could sign his cast and why it wasn’t colored. He said they can sign it after he gets the surgery 🙂

I just cannot believe the level of incompetence in this whole comedy of errors. He’s been walking around on a broken foot for 2 weeks! I asked him how he could not have known it was broken? He banged it against a cabinet hard while at his girlfriend’s condo in Virginia, but never thought it was broken. And he has some neuropathy from diabetes. After looking at all the films and the MRI, the surgeon said he cannot understand how he is not screaming in agony. I have made him start taking the pain pills and they are helping.

So in the span of one week he went from having Cellulitis, Gout and now a really messed up and broken foot. They were supposed to be driving down to Florida this week, but I guess that’s probably not going to happen. Dad had said he doesn’t care what they have to do, next week he will be in Florida NO MATTER WHAT lol!  But that doesn’t seem possible now as they are talking multiple surgeries, months of no weight on that foot, rehab, etc.

I’m just glad that eventually he’s going to be okay and there’s nothing seriously wrong. He’s really upset and I could tell he feels guilty and crappy. I told him, it happened and it’s no one’s fault. Yes it sucks but he has to accept it because this is the reality. Although I will make sure he gets a bone density test run as soon as possible. After what happened with my MIL and the broken hip, I was nervous even though it was completely irrational.

He’s a tough old guy with an amazing capacity to see the humor and joy in life and he will be fine.  Oh and before I left his house last night, he said the pain pill made him feel so much better LOL.