What I (Really) Did On My Sister Vacation, part three

I know, this has gone on a long time.  But so much happened during my sister's stay here!  I promise, I'm going to try to end this...  When I left off, my sister had just finished the procedure to break up the ginormous blood clot and my parents and nephew had finally arrived in Queens.  SO, after sitting with my sister for a few minutes, I left so she could get a few winks and so I could see the family, let them into my apartment, then bring them to Lenox Hill to see my sister.  I should mention, just for fun, that I put $40 on my Metrocard before my family arrived.  We went through that so my mom put another $40 on it.  Nearly $100 in subway transit, and probably another $100 Iin cabs/car service.  I've never appreciated unlimited Metrocards so much in my life...

Anyway, I met my family at my apartment.  I was really happy and relieved they made it in one piece.  We went up to my apartment to relax and put our feet up for a few minutes.  I told my mom she'd be able to sleep in my sister's room if she wanted to, since the CCU has 24-hour visiting hours, so she packed a little bag.  I warned my nephew about all the tubes and stuff in his mom's arms, so he wouldn't be worried.  I also suggested my dad stay behind for this first visit, since he was so exhausted from the drive.  I was glad he took me up on it.  After a short break, my mom, nephew and I set off for Lenox Hill.  Because it was Sunday night, the trains were marginally less crowded, but not by much.

We got back to my sister's room by around 9pm - my nephew was a brave and sweet boy, but you could tell he was a little nervous by how he clung to each of us.  But it was good for him to see his mom was going to be ok.  It was good for our mom, too.  Thankfully, my sister could sit up a little to be able to eat and drink (she had to stay at a 30% incline or less to keep the incisions in place and the wires in the right spots to drip medicine on those clots).  My nephew and I left after a couple of hours so everyone could get some sleep.  I have to admit, it was nice to spend some alone time with my nephew on our various subway rides and walks, we had some nice chats.

Monday, my dad, nephew and I left early-ish to see my sister.  We took bagels from my favorite spot.  We got there after they took the medicine wires out, which made my sister feel better.  They also took her off the oxygen, which was fantastic.  That meant the procedure did its job!  Woo hoo!  While my dad and nephew visited with my sister, I went into the visitors room to try to get my sister's insurance and job stuff in line.  It took awhile, but I got all the paperwork started.  The insurance e-mailed me some forms, so my dad and I walked over to the local Kinko's to print them off so my sister could sign them.

Dr. Wonderful stopped by to visit and said my sister was doing great.  He wanted to leave those plates in for another couple hours, so my sister still had to stay pretty flat, but otherwise he said she was in good shape.  He also mentioned to my sister that if he hadn't been able to do the procedure for some reason, they would've had to crack her chest open and break up the clot that way.   Thank heavens that didn't have to happen.  Our mom asked when she could leave - he said she could probably leave the hospital on Wednesday, but would have to stay in New York for another week.  He said the short flight to Ohio would be better for her than the long drive.  I felt better after Dr. Wonderful and that voice and the singing angels reassured us, but Mom didn't find him as wonderful.  Her loss.  :)

 My nephew and I took a little walk to get his mom a treat - we walked over to Laduree to get some fancy French macarons.  It was a nice day for a walk and we passed some beautiful buildings.  I tried to get him to enjoy the architecture,  but he just declared New York 'weird'.  He's such a teenager.  I'll put some of the photos below.  When we got back, my sister was upset because a different doctor said she couldn't have those plate things out until the next day.  Her heart rate started going up, so her terrific nurse, Esther, went and called Dr. Wonderful.   He overruled that other doctor and said the plate things could come out later that night.  My sister told us she wanted us to go out and see Times Square at night, since my dad and nephew have never seen all the lights.  She wanted to be alone when they took that stuff out and then get some sleep.  So off we went.  We walked through Central Park, then took the subway to Times Square.  I'll put photos below.  We then went back to my apartment so Mom could get a shower and pack a new bag to spend the night with my sister.  While Mom did that, Dad and I drove around for FOREVER trying to find a new parking space, thanks to alternate side of the street parking.  It was stressful and annoying.    After we finally got back to my apartment, I ordered Danny some dinner.  It finally arrived, so Mom and I went back to the hospital.  We wanted to stop at the diner across the street, but the rude owner said the kitchen was closed even though they weren't supposed to be closed for another half hour.  Rude.  I stayed at the hospital for awhile and took a cab home, after faxing those insurance forms at Kinko's, to find my guys asleep.  Gee.  Guess it's a good thing no thief tried to break in while they were there, since they would've slept through it.  :)

I let the boys sleep in a bit Tuesday morning.  My nephew ate some cereal at my place and my dad and I were going to get breakfast at the hospital cafeteria.  We got into my sister's room after very crowded subway rides, only to find out that the doctors changed their minds and decided to release my sister that very day.  Yay!  Ugh!  I didn't bring my sister's clothes!  Ugh.  Another trip on the subway.  My nephew and I got right back on the train to go back to my apartment.  Exhausting.  Good thing I had him with me since I almost forgot my sister's yoga pants.  My parents had to go to the pharmacy across the street and get my sister's blood thinner pills.  Dr. Wonderful said she would probably have to take the blood thinners the rest of her life, and she should also wear compression stockings.  He also gave her the name of a doctor to call at the Cleveland Clinic when she got home for follow up.  It felt like they rushed us out, but we were thankful my sister was well enough to leave.  Other than that, it was smoothish sailing.  The car service took forever to pick us up (the concierge didn't do his job very well by going on a break without telling anyone), but when it finally arrived, the driver gave us a very smooth ride.

When we got back to my apartment, it was clear we were going to be overcrowded, so I got onto hotels.com to find a spot for my parents.  I found them a hotel by the airport.  I rode with them to the hotel, got us lost twice, and drove my parents to drink, lol.  My mom and I had some laughs with other tourists (I can't tell the story right where other people laugh, so just trust me when I say my mom was crying she was laughing so hard. Exhaustion probably helped.), then I went back to my apartment.  My sister, nephew and I watched Frozen together, which was fun, then went to sleep early.  I think we all slept pretty hard.

This post is too long too, so I'll just speed up and finish!  My family drove back to Ohio on Wednesday with no mishaps, thankfully; my sister and I stayed close to home for the ten days she recuperated here.  The doctors told her to get out and walk a bit each day, so we did that.  We went to the Queens Mall one day, strolled Steinway Street another and had bao, got some compression stockings at a nearby medical supply store, went to the Museum of Biblical Art.  I'll put more photos at the bottom.  Even though the circumstances were horrible, I'm glad I got to spend so much time with my sister.  We had a good time just being together, watching tv and playing Trivial Pursuit, though I wish we had spent all that time in Woodstock instead of Lenox Hill.  Of course, then we wouldn't have met Dr. Wonderful and heard the angels sing, which means I wouldn't have had this year's Halloween costume, ha ha. He really did turn out to be wonderful, to tell the truth.  He even called my sister to reassure her when she e-mailed his office about a neck pain that worried her.  We owe him, and Young Dr. Doom (who also replied to e-mails), a lot.  So...I guess you never know who will enter your life, offer you help, or what's around the next corner...

What I (Really) Did On My Sister Vacation, part two

Welcome back!  I'll try to finish this adventure in this post, but I fear there's too much to report...  When I left off in my last post, I think it was Saturday morning.  My sister had spent the night in Mt. Sinai Queens hospital, but had received a doctor visitor late Friday night who thought she should be transferred to Lenox Hill in Manhattan for a procedure.

According to the booklet Georgette (the lady from admitting) gave us, visiting hours at Mt. Sinai Queens were 9am - 9pm.  I woke up early Saturday morning, and picked up some bagels in my neighborhood, timing everything so I could get to the hospital by 9am.  When I got there, I saw a sign on the lobby desk:  Visiting Hours, 10am - 9pm.  Wait, what?!  I was NOT going to sit in that waiting room for an hour!  I went to the sign-in guy and said that the booklet said visiting hours start at 9am!  He said, 'there's a booklet?'  I said, 'yeah, they give you one when they admit you, haven't you seen it?  My sister is being transferred, so I need to get up there!'  He says (really), 'Whatever. Go on up.'  Well, ok then.

I took our bagels up and my sister and I had bagels and kibbutzed.  She was feeling a little better, but still on oxygen.  I brought her some toiletry supplies, so we got her hooked up to the portable oxygen, walked down to the restroom (the tiny, fiery nurse wasn't on duty) and she was able to tidy up a bit.  When we got back to the room, the doctor who visited her last night came a bit later.  I call him Dr. Curly, since he had very curly hair.  He said that the clot was indeed too big to break up on its own, and since she was young, he thought my sister should have a procedure that a doctor he knows does at Lenox Hill.  The transfer would happen later in the day, after they were sure there was a bed there.  He explained the procedure to me so I could explain it to our mom.  He said it wasn't surgery, but a procedure where my sister stayed awake and would help her get rid of the clot and take the pressure off her heart.  If her heart kept working as hard as it had been the past two days, she could someday go into congestive heart failure, and they didn't want to see that happen.  OK.  He actually didn't give us much of a choice, the transfer was already in process, but my sister thought this procedure sounded like the right thing to do.  We called our mom and she said that she, my dad and my nephew would be coming.  My sister had to call her ex-husband, otherwise known as The Idiot, to tell him that the nephew would be coming.  She texted him, since she doesn't like speaking with him (because he's an idiot), but of course he called her back.  Hello.  Talking with oxygen in = not fun.  Anyway, when he called back, she was in the restroom, so I had to talk to him.  Blech.  I just gave him the bald facts and hung up.  She called him after and told him what was up.  All he asked was: "do you have any plans?  Do you have a will?  Anything I should know?"  ARGH!!!!  Yeah, you idiot, you should know that you're AN IDIOT.  What a jerk.  I told her to tell him that I would get custody of my nephew, but she thought it best not to rile him up.  (I wouldn't get custody, of course, but it would make his head explode to think that I could.)  I hate him.  I told my sister not to think about him because he only makes her heart rate go up under the best of circumstances...

The ambulance to transfer her arrived a few hours later.  The EMTs this time were two ladies named Kristin and Christine.  I still don't know who was who.  But they were both very pleasant and efficient.  It took awhile to get the paperwork going, then they hooked my sister up to more portable monitors (she had the oxygen, the heart monitor, and she was also on heparin blood thinners) and took her out to the ambulance.  It was very sweet the way many of the nurses and a couple of the doctors who had treated my sister made sure to say goodbye.  I told my sister, maybe Mt. Sinai Queens is a little bit rundown, but the people inside were very nice.  I thought that Lenox Hill would be a nicer hospital, but I thought the doctors and nurses would be a little more reserved.  I was exceedingly right about that...

It turns out that Kristin/Christine had only driven in NYC once before.  She was quite nervous about driving in the city and was overly cautious, yet hit all the bumps.  At one point, the other gal (Kristin? Christine? I wish I knew) asked if she could please stop hitting the bumps.  That made me think my sister wasn't feeling all that well back there.  I was making the driver laugh up front because I decided to take a bunch of pictures with my sister's phone.  Since she couldn't see the scenery, I thought I'd document the ride.  Not that I got many good photos, but I tried.  I'll put some more at the bottom of the post.

My sister was NOT feeling well when we got to Lenox Hill.  Her heart was racing and the ride had shaken her up.  Her vitals weren't great when she got there, so all the nurses and doctors moved into high gear to see if she needed to have the procedure that night, instead of on Monday when Dr. Curly said it could happen (so our family could be there, too, since they were driving in on Sunday).  She had a private room in the cardiac critical unit, and the chair for me was happily a little more comfortable.  They took blood and a rather stand-offish doctor who we later discovered is named Dr. Doctor (REALLY!) came to do an echocardiogram.  Dr. Doctor really should work in research and should perhaps limit his contact with actual people, because his bedside manner was seriously lacking.  He kept saying oh, you're fine, you're fine, as if she was wasting his time, not as a reassurance.  He also just kept talking about texting the doctor who would do the procedure, who I dubbed Dr. God (that's because of the awe in the other doctors' voices when speaking of him.  I changed Dr. God's nickname after I met him).  Dr. Doctor wouldn't give us a straight answer about anything, he just said my sister couldn't have anything to eat or drink until they figured out when the procedure would be.  He also at one point asked me to get the lights for him (wait, what?!) and THEN he asked me if I could please tell the nurse how much blood they drew from my sister.  OK, when did I start working at Lenox Hill?!?!  I seriously considered asking for a salary and then asking them to deduct it from my sister's bill.

Dr. Doctor then started asking us where the CD of my sister's test was.  Excuse me?  What CD?  They didn't give us a CD.  And who thinks to ask for that when you're released from a hospital?!  Shouldn't Dr. Curly have known this?  Dr. Doctor told me I would have to physically go back to Mt. Sinai Queens to pick it up.  I said, are you insane?  Why can't they e-mail it?  He said Dr. God had to have it.  I said, can I text Dr. God?  He said, no, but I'll give him your number.  He talked to someone at Mt. Sinai Queens and gave me his phone so she could get my name and info.  It was nuts.  By this time, I was seriously ticked off at Dr. God, Dr. Doctor and anyone else who would walk in.  My sister was getting so upset.  Every single doctor that walked in there (and there were A LOT) said something different.  It was so frustrating.  Then Dr. Doctor took my sister off the oxygen.  "To see how she'd do."  And he never came back.  When the night nurse came on, she took one look at my sister's vitals and said, oh no.  That oxygen is going right back on you!  And she told me I should NOT have to go pick stuff up!  She also said that clearly they weren't going to do any procedure tonight, especially if Dr. God needed the CD, so she got my sister something to eat.  Her name was Odalus and she was AWESOME.  I felt ok going home for the night knowing Odalus was in charge.  I'm grateful that Lenox Hill was a convenient-ish subway ride away, but boy I missed the easy commute to my apartment from Mt. Sinai Queens.  I called a friend before I got on the subway and rather lost it on the phone.  He was a good friend to listen.

When I got up Sunday morning, I called our mom to see what time they were leaving.  They were getting ready for the eight hour drive and would be leaving momentarily.  So not only would I spend the day worried about my sister, the procedure, the CD and all that, but I would have to worry about my family driving to New York.  My father hates New York and he hates driving in unfamiliar cities.  Adding to that being worried about my sister made it all a recipe for disaster.  But they would not be dissuaded.  I got into the city and stopped at a diner across the street from Lenox Hill and had some breakfast.  Neither my sister or I were eating very well during this whole ordeal - we were too nervous and upset most of the time.  But I thought I should try to get something in my stomach before the day got started. 

I got to my sister's room and discovered that there was no way they could e-mail any of that information to Dr. God.  I would actually have to go physically pick up the CD, once it was copied.  Apparently, there were people who called off sick and they were having a hard time finding someone to do it.  This was becoming ridiculous.  Dr. God actually called me and said he had to have it before he could do the procedure.  He had the deepest voice I've ever heard and sounded very smooth.  The other doctors were rather awed that I had talked to Dr. God.  I started kidding my sister that I could hear angels sing whenever Dr. God's name was mentioned.

Finally the stupid CD was ready and off I went to pick it up.  I asked the tech at Mt. Sinai Queens exactly what I needed to bring with me - did I need to bring a note from my sister?  Anything like that?  No, the tech said, I just needed to bring my photo ID since I was signing for it.  I said ok, I'm on my way!  My sister wrote a release note anyway, just in case.  So off I went.  I had good subway karma, took the 6 downtown, transferred and got right onto an N train.  One stop and up the subway goes to Queensboro Plaza, which is outdoors and phone coverage turns back on.  Immediately, my phone vibrates and I see I have a voice mail.  It's the gal from Mt. Sinai Queens, saying that actually, not only did I need a letter from my sister, but I also needed HER photo ID.  I started crying on the subway.  That's what I do when I'm tired, I cry.  Add in being worried and it was a recipe for sobbing.  I thought, I AM NOT GOING BACK!  I AM NOT LEAVING WITHOUT THAT CD!  I tried to calm myself down and figure out what I could say to get that CD.  By the time I got to the hospital and to the right desk, I was done.  I asked for the tech and then started crying and couldn't speak anymore.  She said, 'it's fine, it's fine, when you didn't answer the phone, I called the hospital and talked to your sister's nurse and they faxed everything over.  I have the forms.  It's fine.'  Too late.  I was gone.  I couldn't get my breath, couldn't stop crying, no one would look at me.  It was embarrassing, but I had finally had enough.  I signed all the forms, got the stupid CD, and decided to take a cab back to the city because I didn't want to cry all over the subway.  I got a green cab right outside the hospital and asked him to take me to Lenox Hill.  He said, 'oh, that's the heart hospital, right?"  More crying.  He was very nice, got me there quickly and said 'god bless you and your sister' when I got out. 

I half expected a brass band or something when I got to my sister's room.  I had finally calmed down and could laugh about how incredibly stupid the whole thing was.  After a couple of hours, finally Dr. God arrived.  Oh my.  He was ridiculously good looking, with that voice.  He was wearing an obviously expensive European three-piece suit and I swear I could maybe really hear the angels singing when he talked.  I immediately changed his name to Dr. Wonderful.  Not only did all the other doctors think he's wonderful, but I get the feeling Dr. Wonderful also thinks he's wonderful.  After a few minutes, my sister and I thought he was wonderful, too.  He was actually very reassuring, never condescending, explained everything to us quite clearly.  When he walked in, he exclaimed after seeing my sister, "Wow, you ARE young!"  He was also a winker.  I am certain he is going to have his own reality show very soon.  He laughed when he picked up the CD and said "This is mine, right?"  I rolled my eyes, but at least he appreciated the absurdity of the whole thing.  He went to look at the CD and came back and said, yeah, she needed the procedure.  He said because she was young, she would want to have her quality of life back.  If she were older, then maybe the procedure wouldn't be the right thing, but since she has a teenager, she wouldn't want to be constantly weak and maybe on oxygen all the time.  He thought the doctors at Mt. Sinai Queens underestimated the size of the embolism.  He said they'd do the procedure in a couple of hours.

a picture of the medicine machine, from the 'net

As I understand the procedure, they put two catheters into my sister, which would have wires in them leading up to her lungs.  Dr. Wonderful would manipulate the wires, making sure they were right on top of the clots, and then medicine would drip onto the clots, breaking them up.  Apparently, the medicine is the tPA, but they only use 10% concentration.  He gave us the risks, which he assured us were less than 1% that something bad would happen.  She had to be flat on her back, hooked up to these drips, for twelve hours.  Then they'd take them out, along with the other things they put on top of the wires to keep them from moving, do tests and see if they had worked the way they were supposed to.  OK.  Sounded reasonable.  A tech came and gave my sister an echo test on her legs, to see if there were any clots (there were, but Dr. Wonderful said that wouldn't affect his doing the procedure).  They took my sister up to the O/R, since Dr. Wonderful wanted to be finished in time for the Giants game, oy, and I waited in her room.  My family was closer to NYC, but still not at my place.  Even though Dr. Wonderful had said the procedure would take about a half hour, my sister didn't come down for over an hour.  Imagine the panicking.  But finally her nurse said she was on the way back down.  She got back to the room almost at the same time as my family hit Queens in the car.  They made me leave the room because all the monitors and medicine machines were large and had to be arranged just so in my sister's room.  While in the hallway, Dr. Wonderful told me the procedure went beautifully, just as he would've liked.  He even talked to my mom on the phone and reassured her.  He said he'd be back in the morning, but that all was well.  Tons of doctors and nurses wanted to come look in my sister's room because this procedure is only a couple of years old and they haven't seen the machinery before.  He gave me the phone back and I directed my nephew on how to get to my apartment.  Crazy crazy.  They found a place to park and said they'd get something to eat until I got there.


All the machines in my sister's room reminded me of a particularly depressing episode of Law and Order, but I kept that to myself.  If you're familiar with the show, I'll fill you in another time, if you'd like. 

You know what?  I'm going to have to go three on this post.  This one is way too long, too.  Next post will be about the family visit, the release from the hospital, and the recuperating in Astoria...

the view from my sister's hospital room in Queens

the tiny fiery nurse made this

guess who's on heparin and who is an idiot opening a trunk?

What I (Really) Did On My Sister Vacation, part one

After I had such a faboo time in Woodstock last year, I decided I wanted to go again, this time with my sister.  As I believe I've mentioned, she and I haven't had a vacation together in a lot of years.  I booked the B&B in January, bought the bus tickets online and counted the minutes until my sister arrived.  After she got out of the car from the airport two weeks ago, it was the start of an adventure we'd rather have skipped, thank you very much...

When my sister e-mailed me the morning of her flight, she made mention of the fact she hadn't been feeling all that well the day before, but was ok now.  She texted me when her plane landed and I called my local car service to go pick her up.  When she got out of the car, I was immediately worried.  She looked pale and she was having trouble breathing.  She said she was having the same problem the day before, but it had gone away until she got off the plane.  She thought she would be ok to go to Woodstock and would go to the doctor when she got home.  I got online and looked up the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce - Woodstock doesn't have a hospital or an urgent care center.  I told my sister I didn't want her to be sick on top of a mountain with no place to go, so I talked her into going to an urgent care center in my neighborhood.  I figured they would tell us she was having an asthma attack, they would give her an inhaler, and we could go to Woodstock the next day as planned.

 

Ha ha.  Normally a ten-minute walk, it took us about a half hour to reach the urgent care center because of my sister's breathing problems (we had to stop every so often for her to rest and try to catch her breath).  We walked in - there were two gals ahead of us, but the nurse behind the desk got one look at my sister and they took her right back.  The doctor there said he used to work in an E/R; he asked her several questions, like is she on birth control? (yes), did her leg hurt? (it did yesterday), was she having heart palpitations? (yes).  After hearing her answers, he said he thought it was probably a blood clot and that he was calling an ambulance.  We weren't there for five minutes before the panicking started to set in.  They put my sister on oxygen while we were waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

The EMTs who came were terrific, they were Ian and Martin.  Actually, I think "Martin" was the guy's last name, but we never got the first name.  So my sister and I call him Martin.  They were both very nice, asked my sister mainly the same questions, then took her to the ambulance.  [I should mention here that I've never taken an ambulance ride.  I'd like to thank my sister for letting me share in that adventure and I never need to do it again. :) ]  While we were in the ambulance, my sister had on an oxygen mask.  I told her that if she felt really sick and needed help, she should raise her hand.  Ian, who was sitting in the back with us, asked me if I am a schoolteacher.  Uh, no.  But he also said that he thought it was a blood clot.  Thankfully, the ambulance ride was smooth and we got to the emergency room at Mt. Sinai Queens pretty quickly.

When they wheeled my sister in, the E/R was PACKED!  Way too many people were there - all the stations for stretchers were full, plus there were people just sitting around in chairs waiting to be seen.  It was crazy.  The area that was supposed to be open for my sister had someone in it, so they stuck her in between station 7 and 8.  They hooked her up to a portable chest monitor and had her on portable oxygen.  It was crazy stupid.  On one side of her was an elderly woman who also couldn't breathe, and on the other side of her was a gent who had overdosed on drugs (when I heard him describe later what he took, I'm surprised he survived).  He also would periodically projectile vomit.  Apologies to my sister, because every time that happened, I had to get away from there.  That is one thing I just cannot remain calm around.

We were assigned a young doctor, who told us to call him Dr. Ben (I gave him another nickname later).  He was very pleasant and very busy.  When we first arrived and for the first few hours, we didn't see much of him.  Ian and Martin hung around for awhile to see what was going on, which was very nice of them.  Because my sister didn't really have an actual space, I couldn't get a chair in there so I probably stood there for around four hours.  Finally, they took her to get a chest x-ray.  I asked the security guard outside the room if the E/R was always packed and busy like this and he said 'this isn't even busy.'  So I can't imagine what it must look like in there when it IS busy!  After coming out of the chest x-ray, my sister had a lot of blood drawn, then we waited for her turn to go up for an ultrasound, to see if the clot was apparent.  During this, her oxygen rate was down in the 70s (should be 100%), her heart rate was in the 170s (should be somewhere between 60-100), and her blood pressure was 200/149 (which isn't good).  But still we sat there...

At one point, my sister had to use the restroom, so I walked her over there.  While I was waiting for her to come out, another security guard came over and told me I had to leave.  I said, oh ok, let me just get my sister back to her bed.  And then I hid from him until his shift change, because I was NOT leaving!  No one else seemed bothered I was there, so why should I leave her there alone?!

So after maybe six hours, my sister was wheeled up to the ultrasound room.  There was a little waiting room outside it, so I finally got to sit in a comfy chair and texted my mother.  I'd been texting her every few minutes since we got there, but I figured I had a few minutes before my sister was done with her test.  She wasn't in there but a few minutes before Dr. Ben came running up.  He asked me, 'where is she?!'  I pointed to the ultrasound room.  He rushed in and pulled her out of there.  He wheeled us back down to the E/R.  Apparently one of her blood tests had shown alarmingly high numbers in a particular way that told him she had a massive clot.  It was the d-dimer test, which when I did internet research, I saw that normal levels are around 250.  He said her level was 10,000!  He said he wanted her back downstairs and on all the monitors until they could do a CAT scan.  Both of us started panicking and crying (tired and scared girls, hello) and Dr. Ben said, "Don't worry, if you were going to die, you already would've.  I won't let you die.  Do I look worried?"  I said, "yeah, not comforting."  And I then immediately dubbed him Young Dr. Doom.  He would keep that nickname throughout the evening.

It probably took another hour for my sister to get to the CAT scan room.  It was interesting watching Young Dr. Doom tell other doctors about the 10,000 thing and watching the other doctors' eyebrows raise alarmingly.  Apparently, none of them have ever heard of numbers that high.  Then they would look over at my sister and me and we could wave and smile.  It was all we could do.  We were trying to keep our spirits up.  She finally went to the CAT scan room and I waited outside.  Next to the gent who was sitting in the hallway with questionable hygiene.  I think they need to rethink the waiting room area outside the CAT scan room.  Even another patient had to stand outside in the hallway!

When she came out of the CAT scan, they wheeled my sister back to her little space in the E/R.  After he read the film, Young Dr. Doom came over to tell us she had a massive pulmonary embolism.  In fact, it was called a Saddle Embolism, since it extended over the top of both of her lungs, which is why she couldn't breathe and why her heart rate was so high.  Young Dr. Doom then explained to us that normally, a clot will dissolve naturally into a person's body.  But hers was so large, that was unlikely to happen.  He wanted us to consider an experimental treatment.  When hospitals treat stroke victims, they give them something called tPA - if they get it within three hours, it can dissolve whatever had gone wrong.  Let's say they give a stroke victim tPA at 100%.  Young Dr. Doom said that they are experimenting with giving PE victims a 50% dose of tPA to try to blast the clot.  He also said that it has the risk of causing hemorrages and killing you.  He ALSO said that he, nor anyone in the E/R, had ever done it before.  At first, he seemed to be recommending this treatment.  My sister and I were dumbstruck, we didn't know what to do or think.  Then Young Dr. Doom said he was going to call some of his teachers/mentors, leaving us to panic and for my sister's heart rate to go up again.  After about a half hour or so, he came over and told us that they were going to admit my sister and that the doctors he really trusted said not to do that procedure.  My sister was young enough to eventually absorb the clot, but she needed to stay in the hospital for monitoring.  Whew.  I think she was leaning towards trying the experimental procedure, so I'm glad she didn't have to.  I think at some point we went upstairs for an echocardiogram too, but I was so tired, I can't remember anything else...

They told us that even though my sister was being admitted, there weren't any beds available on the desired floor, so she would probably be in the E/R all night.  I took this opportunity to run home and get my tablet and both our phone chargers.  I'd been sending so many texts, my power was running really low and I knew I needed to keep updating our mom.  That probably took me only a half hour or so since I was pretty close to the hospital.  I just had my local car service drive me home, wait for me downstairs, then take me back.  When I got back, Georgette, the admitting nurse was there.  I begged her to find us some saltines or something, since we hadn't eaten.  She very kindly brought us some stuff to nibble on.  Young Dr. Doom's shift was over, so he came by, gave my sister a piece of candy and his cell number and e-mail address.  He told her to keep in touch and let him know how she was doing.  That was very sweet of him.

Also before I got back, they had put another person in the E/R near my sister - a girl having perhaps a psychotic break.  Her boyfriend brought her and just left her.  She spent most of the night screaming, cursing, claiming that everyone was trying to kill her.  It was awful.  They kept sedating her and finally they had to tie her to the bed.  I felt so guilty because I just wanted her to be quiet so my sister could get some rest, but I also thought they should take that poor girl somewhere where she could get some real help.  I don't think the E/R of a regular hospital was the right place for her.  I was so tired, every time she started screaming, I started crying.  They had finally found me a chair, but it wasn't really sleep-worthy, so I was wide awake all night.  My sister got next to no rest either.

At around 6am (twelve hours after we'd arrived), I ran next door to a coffee shop and got us some tea and toast.  Growing up, whenever we didn't feel well, our mom would give us tea and toast, so it was comforting for us.  A couple of hours later, they actually brought my sister a real breakfast, so after I helped her get that set up, I ran back over to the coffee shop and had a scrambled egg.  She and I had missed lunch and dinner the night before, so we were starving.  They told me as I was leaving that a room was almost ready for her, so I hurried to eat and go back.  Finally, after around nineteen hours in the E/R, they took my sister up to a room. 

Of course, the first room they took her to was completely unacceptable.  They were putting her in a room with a poor woman on a feeding tube that constantly gurgled and spattered, and the woman constantly screamed.  To her credit, the nurse that started to get my sister's bed ready said, 'oh no, you're not staying here.'  Thankfully, they found her a room down the hall, but it took an hour or so to get her there.  I ran home and took about an hour nap, then came back to sit with my sister. 

There were parades of doctors and nurses, all day long, coming in to check on her.  They all asked the same questions and pretty much all of them expressed surprise that she had survived such an enormous clot.  It was depressing.  Our favorite nurse was the tiny gal who practically beat anyone up who let my sister get out of bed.  She came late in the day and asked my sister if she had gone to the bathroom lately.  My sister said yes, the other nurse had helped her walk to the bathroom down the hall.  The tiny nurse said in a dangerously upset voice, "WHO?!?!?!?!"  It was adorable, actually. 

Have you ever noticed that no matter what time it is, it seems like the middle of the night in a hospital?  Time drags.  Anyway, my sister and I watched TV, texted our mom, posted on Facebook and watched Amazing Race before it was time for me to leave.  Visiting hours are over at 9pm.  So right after Amazing Race, I said bye to my sister, went down the elevator, and found police tape in the lobby.  I looked to my left to exit - police tape.  I looked to my right - police tape.  Finally, someone told me to just climb over it.  Really?  They couldn't have waited ten minutes or so for people to leave?  I figured if I broke a leg, at least I was in the hospital.  But still...

By the time I got home, my sister called me and said she saw another doctor that wanted to transfer her to Lenox Hill for a procedure they only do there.  Sigh.  I thought that piece of news would make it hard for me to sleep, but no.  I slept really hard for about nine hours, which felt good.  My sister said she got a pretty good night's sleep, too.  I picked up some bagels for us and went back to Mt. Sinai Queens.

Ugh.  This post is long enough already.  Sorry.  I'll save the Lenox Hill adventure for another post, along with the fun that occurred when the rest of my family drove into town, and our introduction to Dr. Wonderful...