I haven't blogged in a looong time but I decided that this was blog worthy.

On Friday David was taken to Meridian Park Hospital due to trauma to his ribs and lung. At Meridian they decided that he had 3 broken ribs and thought that he had a punctured lung due to his broken ribs. They also thought that there might be bone fragment in his lung. If this were the case then he would need surgery to remove the bone fragment. With this possibility Meridian decided to ambulance him to Emanuel Hospital which would have supposedly been better equipt to handle the surgery. When David arrived at Emanuel he was made to lay flat in a stretcher which irritated his broken ribs and was left in the hallway for 45 minutes while doctors leaned against his stretcher and talked about their weekend.

When he finally got settled in his room Dave, Ricka , my parents and myself got to see him. I was previously allowed to see him at Meridian which made it easier to see him and know what to expect at Emanuel. He was pretty drugged up due to his pain on the first day. I stayed the night with him the whole time he was at Emanuel and was able to witness everything with him. For Emanuel being well known for their outstanding care, the care in the trauma unit, was just that.... Traumatic.

The nurses would not come in and give him his meds unless we used the call button or if they were hunted down. We ended up being the ones to keep track of when and what meds were needed at all times. David was bed ridden for the first day and 1/2, but when we were able to walk in the hallways his nurses would turn their heads and pretend they didn't see us. David only talked to a real doctor a couple times for a grand total of 15 minutes. He was dealing with interns that looked like 15 year olds almost the whole time. It was mind blowing.

Although the care was awful, what they found was that he didn't have a punctured lung or fragment in it but he had a bruised diaphragm which caused fluid to gather and collapse his lung. In order to make the lung take in air, they had to insert a tube about 6" into his chest next to his left nipple. This helped drain the fluid which then helped inflate his lung. They took the tube out yesterday which relieved A LOT of pain.

Three of his ribs are broken, one of which is broken into 3 pieces, the middle piece is turned sideways and sticking into his diaphragm but appearantly they don't need to do surgery because his body will somehow fix it. We went to another doctor today to get a second opinion which agreed with Emanuel. The real doctor was much more helpful and explained to David why he didn't need surgery. He is really glad to finally be out of the hospital and in his own home. The pain meds are helping but are not near as helpful as the drugs they had him on in the hospital. He just has to get through the next few weeks...... good thing he is such a trooper.

Thanks so much to the people who came out and saw him. It really meant a lot to him! Thanks for all the goodies Patty, your the best!