Lurker with some medical questions...

[lovehope83]

About 2 weeks ago my husband developed a cough. It seemed like he had a cold. He developed a fever for a few days which went away but the cough remained and was even worse than before.

We went to the ER on a Saturday evening, doctor's said he had bronchitis and the beginning stages of pneumonia. They gave him amoxcicilan to clear up any infection. The cough continued to get worse and worse. He began to complain of chest pain and pain in his left side. Back to the ER we go (same hospital). He explains the chest pain and that it is horrible when he coughs...which at this point is constantly.

They do some test and an x-ray and say he has pneumonia in the left lung. They give him doxycycline and a pain med and tell him to keep taking Robitussin-DM for the cough (but it does nothing to help).

This past Sunday, he wakes up and the whites of his eyes are red and he overall feels horrible. The cough is bad, he's in pain...we go back to the ER except not to the same one.

This hospital does a lot more than the other one:
steriod to help clear up inflammation
- EKG
-X-rays
- CT Scan.

Finally they say that they're admitting him - 2 broken ribs (from coughing so hard and so much), a blood clot in the left lung ... they don't seem sure that he ever really had pneumonia. Red eyes are also from coughing, he burst some blood vessels.

Great, now we're getting somewhere except that now the lung specialist is saying he doesn't a blood clot, a cardiologist and a hemotologist are saying he does have a blood clot, and yet another person is saying he has a clot in each lung.

This morning, yet another doctor says no blood clot and another comes in and says yes, blood clot.

Then they're doing nothing for the cough which is bad b/c if his ribs are already broken why aren't they giving him anything to help with that? They keep treating him for pain but not the source of the pain.

I am sorry this is so long but does any of this make even a little bit of sense? I guess I am wondering why there are so many conflicting reports?

Anybody?

[loveday]

Blood clots are nothing to mess with. Why don't they give him another scan to find out? Do they have him on blood thinners? When I had bronch/pneumonia, they gave me a cough medication with codeine in it and had me run the nebulizer every 2 hours.

[janegold]

That sounds scary. I hope they figure out everything soon!

[mrssavy42112]

I don’t think anybody here will be able to answer that. Have you asked why they aren’t giving him anything for the cough? Perhaps they are & it’s just not obvious.

[lovehope83]

I cannot remember what the pain med is called...it's given to him through an IV and starts with a d... not helpful, I know.

He is on blood thinners. His brother was there with us yesterday and asked if he could be put on hydrocodone w/ codeine in b/c it works like a charm. They hemmed and hawed about that and never gave it to him. They also seemed like they didn't really want to give him the iv pain med but kept trying to give him percocet which he refused.

Hopefully, we'll have some better answers today.

[fuckstick]

Dilaudid? Its an antitussive.

Your best bet would be to grab one of the doctors and bring up your concerns and get answers straight from them.

[laptopvixen]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but does your husband have any history of narcotic abuse? Just looking for ideas as to why they are so reluctant to give him hydrocodone or IV pain meds. Maybe it's contraindicative to the blood thinners?

I'm sorry this is so frustrating, but often times it takes longer than 24 hours (and possibly much longer) for a solid diagnosis and plan of treatment.

Diazepam, Darvocet, Dilaudid? Are any of these the D's?

[laptopvixen]

And yes, establish who is his primary doctor and corner him/her next time they come into the room and ask why you are hearing 27 different diagnoses from 27 different people.

And be super friendly to the nurses, they are often great sources of information and assistance.

[feedthecrocs]

Is it possible he has whooping cough? It's probably too late now to get a positive diagnosis though. Sounds awful, I hope you get some answers stat!

[lovehope83]

Sept 5, 2012 9:32:18 GMT -5 laptopvixen said:

Please don't take this the wrong way, but does your husband have any history of narcotic abuse? Just looking for ideas as to why they are so reluctant to give him hydrocodone or IV pain meds. Maybe it's contraindicative to the blood thinners?

I'm sorry this is so frustrating, but often times it takes longer than 24 hours (and possibly much longer) for a solid diagnosis and plan of treatment.

Diazepam, Darvocet, Dilaudid? Are any of these the D's?

Nope, no narcotic abuse- he hates taking any meds/pills for anything.

[lovehope83]

Sept 5, 2012 9:34:56 GMT -5 laptopvixen said:

And yes, establish who is his primary doctor and corner him/her next time they come into the room and ask why you are hearing 27 different diagnoses from 27 different people.

And be super friendly to the nurses, they are often great sources of information and assistance.

Thanks Laptop. I am at work right now but my plan of action is to ask to talk to the doctor who is primarily caring for him and get to the bottom of it when I get to the hospital after work.

Thankfully, our nurses have been awesome and have answered our questions as best they can so far :-).

[laptopvixen]

Just as an fyi, you may want to take a morning off, the doctors do rounds in the morning. It may be hard to find one/pin one down in the evening. GL to your husband, it sounds dreadfully painful.

[drrn04]

ask the doctor what the radiologist thinks of the scans. The read should help all the specialists get on the same page w/r/t a diagnosis and treatment plan.

I hope you both get some answers soon.

[lovehope83]

Update: So, I just talked to my H. They have determined that he does not have any clotting. They are releasing him this evening. They've given him percocet to help suppress the cough and for pain.