Tuesday Update For Ben

Didn't stay with Ben very long today because of the weather and since my BFF Linda was going with me I felt that maybe I needed to just check in on him for about an hour or so and then she and I could go to lunch and do some other stuff so I could have a little break for myself. I still felt guilty about it though. We got to the hospital a little after 10:00 AM. Ben was alert but very tired. He fell asleep by 11:00 AM so we left. They had done some tests on him last night and it involved giving him some kind of dye to run through his intestines to see if he had any blockage. The dye made him sick to his stomach, so it tired him out. When I was there, they still had not gotten the results from tests back yet. I noticed yesterday that his left knee was very red and he told me it hurt really bad. I told the doctor, so they started giving him an antibiotic for cellulitis. The nurse surprised me by saying that they were talking about discharging him and sending him back to All Saints. I asked how could they do that when he is still so weak. I talked to Dr. Vas (Internal Medicine) and told him again that Dr. Shantha at All Saints implied that she DOES NOT want Ben back there until his belly is down and he is stronger so that he can do the physical therapy and tolerate feedings. Dr. Vas keeps telling me that he is going to call Dr. Shantha and discuss Ben going back to All Saints. He told me that basically, Kaiser is just "maintaining" Ben right now and that they cannot do anything to get his belly bloating to go away other than drain the fluids (which they did). He said that All Saints can "maintain" Ben and give him his TPN just like Kaiser can plus they can do his physical therapy better than Kaiser can. I feel like I am between a rock and a hard place. Dr. Shantha and the Kaiser doctors need to communicate with each other. I had to take some forms over to All Saints when Linda and I left the hospital and I talked with my social worker over there. She told me that they got a call Monday from a case worker about discharging Ben and sending him back and Terri (All Saints Admissions) told them that Dr. Shantha would have to ok him coming back. I told her that I didn't feel Dr. Shantha would take him back right now in his present condition but that I had told Dr. Vas to talk to Dr. Shantha. Hopefully they will work something out between themselves.