December 25, 2014

Christmas Day at Brandon Regional Hospital

Our little Annie misses her “Daddy”.  She is not eating and has begun to walk around making what I can only describe as a sad wailing sort of sound. 

By the time I made a few phone calls and uploaded a picture of Monte with an update on his status to Facebook it was 10AM before I left for the hospital. 

Monte said he slept well.  When lunchtime rolled around not only did Monte get a tray but I was given a tray as well because a patient had been discharged before lunch resulting in an extra meal being available. 

 It was very good and it was so nice to be able to share a Christmas meal together.

The doctor had not been in to visit yet so by dinnertime we were doubtful that Monte was going to be discharged. 

His nurse, Mark explained that usually a patient is not discharged for at least 24 hours following the cath procedure. 

At around 5:30, Dr. Nagamia arrived.  He had checked Monte’s vitals and said he was going to discharge him.  We were instructed to call to make a follow-up appointment for two weeks.  He also said Monte has to have a primary care doctor because he would be the one writing prescriptions in the future.

Prior to Monte going in the hospital he had made an appointment with a doctor for next week just to get a check-up and see if he should get a PSA test.  He hasn’t had a test in almost 4 years.    Dr. Nagamia told us to make sure we take a list of the medications Monte is on to the new doctor.

Luckily, Monte had been given all his meds for the day so we could wait until the next day to fill the prescriptions.  This would give us a chance to go online when we got home to research which store had the cheaper prices between Walmart and Walgreens.  Because we travel we need to be able to get the refills from a national chain so going to a local pharmacy or supermarket was out of the question. 

By the time the discharge paperwork was done it was already after 7:30.  We walked (Monte was wheeled) out of the hospital with a handful of prescriptions, aftercare instructions and a wallet sized implant card detailing the type and size of the stent.

Back home, Monte went online to GoodRX that allows you type in the name of the medication and get a list of prices from all the local pharmacies.  It also provides coupons for a certain medications.  It came as no surprise to us that Walmart had the cheapest prices.

It was so good to have Monte home.