| Mama and Robert had it very hard, but mama never regretted that she had always stayed at home to care for him. She was glad that she had him as long as she did. Robert knew that we all loved him very much, it was hard for him to show his love but more toward the end he let us all know that he loved us. Nancy our oldest sister and Robert could not show their love for each other even thought I know they loved each other they just couldn’t show it very well. After Robert got sick it all changed, I don’t know if Robert knew he was dieing or what but Nancy told me that she never knew what unconditional love was till then, and she really tried to do everything she could to make Robert happy. On January 7th Robert had a regular doctor’s appointment and half way down the hall, Robert’s legs started hurting so bad that mama had to get him a wheel chair and push him around, she told Dr. Burkhart and he acted like it was nothing. Robert started getting a rash on his legs in January of this year, they would itch him so bad and he would us anything to scratch them with, mama took him to the doctor on February 4th and Dr. Burkhart told her it was just dry skin, and gave him some medicated lotion to use. He got red streaks down his legs and sores on them so mama wanted me to look up all of his medicines on-line to find the side effects, I found that six of them could give you skin problems. She called Dr. Burkhart; she had to take him to Va. on the 11th at 3:00. She gave him the paper that I printed out on the computer, and he acted like it was nothing. He said it came from scratching. We thought maybe it was the jogging pants that he wore; they were fuzzy inside them, so we got him some that didn’t. His legs would look better and then they would start all over again. Each time they would be worse, and then he got sores on his legs. It finally got all over him, his back, hands, face and stomach. His hand dried out so bad that they busted open; they were so sore that he could not bend them or light his lighter and could hardly feed himself. He wanted to play the game “Trouble” one night with me and when he tried to push down on the bubble that pops the dice, his thumb busted open and blood ran down the game. I felt so sorry for him. Mama took him to the Emergency Room at the VA. Hospital, the doctor there gave Robert a shot for itching. This doctor was really worried about Robert. Mama gave him a copy of the information I found on the computer, he ran test and blood work, they couldn’t believe that no one else in the family had this, I don’t know what they thought it was but no one else had it. That doctor searched the computer and at the same time was going through big books to find something to help Robert, he found the same info that I did on the medicine, so he changed all of them but one and that was his seizure medicine. His legs started looking better but then they got bad again, his hands healed up. Mama took him to the Emergency Room and they wrapped his legs, he looked like he had cast on, by the time they got back home his bandages were solid pick with fluids that were running out of his legs. Robert’s legs got so bad that he didn’t have hardly any skin left in them from his toes to above his knees But it didn’t help him. Mama kept taking him to the hospital, the women there started treating her as if it was nothing and that she was just being a pest or something. Some of them were nice but some were very rude, mama would come back home upset and crying, because it seemed that no one cared. She was so disgusted because she knew that there must be someone that would help Robert. He was getting really bad; we were wrapping his legs everyday and using tons of triple antibiotic’s cream on them. The hospital would give her the supplies but if she ran out and went back to get more they would act like she was begging or something. The women at the front told her that she was going to have to tell Dr. Burkhart to order her some supplies. Dr. Burkhart would order her some and when they would come it would be the wrong things. So she would have to go back over there and get more. Robert finally got so bad he could not walk at all, he would not eat or drink, and he didn’t use the bathroom either, he never had to, the doctors finally decided that he had a very bad bladder infection and were treating him for that, but Robert never got any better. This went on for right at six months, we knew it was bad but we couldn’t get any of the doctors to do anything for Robert which is now one of our biggest regrets. We all regret that we didn’t do something more but we didn’t know what else we could do. Our nerves were to the limit but we knew we had to take care of Robert and we couldn’t let on that we knew it was serious for his sake. One day his toes on one foot turned purple, she took him to the hospital and the doctor saw them turn back to the right color and then turn purple again, the doctor said that Robert had good circulation in his legs and he knew that that was not the problem. They never offered to put him in the hospital, as bad as his legs were and not eating, drinking or never going to the bathroom in over a month and remember he was a diabetic too.….. why didn’t they help him….WHY? I couldn’t believe how they treated him and mama. His toes turned black and were so sore that he couldn’t stand to touch them, he was so pitiful but the doctor’s just didn’t think it was that bad. Where do they get their degrees from? Robert finally got an appointment with a dermatologist and he said Robert’s legs were looking better, mama ask him well what about his toes, and the doctor replied I don’t doctor on toes, I am a skin doctor…..HELLO I THINK BLACK TOES ARE SKIN AREN’T THEY? The nurse that was in there with them just looked at mama and shock her head as in she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After the doctor went out the nurse told mama that this was not right and the nurse tried to call the hospital social worker on the doctor but she couldn’t get in touch with any one so she gave mama a number to call and report the doctors. Robert has always set up and watched TV all night or till he was tired and then he would get into bed. One morning mama went in his room and he was sitting on the floor, he had slid off his chair to sit in the floor in front of the TV. (He always like to sit in the floor, since he was a child) but this time he couldn’t get up by himself. Mama called me to come and help her get him up out of the floor; he was very tired from trying to get up from there all night. We tried and tried and then we would have to rest and him too. It took us about four hour but we finally got him up to his feet. Once we got him up I noticed that his toe was bleeding the one that was black, the skin had just rolled up on it, and I guess it was from where he scraped it across the carpet trying to get up. I just wanted to cry, I felt so helpless. Mama told him “Son please; don’t ever get in the floor again,” and he said he wouldn’t. The very next morning when she opened his door…..he was sitting there in the floor again. I was at work and no one was here to help her. Mama didn’t know what to do. Thank God; my sister and husband came by on their way to work and mama asked they to help her get him up. And they lifted him right up. Mama asked Robert why he got in the floor again after he knew that he couldn’t get up, and he just said I fell off the chair. I really think he thought he would be able to get himself up. The next week I was on vacation and went with mama to take Robert to his regular check up. On our way there I had to stop at a service station and when I went in, Robert told mama that he was going to the morgue, mama said Robert you ain’t going to no morgue, you’re coming back home with us. Mama didn’t think much about it because he always said things like that. He always said that the doctor’s were quacks and that they were going to kill him. Day One- Monday, June 2, 2003 The Doctors Appointment Dr. Burkhart was on vacation and there was another doctor there. When we went into the room the mama started telling the doctor about the things that was wrong with Robert and that he was loosing weight very bad, the doctor looked on the computer and said no he isn’t he is keeping the same weight as an average the past couple years, mama said he has lost a lot of weight in his shoulders, and chest and arms, he may have gained it somewhere else and then he ask Robert if his bladder was doing better and Robert said yeah, mama spoke up and said no it’s not he is not using the bathroom at all. And then I started telling the doctor other things that was wrong with him and he turned with an angry look on his face and said “LOOK I ONLY HAVE TEN MINUTES, this is an urgent visit, and he is only here for his bladder today. Mama said no it‘s not this is his regular checkup, I have had this appointment for three months. Then she said, would you just looks at his toes, they are solid black, the doctor took off Robert’s bedroom shoes and then the doctor cursed. He could not believe that they let Robert get in this shape, he got on the phone and was ordering a scan and trying to get him a bed, he wanted him admitted right now. Robert needed to be on antibiotics fast, he told the person that he was talking to that Robert had gangrene, he got up and ran down the hall and was very mad. He came back and told us that Robert was being admitted, and Robert looked up at mama like he was getting mad, and mama told him “son it’s just for a couple of days, till they can get you better, the doctor said a couple day, ha. I started crying and had to leave the room, I was worried but relieved. I went back in and the doctor and mama were talking, the doctor told me to calm down, I told him that these were tears and joy, that someone is finally giving a crap. He said I can see that this has taken a toll on all of you. I said you don’t know how many times mama has had Robert over here and they acted like it was nothing, like it was just in her head or something. And then I told him what the dermatologist told her and that made him very angry. He wanted to know who the doctor was and we told him that he worked at this hospital. Robert was admitted and we thought that he would get some help fast to get and IV going so Robert could be treated, but that was a joke. We are talking about the VA here. We had to take him to the second floor to get blood work, x-rays of his feet, lungs and bladder. Robert was admitted put in a room and he and laid there all day, one nurse came in to give him his seizer pills and went out, Robert wanted something to drink and they never brought him anything. They finally brought his supper in and it was a regular diet tray. He is a diabetic, I told the nurse and she said she didn’t know that either. I told her if he gets any sugar in him you will know it. It makes him very mean. He had been there all day without a doctor coming in or an IV. They never brought him water or anything; He could not have the liquids on the lunch tray because there was sugar in them. Mama kept asking the nurses to get him something and they said they would but never did. I came home and made tea for Robert and took it back for him. (we live out of town from the hospital) By that time mama went up the nurses station and told them that if they weren’t going to do something for Robert then she was going to call and ambulance to come and get him and take him to the Baptist Hospital, she told them that she was not going to sit there and let Robert die before they found time to do something for him. The doctor finally came in and said that someone from ICU was coming to put in an IV. And they were going to do a scan on his bladder tomorrow; so mama decided to stay all night. This was the end of day one. Day two- Tuesday June 3, 2003 They never got an IV in Robert, I got a call from mama, she had found out that Roberts Liver was not working and his blood wouldn’t clot. They are running more tests, they want to put a catheter in his chest but they can’t while his blood is clotting. The doctor told mama that Robert would have a rough road ahead. The doctor did change his diet to liquid but he told us if there was anything that we knew of that Robert would eat that he could have it just let them know and they would get it for him, because Robert really needed something in him, he did eat one slice of a peach today, I had gotten to the hospital by now and Robert wanted a hot dog- all the way, so I went out to a restaurant to get it for him. He only ate one or two bites but that’s better than nothing. He stays sick on his stomach. He said food makes him sick. So far we know that he has gangrene in his feet possibly his legs too. He has had a bladder infection for two months. He stays sick on his stomach all the time, he is swelling, his liver isn’t working, his lungs are bad, he has a bad cough now, and now they tell us he has possibly had a stroke, because his words are slurred. All Robert wanted was to go home and he wanted his cigarettes, it would break mama’s heart to tell him he couldn’t do either. Mama feels like Robert has cancer, she said that he looks like her brother that died from cancer years ago. I truly feel that Robert is too weak to fight off the problems, before he has had problems but they came on quick and he had a lot of body fat and was healthy enough to fight it off but this time he is very weak, he has been sick so long and has lost so much weight, and he keep gaining fluids. I am very angry with these doctors; if they had done something before now he might not be in this shape. I feel that everything is a money thing now, doctors are here for the money, and they don’t care about saving a life anymore. This had been a very sad day for us all. So we pray and leave it in Gods hands. (cont...) |
| Miracles Never Cease Part 4 page 2 of 4 |
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