Things have taken a different turn, but not necessarily for the better. Debbie tells Chuck that there has been no guardianship proceeding, and no order of protection has been entered against me. I U Hospital has not directly confirmed this, but I have repeatedly insisted they send me copies of any such orders, and none have been produced. Today when I called Dr. Tector’s office, I was put through to the TICU nurses station. I was told it was OK for me to call Linda through that means. However, the first time I called, around 12:55 p.m., they told me she was “having a procedure.” The next time I called, around 3:30 p.m., I was told she was sleeping. The nurse took our number here at home and said she would place a call back to me at the house in about an hour and a half when Linda awoke. No call came, so I called back about 5:20 p.m. and was diverted to the security office which said they had been advised half an hour earlier that she didn’t want to speak to me and that since I didn’t have the “password” no one would give me any information on her condition or situation.
Chuck and Richard, has anyone given either of you a “password” you needed when talking to social workers or nurses about how Linda is doing? Would you please tell me what it is? I don’t know whether this is just people not communicating with each other at I U Hospital, or whether it’s a new tactic to keep me from communicating with Linda.
Debbie told Chuck that Debbie has printed out all of the E-mails I send Debbie and kept them in a folder in Linda’s room for Linda to read, and that Linda does read them. If this is indeed true, why did the hospital suspend the respiratory therapist for giving Linda a copy of one e-mail from me? I still don’t know who to believe. Debbie refuses to return my calls. Linda’s cell phone is turned off and goes straight to voicemail when I call it. I leave messages but I doubt anyone is playing them for Linda to listen to. I have followed up each of the three letters I wrote to Dr. Tector and the lawyer at Indiana University Hospital with phone calls, but no one there has returned my calls, though I leave voicemails and leave messages with secretaries. I won’t believe Linda is telling people she doesn’t want to talk to me unless I hear that from her. Debbie tells Chuck Linda talks to Debbie and the nurses, so she could at least get on the phone long enough to say to me not to call her, and put a stop to this round robin of refusals on the part of the Hospital to let me speak to her.
I’m going to keep trying to call Linda through Dr. Tector’s office two or three times a day to see if I can get through to Linda, but it is probably a futile effort. Meanwhile, the risk manager form RML called me today and said there is no point in my copying them on correspondence with I U Hospital as RML is not going to do anything more about arranging a transfer for Linda until Dr. Tector signs a discharge order for her. If they are still doing “procedures” on Linda – I don’t know for what – apparently that is not going to happen any time soon.
I do hope it is true Debbie is printing this e-mail out for Linda to read. At least she will know I haven’t given up on her and that I am mystified why she doesn’t want to talk to me on the phone. I love her so much and miss her so much, and not knowing what is going on with her medical condition day to day tears my heart out every minute. If talking to me on the phone would be too tiring for her, I would love just to call her in the evening and read to her for 10 or 15 minutes like we used to do here at home at bedtime so she could go to sleep more easily. Our forced separation like this is driving me to despair. If she were to tell me she doesn’t want me in her life any more, that would be different, but I do not believe that is true, and no one at all has said to me that it is, or that Linda has ever said anything like that to them. Even Debbie, who won’t return my calls to Debbie, or let me speak to Linda, tells Chuck she expects Linda to be home with me again when she has fully recovered from all of this.
My worst fear of all is that Linda is getting sicker and sicker from the repeated infections she gets in the hospital down there, and the fluid that keeps building up in her chest cavity, and that her will to go on living is getting weak because of our forced separation by the hospital. I don’t want her to die down there all alone, thinking I have abandoned her or given up on her. I absolutely do not understand how her doctors and nurses can believe keeping me away from her is doing anything positive for her outlook.
I do hope Debbie will show this to Linda, and let Linda read it before some misguided nurse snatches it away. Belief that it is possible Linda will be reading this is the only hope that keeps me going now. Our beautiful life together is crumbling before my eyes, and I have nothing left to cling to in the hope it can be restored.
No comments:
Post a Comment