Immaculate Conception
June 11th, 2008 by JoeFrom Joe
I saw my wife at the “hospital” yesterday, Tuesday. The doctor was supposed to have started her on lithium. I learned that he was unable to do so, because he needed to run a pregnancy test first. I’ve had a vasectomy, and I am 99.99999% sure that my wife has not had an affair, so why did the doctor think that my wife could be pregnant? Because of a dream she had.
She told me about the dream over a week ago. She said she had a dream that she was pregnant. It was so real, that she almost believed she was actually pregnant. She told the doctor about her dream and about my surgery and stated the fact that she did not have relations with another man. The doctor asked whether she knew how babies are made. She laughed and said, “Of course I know how babies are made.”
Still, the doctor felt there was a need to run the pregnancy test before giving my wife the lithium.
She has been in the “hospital” now since Saturday afternoon. As of Tuesday night when I saw her, she was still not receiving the lithium. Even so, she did seem better. She was taking Risperdal morning and night, which seemed to calm her, and Ambien to help her sleep.
I expressed my concerns to the nurse about the fact that my wife had not received the lithium she was supposed to be getting. I told her my wife is not pregnant and they need to start the lithium immediately. She said she would try to find the results from the pregnancy test (they had apparently misplaced the test results), so they could start the lithium. She would also leave a message for the doctor, so if they could not find the test results Tuesday night, the doctor would know of my concerns in the morning.
I will call now, to see what is going on.
LATER: I made the call. The nurse said she could not talk with me, because she did not have a release on file signed by my wife. I became very angry. Why could the nurse talk to me on the phone yesterday and not today? I asked to talk to my wife. The nurse said she would have my wife call me.
About 5 minutes later, my wife calls to inform me that she had signed a release for me upon admission. I asked her to sign another one. She also told me that immediately after I talked with the nurse this morning, the pregnancy test results magically appeared (negative) and she would be getting her lithium. This is madness.
June 11th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
wow- hopefully now things will start going better for your poor wife. Perhaps once she is stabilized then you both can go on a very needed vacation together! Take care.
June 18th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hi. I just wanted to let you know that you have a new reader and supporter. Please keep updating - you are helping others in your struggle. Thank you for your honesty.
Sending you both hugs and positive vibes,
Tara (bipolar II and GAD)
August 13th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Hi — dealing with hospitals and people who are supposed to know what’s going on is very challenging, Joe (who posted the ‘immaculate conception’ story.
My sister, despite assiduous care in taking her meds (I watched her every time for months) had a break, and ‘ran amok,’ as we call it. Once I got her to a large, pretty good regular hospital, with assistance of the local police, the hospital LET HER GO OUT THE DOOR in stocking feet, with no ID other than her two packs of cigarettes, and her lighter. This despite the fact that I talked to the social worker, who called my sister’s psychiatrist, who urged the social worker to admit my sister. This, after I spent about a half hour talking to the head nurse for about a half hour, trying to convince her that my sister was really ill, and needed her medications. So, I ran after sis for another couple of hours, begging 911 cops for help, finally got her to a decent facility.
Good luck.
Jenn
August 15th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Jenn–
That sounds about right. The first time I took my wife to the hospital to get her checked in, they led us to a room where we were instructed to wait. During the 30-45 minutes of waiting, my wife wandered out of the room about 10 times… looking for a bathroom, looking for a vacant bedroom so she could lie down, talking to some guy in an SUV outside, etc. etc., and then wandering off to a grassy break area where she took an umbrella from a picnic table and settled into her own shady place on the lawn.
The security guards kept telling me to keep her in the room. Finally, I asked, “What do you want me to do, tackle her?” I guess they expected me as the husband to be able to control my wife. What a joke.
Finally, a very competent woman who was handling the check-in was able to coax my wife back inside the building. Unfortunately, later in the evening, my wife became very upset over something and had to be forcibly escorted to another more secure “ward.” I heard it took three security guards. They did manage to keep her in the building, though. That would be a nightmare to find out that a loved one was wandering around in such a state with nothing more than cigarettes and a lighter. It’d be even more of a nightmare to find out that she had a credit card.