Oh, Cindy, how awful! I'm glad he's recovering now.

Holy shit. You must have been vibrating with rage.

I think that's where the momness kicks in. I was scared. I had been going to drive in (as I've been doing every day), but instead I asked dh (who is all out of paid leave) to come home and drive me in.

While we were there, I just tried to reassure Chris, listen to the surgeon, and get the nurses to listen to us. I was glad the surgeon was in the room, when the Prednisone got brought up. Chris mentioned he'd only had 5mgs that day (pill; he'd been on a stress dose of an equivalent during the surgery and maybe for the day after). I knew he should be getting at least 10mg, because he hasn't been able to make it on 5mgs yet (hence the taper plans with the gastro & endo).

If you're on steroids and you have surgery, or break your leg, or something, they have to keep the dose up during surgery, and be careful with tapers. The long-term use interrupts your natural hormone production which helps keep everything running.

When I told the nurse he should be on 10mg, she started arguing with me. She took the surgeon over to the electronic chart station and I could hear her saying it should be 5mg that day and 2.5 the next, so I sort of called across the room and said, "We're not tapering while he's in here." The surgeon knew all about that and had to set her right, so she then ordered IV hydrocortisone (an equivalent) for right then and there.

That's a fucking malpractice suit.

That part's in the basement under the back room.

ETA

This is the first day I've really raged (and only at home, and it mostly comes out as strangled noises)

Teppy, would you say this seems like accurate dosing information: [link]

In other words, was he probably supposed to get 40mg once a day (I know he was only supposed to get X once a day and got Y twice a day)?

Yeah, based on everything I've read about abdominal surgery, 40 mg once a day is standard. People with joint replacement surgery get more, and heart patients get more. But there really REALLY should have been a protocol in place, or an alert in his medical record that would pop up to say Hey, this patient is an abdominal surgery patient and this dosage is really wrong.

This is the first day I've really raged

If it helps, I'm incandescent with rage on your behalf.

Thank you. If I'm reading that right, he should have gotten 80mg (TOTAL) over the course of two days, and he probably got 240mg (TOTAL) in that time.

Your incandescence does help, btw.

In front of him, I've tried to stay calm and positive. On Friday though, when I told him, "This is just a little blip, and you will be okay," the surgeon said, "This is a big bump, but you will be okay."

When I got home Fri and Sat, all I could do was cry. Today, the anger is a little more ready to come out when I'm home.

I think I don't trust myself to use my anger constructively, yet.

This was at a top Boston hospital. I am still struggling to understand that since Dr. Murderer wrote the wrong order, yet nobody from the pharmacy to the nursing staff said, "Wait a second. Why are we dosing him twice a day?" even if they didn't notice the difference from 40mg to 60mg.

Oh god, Cindy. The poor kid. That's terrifying. I would be screaming down the sky, although probably in the back room.

Cindy, I am so sorry. I can't even imagine your rage. I truly hope he's now able to recover.

Jesus, Cindy, that is terrifying and enraging!

Cindy I am so sorry you all have had this on top of what is already a stressful situation. Truly scary and rage inducing.

Yikes Cindy, that's scary!! I'm glad it seems to have worked out ok though? I hope he feels better soon.

I went out for tacos my last night in town and ran into a couple id met in class last week, who are biking around the country and eventually South America. So that was fun—got their insta so I could follow them, and we had tacos and then ice cream. Tomorrow I fly to Bogota, and Tuesday to hooooooome!!

But there really REALLY should have been a protocol in place, or an alert in his medical record that would pop up to say Hey, this patient is an abdominal surgery patient and this dosage is really wrong.

Jacqueline said the same thing. As soon as you put the dosage into the computer it should have popped up with "Are you SURE?!" warnings that you had to override.