And one more thing

I know the nurses who took care of my husband must have been glad to see us go home. He's a notoriously poor historian with a couple of significant allergies. He remembers the one about the shellfish, usually, and nearly always forgets to tell them about the peanuts. At least the peanut allergy isn't an issue until they start feeding him. Then he remembers and they ALWAYS want to know what else he's forgotten. Can't blame them.

He can't remember the name of the drug that made his platelet count drop to 30,000.

And neither of us thought it would be a problem to simply give them a list of his medications without a list of "not allergic, but do not give" meds. We were trying to figure out which medications he'd been given prior to discharge and which he might need to take when he got home. Plavix, check. Toprol, check. Aspirin, check. Zocor. Yes, he got Zetia and Lipitor.

"Wait. He got Lipitor? You can't give him Lipitor...."

and then I remembered we hadn't told them about the whacko liver function studies when he was taking Lipitor. And he'd referred every single one of them to me to review his medications and history -- well, everyone except the house doc who wrote the orders and the nurse who'd given him the Lipitor without telling him the name of the damn pill. He'd have remembered if he'd been told the name of the pill.

One isn't going to kill him, of course, but it is aggravating - both that we forgot and that he had a nurse who couldn't be bothered to tell my husband the names of the pills he was handing out.

I need to do a little training: "Yes, honey, you need to ask the name of EVERY SINGLE PILL. I don't care who is giving it to you. Don't put anything in your mouth until you know its name."