My sister has had a multitude of health problems. I think her body is that of an 80 year old and she is 65. She was diagnosed with bronchitis 2 weeks ago, really didn't get any better except temperature went down a little bit after 4 days of antibiotics so she saw the doctor again and they did a chest xray this time. Showed upper lobe infiltrate to which they were calling pneumonia but because of her history of cancer of the breast wanted to do a cat scan. That showed a pulmonary embolus! And then to top it off her doctor said it is up to her whether to treat it at home or go to the doctor. The doctors nurse, although she was just passing on what the docotr told her to tell sis said if it were up to her she would straight to the hospital. I could tell my sis was quite apprehensive, she knows what a blood clot in the lung can lead to. I didn't want her to just go by what I thought best, I told her to go with her gut feeling which I already knew was hospital. If she had said the other then I would have told her my opinion as nurse. So she goes in, I talked to her at 9:30 this evening. The doctor still hadn't even called in any orders at all so she couldn't even have a glass of water. I tried and tried to call all evening and no answer on her phone so I got the switchboard to connect me to the unit. They checked and her phone hadn't been plugged into the phone jack! She had no lotion, blanket, anything in her room. This is a major medical center here in Evansville. I told her that pretty soon they should be calling the medical director for orders. I didn't like to do that when I was working but sometimes as a nurse you just have to be the patients advocate. She has a lot of confidence inher doctor and since she got there after doctors hours, the MD on call from his office admitted her in his name. Well to me his name is MUD