Hospital experience

Apr 28, 2012

Well, I am now 6 days post op and feeling much better, physically.  Here's a breakdown of my experience:

My surgery was scheduled for 3pm on the 23rd.  They asked me to be there at 12pm.  I had a blazing headache that just kept getting bigger as I waited.  As I was laying there waiting, Dr. Alexander stops by to say hi and also mentions that he will be taking out my gall bladder.  Wow, ok, I wasn't prepared for that, but I know it's for the best.  They finally started my surgery at 5:30 and didn't finish till 8:30PM.

Waking up from the surgery, everyone was making fun of me because I would only open one eye.  It is kinda funny.  It's something I do when I really can't handling all of the light in the morning.  I was so groggy, all I wanted to do was sleep.  

The second day, yes it was bad.  I was SO THIRSTY! I was miserable.  My night nurse was awesome, but my day nurse kept forgetting everything.  I was having to ask her twice for everything.  She left me without pain meds when they ran out.  She forgot to take out my IV when I had inquired if it was still necessary and she said no and agreed to take it out (already had a central line).  She said she had to go get some supplies and never came back.  I had to ask her again, as I was in the hall trying to walk an hour later.  She would forget little things like water.  She didn't seem to be at all concerned and she didn't seem to know what she was doing.   

The third day was a little better.  I started getting these really bad facial flushes but my body was cold, so the doctor took me off of the morphine pump and put me on Tylenol with Codeine.  This helped, but now I was at the mercy of the "wonderful" nurses to bring it to me before my pain started coming back up. I also found out that I was tachycardic, so the doctor wouldn't discharge me.  

The fourth day was okay.  The nurses kept forgetting everything.  They would say things like, "can I get you anything?", I would tell them yes, but then they would forget and I would have to ask them again an hour later.  What's the point in offering if you're just gonna forget? The nurse actually told me that she had a problem with short term memory.   My sister (who is a nurse) was also very upset about the care I was receiving.  On this day, I was due for pain meds at 11am.  I pressed my button at 10:30 to give the nurses some time.  The nurse never came.  She sent a tech to come ask me what I wanted.  I asked my sister to go check and she found this nurse just sitting there playing with her phone.  The nurse tried to blame it on the pharmacy down stairs, but she displayed no sense of urgency about the situation.  It took another hour just to get the pain meds.  By that time, I was done, and asked to be discharged early.  My family could have done a better job taking care of me...and they would have done it for free.

Then the patient advocate comes in and asks how everything is going.  At first, I wasn't going to say anything, because I just wanted to go home and put the whole thing behind me, but my sister insisted that I speak up.  She and the patient advocate both agreed that if I didn't say anything, then the problem would never get corrected, and someone else would have to go through this.  So I told her my experience.  Well, not soon after my sister left, the charge nurse and one of the nurses I was complaining about came to my room and confronted me about my claims.  I told her about everything and she didn't seem at all apologetic.  She actually seemed put off by the whole thing.  She kept making excuses for them.  She "encouraged" me to get up and get my own water.  Well, if they would have just stayed on top of my pain meds, I would be happy to do that.  But if I'm in too much pain, I'm not going to get up and get water.  I feel like they purposely waited for my sister to leave to catch me in a vulnerable position.  I mean, it wasn't like I was being high maintenance.  I only pressed my button for pain meds.  I would never press it to ask for water.  They would be in the room doing something replacing the antibiotics and then I would ask for water, maybe once a day.  That is all I asked for.

So, I was discharged and my mom drove me home.  My son was so glad to see me, he gave me a big old hug.  I was so happy to be home.  My sister ended up telling her doctor, who invested in the hospital, and he ended up placing a direct call to the CEO.  I really hope they do something about the nursing staff.  I never want to be left in their hands again.  I also remember two complaining under their breath that they weren't getting paid enough, right before surgery.  I just let it go, because I didn't want to get them in trouble.  I should have known what was to come.  I'm gonna jot down some notes, just in case someone calls me and then I'm going to put the whole thing behind me.

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