Hospital Stay not all it was cracked up to be

Dec 31, 2009

The operation part started an hour latter than Dr. Aranow told me it would 8:30am instead of 7:30.  No biggy.  I got a bit concerned when everyone was asking if anyone had seen Dr. Araow at about 8:25.  He ran in all flustered at 8:45, at which time I advised he of some deep cleansing breaths, before taking a scalpel to my gut!  When we got in to the O.R. he seemed much more at ease like he was in his element.  Dr. Roblaise?? The new Dr. performing surgery at the office was not present when I fell asleep. 

Woke up in recovery then to room all a bit groggy.  The first round of nurses were great.  Very attentive... The second crew was not so attentive, personal, or nice.  They discouraged me from walking, were late on pain meds, and rubbed me the wrong way.  The third crew came on and were top notch.  A wonderful manager came into the room and asked how things were going.  I mentioned that the second crew wasn't as on as the other two.  She asked if it was the nurse or the P?? I responded with I wasn't sure but it seemed like both. I asked her not to say anything until I was out so that I did not have any resistance from my comments.  She agreed.  I also asked if they would be on the next day and was happily told they would not. 

Dr. Aranow did not come in on the day of surgery.  Day two he did not come in either.  I did see him in the hall briefly while I was doing my laps.  I had been asking the nurses for him constantly with no response. 

I had also not slept more than 15 minutes since recovery.

The next four shifts of nurses were fabulous

 The day I was supposed to be released, he showed up.  I asked him where the hell's he's been, twice, with no reply.  He and the nurse talked about how the narcotics were not really getting rid of the pain, just making me sleepy and loopy.  He did not want to give me the other med because it had Motrin.... cause of bleeding risks.  Nurse and he decided it may work better if they gave me a combination of two narcotics.  They signed the release papers and just wanted to give me a dose in the hospital before sending me home to see how I would respond.  Well, they threw me for a loop and a half.  I crawled into bed and fell asleep, with the nurse telling me I could not be in bed because of Dr orders, and I responding to have him come up and try to get me out of bed. 

As I was coming off of this incredible high, the nurses changed and low and behold the love gal who I dealt with my first night was back.  She was terrible!  They were short staffed and another helper P?? came down from a different floor to assist.  Her name was Jen and was very kind. 

Ide,  the nurse, disappeared for an hour and a half, and no one knew where she was.  This is while I need pain meds.  I asked her to call Dr A.  and an hour later she said that she still had not gotten to it.  She sat in the corner of the more private nurses station talking on her cell phone most of the night.  I asked her for ice, she forgot.  I asked her for a blanket, she forgot.  I needed something in the bathroom, she got me the wrong thing  and then forgot to bring back to the right thing.  While she was MIA, I was over an hour due for pain meds.  When she got back I did receive my meds quickly, probably because  I followed her to the med closet and waited for them.  When my next dose was due, I called for them, and said she would get to me as soon as she could she had a new patient arriving soon and had to get the paper work done.  (maybe she should have gotten off her phone earlier then) She ended sending in another nurse to administer my meds because she was still busy.  At which point I was breaking down, crying from the pain, hyperventilating, (which I have never done before) and barely able  to talk.  I asked the nurse if she could be my new nurse because I did not want the other one in charge of my care any longer.  I told her everything that had been done wrong while under the other nurses care.  

Up until this point my recovery had been superb.  I was walking, in pain but it was manageable, and looked really good according to the other nurses and comparison with other patients that had surgery the same day as me.

The damn nurse Ide, then had the balls to come into my room and question me about why I was so upset with her.  She defended her absences and forgetfulness blaming the helper Jen.  She was interrogating me!  It was ridiculous.  I told her that I was not happy with her care and that she needed to leave my room. She would not and continued on defending her position and recreating things to make her come out in a better light.  It was gross.

I talked to the manager again the next am, and I felt that things would be handled so that another patinent would not be cared for in this way again.  The other nurse that I complained to Also reported to her what I had said.

As I was being released the next morning Dr Roblaise came it to check me out.  Looked at my incision stated that he closed me up, and what a nice job it was doing healing, because Dr Aranow had to run out to another patient.  GRRRR... 

I chose Dr. Aranow for many reasons one of which was because he was not at a teaching Hospital and because of this only his experienced hands would be working on me. 

So that is the long and the short of it.  I am healing well, feeling better every day, but still a bit pissed about everything.

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