Great surgery, horrible hospital

Hi Folks: I am feeling pretty well this morning. I've showered, washed my hair, put on make up and now am here on the computer. I'm just amazed as my dd had this same surgury with the same surgeon and she had a very painful recovery. I can do pretty much everything for myself. I slept on my side from the first night. I am on clear liquids until Wed. I have a drain in that will be removed on Wed. as well. As far as my hospital experience is concerned - it could not have been worse. I went to NY Methodist Hospital and the place is dirty, dreary and filled with noisy and incompetent and uncaring people. The nurses in the recovery room were downright rude and hard hearted. Most of them were phillipino nurses and there are cultural differences between us that should have been explained to them. They actually yelled at a pt. across from me that she should "stop crying, you are not a baby". I could not get them to listen to me as I tried to describe my breathing problem. My mouth was so dry that I would have difficulty talking but no one would give me water to rinse my mouth. Among all the things that they should have done but didn't was to pin my drain in place. When I turned over onto my side the drain got caught on the bedrail and I pulled one of the stiches through my skin. OUCH! Thank goodness I followed my own advice and hired 2 private duty aides to be with me for the first 24 hours - and even they needed to be told what to do. But at least I could rinse my mouth and get up to walk when I wanted to. So I will write this all up for the hospital administrators and the director of nurses and my doc. I will then put this part of the experience in the back of my mind and enjoy my weight loss. Louise

How did medical care get into such a mess? I remember the good old days.... Glad you are home now! Joy

I am a nurse and as far as I am concerned I think I will let my licenses expire. Not one nurse did any teaching with me. The surgical resident was the only one to ask me to demonstrate the use of the sprirometer. Glad to be home Joy and glad you are well. Louise

Im so sorry that it was such a bad experience for you. At leasst it is over and you can get on with your life. You are a loser now!!!!!!! Take care of yourself and let them have it when you write that letter. LaDonna -22

I have been in recovery rooms twice in my life as a patient and I have to say, some of the most evil people in the world work in there! You'd never dream these people went into nursing to HELP people. Actually, my theory is that there are two kinds of people who go into nursing: those who truly want to help care for the sick and those who want a little bit of power to lord over those who are temporarily weak. I would heartily recommend that you write a detailed letter to the Chief Administrator at that hospital. I would also send copies to the Chief of Staff, to your surgeon, to the HR department and anyone else you can think of. One person might sit on the letter, but if you send out lots of copies, someone decent will get the message and hopefully change things. Plus, you never know how many bad comments they may have gotten about those nurses before! Someone may be waiting for one more reason to let them go. Detail your day and times you spent in recovery so they can evaluate who was attending. Report everything unprofessional that you witnessed. I'm so sorry that happened to you! I had yet another inattentive, curt nurse in recovery who acted as if she didn't want to be dealing with one more patient. I was forced to ingratiate myself by being extremely polite and respectful, because I knew if I didn't I'd pay. I was completely at her mercy. It's a horrible feeling. Don't let them get away with it!!! Eve

I am so sorry your recovery room (in particular) was this way. Agree with your approach. Gano