MY HORROR STORY!!!

Hello everyone, Okay here it is, I know that a few of you have been asking what happened to me in the hospital so heres the story,   (if you know anything about chronic pain and pain medicine for it you will understand exactly what happened and what I went thru)     I was supposed to have surgery at 3:00pm on Monday, they told me to be there at 1pm.  They called me early and said to come in now, it was12pm, and that they were running early)  so I rushed in and was  2blocks from the hospital and the O.R.  nurse called my cell phone and wanted to know where I was, (this was not even 15mins later from the first call!  I told her where I was and she said good thats fine.  I got there and ran into Erin,(she was going at 3:30)  so I went up to DOSA waiting room and waited.  Erin showed up about 10mins later in dosa.  They ended up taking her first for some reason and I waited and waited.  They finally took me back around 6pm.  Because I hadnt had anything to drink or eat in almost 24hrs they took over an hour to find an iv site.  At 1130pm they came to me and said they couldnt do the surgery until tomorrow.  They admitted me gave me a drink and again I waited!  They took me down at 8am and finally took me in at 1030am. Everything was great until the next morning.  I have been on oxycontin 20mg 2xs aday and percocet 3xs a day for over 2 yrs.  Any nurse, Dr or someone who has been on chronic pain meds would know I am addicted to the Meds and I will start to go thru withdrawl after not having them when I am due to take them.  oxycontin is a bad medicine which I have wanted to get off of for the past year because of the withdrawl.  My pain management doctors and ortho surgeon has been telling me that I need to increase the dose and I refuse to do it.  I am scared of it and it is bad enough on the mg that I am taking.  If I am late heres what happens,  Legs start to shake uncontrollably, run a fever, get very sick to stomach, drenching sweats, throw up or dry heave continuously, and it feels as if your insides are being squeezed and put thru a meat grinder.  (I could never understand how people could be heroin addicts and go thru all of that!!!)  This is hard to share with all of you but you are my friends so here is the rest.  Before the surgery I talked to Wings, my doctor, my pain mang dr, (all my doctors,I reminded them of this withdrawl thing and how I was scared that I would have to go thru this right after a surgery on my stomach, it seems the withdrawl is the hardest on your insides and with dry heaves)  I talked to Dr Scott and Natalie and they all told me that it would be fine they would give me the meds I needed to get me thru it until I could take the oxy. again by mouth, they are pretty small so I would only have to wait one or 2 days after surgery to take them.  They could not be crushed you have to take them whole. So I wouldnt beable to take them right away, no problem they would put this in my chart.  It is the stupidest thing, I dont know why I am so embarrassed about this addiction thing, its not my fault, I have to take them or I cant walk or move around at all, I have even talked to my father about these pills, (he used to be a narcotics officer) and he explained how when you really need pills to function it isnt the same kind of an addiction as someone who is abusing them to get the "high".  But never the less it still seems to embarrass me. So I think everything is fine, I have the surgery and because I am allergic to Morphine the have to give me a Dilata (sp) pump.  Dr. Scott also writes in the chart to give additional "break thru" shots if needed for the withdrawl.  They gave them to me as ness. from about 2-3pm until my new nurse came on at like 7am then she says she doesnt have anything in my chart about it and on top of that she is taking my pump away also.  You know I was really dealing with the surgery really good, as a matter of fact I started getting myself up less than 12hours after surgery by myself to walk.  They never came and did this.  I really didnt need the pump anymore, I was okay without it, but I tried to explain about the withdrawl.  She said she would call my doctor, this went on and on.  She was so terrible!!  It was the worst thing I have ever gone thru in my whole life.  I didnt have any numbers with me.  My husband went to the hotel to try and get some sleep.  I just felt like there was nothing he could do for me and he was helpless.  I was afraid he was going to kill the nurse, (now I know I should have let him), I asked for a phone book so I could look up the offices phone number, (she wouldnt bring me one, said she couldnt find one), after I had been dry heaving and cramping for over 8 hours I finally lost it.  My husband did too.  I was crying and hurting so bad.  The next thing I remember is the Tech coming in saying that they could not find the nurse, (later I found out she had just left the hospital), and they sent a replacement nurse to cover for her and to cover the night shift.  I dont know what was going on but according to info I got the next day the hospital had a bunch of nurses just call in that day and night and not come to work.  But finally this really nice nurse named Jake came in and was so sorry for everything.  He was so mad, as a matter of fact the next morning there were alot of mad people about what happened especially the administration when I made a formal complaint.  By the time that this "Jake" came on and I got the medicine I needed, I had gone thru the withdrawl for over 12 hours.  It took them a couple of hours to get someone who could start a new IV on me.  Rory had told the other nurse that my IV had blown in my hand, (I am the hardest person to find veins in they have only found two spots that they could put IV's at, and the nurse had blown the first one when she was tring to put the IV in before surgery.  So Rory told this stupid nurse my hand was swelling up with fluid with the IV and she would never do anything about it.  It was like that for over 4 hours!  They brought in the sweetest lady I have ever met in a hospital who they said was in charge of two IV clinics in after the evac team tried 7 times to stick me.  She looked at my hands and gave me a hug and said no problem honey Im gonna take care of you.  One stick and the Iv was in!!!!  It was in my thumb but it was in !!!!  She was so sweet, and so was Jake.  He gave me the medicine and I ended up being able to get some sleep.  Rory would not leave me again and go back to the hotel, he said there was no way they were gonna put me thru all the pain again and he was gonna make sure of it!!!  I am lucky to have him. So long story I know, I wouldnt of even told everyone about it but I never, ever want someone to go thru this.  Doctor Johnson was so mad that morning when he came in the hospital I was glad to see he cared so much about what happened to me, I was beginning to wonder!!  So remember, if you are on chronic pain meds and you know there is withdrawl when you dont take them or take them late, make SURE you get that wrote in your chart and when your nurse comes on make sure she knows what the hell is going on!!!!  AND HAVE ALL YOUR DOCTORS NUMBERS WITH YOU!  Just in case.  Take care, Susan

I'm in tears. Susan I am so sorry this happen to you. I wish I would of had your room number or last name. I am so glad you are doing better now and made it through.  I knew I had reason to worry about you. I was so worried the whole time and just couldn't get ahold of Janet to get ahold of you. I blew up her phone lol.  I've learned a lot from this. Know your friends last name so you can find them.  I'm again so sorry this happen to you and you are in my thoughts and prayers.  Love ya!

Susan... I am so sorry that you had such a terrible time...I whole heartedly understand about the chronic pain management thing...I use to work with alot of patients that dealt with the same type of medication that you take and when they did not have their meds they hurt like He!!..  You whole story made me very sad... One year after I had my bypass I had to have an emergency exploratory and I had a nurse that let me go without any pain meds all night long after I had been on major pain meds for a week while in the hospital....needless to say that is the wrong thing to do to a fellow nurse...because I know what can be done....and that nurse did not come in the rest of the time I was in the hospital....mainly because I told them I would whip some tail if she did come back in...also had a little nurse's aide act like an A$$...and the same thing was told to her not to return to my room...my surgeon was not happy at the least and immediately but me on a pump... Once again, I am so sorry that some people that are in the nursing profession just don't know how to act towards their patients...it gives the rest of us bad names.... God bless you Rachael

Thank you both so much for posting!  I know that some people maybe on the same meds as me and I just wouldnt want them to, "Just trust", that everyone would understand!  I had some wonderful people work with me while I was in there, but my question was, If alot of obese people have chronic pain and very many of them I know are on chronic pain meds seems like a nurse that had been on a surgical floor would have see this or heard of this many times before", huh?  Well again thanks Erin and Rachel so much for posting on this.  I am aware that I am lucky that this is the worst thing I had to go thru at the hospital, but I feel like we are good friends and some like family here and I sure wouldnt want someone I cared about to go thru this.   (((((((HUGS)))))) Love Susan

Ho boy, Susan, I am SO sorry this all happened to you!  I see you had surgery with my dr. My surgery date is August 6th. I went to the required meeting with Natalie, the RN, Jennifer, the nutritionist and one of the other drs on staff. Natalie said to make sure to take her number, and if there are any problems with any of the nurses, to call her or page her anytime. She said you are to be treated right, and if not, she wants to know about it and will take action. I hope your nightmare was the exception, rather than the rule! I hope you are recovering well now. God Bless! LaNeta

Susan, were you in Bridgeton or were you in Columbia?