Re: How you were treated in the hospital by nurses, etc

[Guest guest]

Oh my gosh! The nurse definitely needed to be out the door! When I woke in the

recovery room after 12 hours of anterior posterior fusion, with bone taken from

my hip and a rib, I waved my hand to let them know I was awake. My face was so

swollen that I couldn't see. I had just been extubated and the pain in my back

and at the chest tube site was off the charts. Someone asked me if I needed

something for pain. I indicated s big yes. Someone then said " I can't believe

you're awake already- what in the world do you take at home?? " Of course they

were saying I took major drugs at home. I said that the occasional Darvocet was

it. That was the truth, but I heard a noise that I knew they didn't believe me.

I felt totally judged at one of the worse moments in my life. Making it harder.

So, go forward 12 years, to now. I now AM on the big guns, drug-wise, at home. I

know another surgery is a real possibility for me. One of the things I worry

about the most when it comes to another surgery is how I will be treated when it

comes to pain meds. Naturally it will take more for me than for another person

who has taken no narcotics. Will they give me enough? Even nastier than the RR

nurse was a night nurse when I was 4-5 days post-op. I was still in ICU and the

ICU doc was the latest one to make rounds. I felt like my belly was gonna blow

up. I had an ileus, not at all unexpected. I commented to him that the gut was

my only complaint. He stopped my morphine drip and put me on dilaudid by mouth

and toradol IM ( in my muscle) . That was FAR too little pain med. I started

having some real bad pain about an hour after the pump was dc'd. I begged all

night for help. A bitch nurse came in and said " that's all that was ordered and

that's all you're getting " . I begged

and begged for them to call a dr. Near morning she finally called the on call

dr and I was given a shot of IV of morphine. My pain specialist was furious

when he came in. He told me the dr who dc'd my pump was in trouble for doing it,

but that didn't take back that night I suffered through. I wished later that I

had called for the nurse manager and reported the nurse, but it was hard to

think straight and my husband was never allowed to be with me any more than a

visit a couple of times a day. That memory, and knowing how judgmental so many

people can be, scares me to death. Add to that the fact that I would be in NYC,

as I was before, but in a different hospital. But I do have a southern accent/

No denying where I come from. I am proud of being a southerner, but a few people

assume that you are dumb if you have the accent. I guess I think about all the

aspects of how I was treated before and start to picture another surgery and get

side tracked with these type of

details.

Has anyone had a surgery when you were already on narcotics, like morphine, for

an extended period of time? How were you treated and was the pain treated

adequately? Thanks, Bea

Randie Meyer <taknitlite@...> wrote: That

nurse should be fired. I had some pretty bad experiences when in the hospital,

but that definately takes the cake.

Re: Re: Scoliosis AND Fibromyalgia

I think mine tops the cake. While recovering in the hospital after my

initial scoliosis surgery, a nurse came in with pills for me to take. When I

told

her that I needed help to sit up, totally looking annoyed she replied,

" Honey, my back is just as bad as yours. " That whole ordeal (the hospital) was

the worst experience in my life.

************ **Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.

http://body. aol.com/fitness/ winter-exercise? NCID=aolcmp00300 000002489

[Guest guest]

I must have been lucky. My last surgery was in Sacramento Morse Ave Kaiser

4th floor and the nurses were fantastic. They were my advocate as well as my

husband. Their care got me attention and care. My husband had a bed in my

private room and that prevented the middle of the night unncessary

non-medical crap (like changing the liner in the waste basket after the first

time when

he yelled at her). It worked!

Jolene

**************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape.

http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?NCID=aolcmp00300000002489