SteffanieC
After Surgery
Sep 25, 2008
Well, I did it. I had my surgery on Sept 16th.
The hospital stay at Methodist was great at first. I was only supposed to be in for 2 nights, but because of bloody stools and severe headaches, chest, neck and jaw pain they kept me and did an MRI, Cat Scan and an ultra sound. Everything checked out fine but it was pretty scary.
My last night turned out horrendous because I got a really nasty nurse . First she made me feel awful that I had asked to have the drainage sack emptied when it was half full. Based on the other nurses they were in checking that sack every hour and kept it emptied. She nearly had me in tears with her comments. Then she refused to give me my pain medication. She tried to tell me I wasn't due for another 4 hours when I had only had half of my dose....so the previous shift nurse told me I could have the other half at any point if half a dose didn't work. I wanted to see if I could gradually get off the pain medication or at least take less. At any rate, I had to get the head nurse in and finally got my medication. I then told her that I did not want that nurse taking care of me that night after the way she had treated me so far, so she agreed to take care of me personally. Well that didn't happen. My IV started beeping because the fluids were out. It continued beeping for about 15 minutes so I pushed the nurse call button. No one came. I waited over 45 minutes and finally got out of bed, unplugged my IV and walked out to get someone. No apologies..nothing. Throughout the night I pressed my call button to use the bathroom because getting out of my bed without help was very painful to my stomach and trying to handle the IV myself was a lot while under pain medication. I was dizzy and light headed as well. No one came all night.. I had to to it myself. I kept wondering if I fell would would anyone come. I worried that I would strain my incisions by pulling myself up and down. All of this we in the middle of the night after having to go through all kinds of tests. I was so scared and then to get such awful treatment. When that nurse got off her shift a male nurse came in whom she had obviously filled in about the situation and he too was just awful to me. I had to call my parents to come in. They did go down to patient relations and file a formal complaint about both nurses and the head nurses. Methodist guaranteed it would be taken care of. I sure hope so because NO ONE should have to go through that when they have just had major surgery and are in pain. I can't remember the first nurses name..I'll have to ask my parents, but the head nurse was named Samantha and the 2nd nurse was named Russ. I hope none of you are unfortunate enough to get these people to care for you at Methodist.
Don't get me wrong...ALL the other nurses were absolutely wonderful.
Anyway. I am recovering slowly. The first week went great, but I had a set back once I progressed to the full liquid diet yesterday. I only had 2T of cream of wheat and a glass of milk later in the day. I woke at 3:30 am to horrible stomach pains and diarrhea and the feeling I was going to vomit...you know...watering mouth. I think I completely dehydrated myself. The nurse told me this morning if I can't get more liquids in I would have to come in. it's 2:30 and I"m only on my 2nd glass of water. It feels like it's getting stuck. The nurse thinks I may have swallowed too big of a bite and possibly caused some swelling or I may be lactose intolerant. I hope it's not the latter.
More later.
Steffanie
The hospital stay at Methodist was great at first. I was only supposed to be in for 2 nights, but because of bloody stools and severe headaches, chest, neck and jaw pain they kept me and did an MRI, Cat Scan and an ultra sound. Everything checked out fine but it was pretty scary.
My last night turned out horrendous because I got a really nasty nurse . First she made me feel awful that I had asked to have the drainage sack emptied when it was half full. Based on the other nurses they were in checking that sack every hour and kept it emptied. She nearly had me in tears with her comments. Then she refused to give me my pain medication. She tried to tell me I wasn't due for another 4 hours when I had only had half of my dose....so the previous shift nurse told me I could have the other half at any point if half a dose didn't work. I wanted to see if I could gradually get off the pain medication or at least take less. At any rate, I had to get the head nurse in and finally got my medication. I then told her that I did not want that nurse taking care of me that night after the way she had treated me so far, so she agreed to take care of me personally. Well that didn't happen. My IV started beeping because the fluids were out. It continued beeping for about 15 minutes so I pushed the nurse call button. No one came. I waited over 45 minutes and finally got out of bed, unplugged my IV and walked out to get someone. No apologies..nothing. Throughout the night I pressed my call button to use the bathroom because getting out of my bed without help was very painful to my stomach and trying to handle the IV myself was a lot while under pain medication. I was dizzy and light headed as well. No one came all night.. I had to to it myself. I kept wondering if I fell would would anyone come. I worried that I would strain my incisions by pulling myself up and down. All of this we in the middle of the night after having to go through all kinds of tests. I was so scared and then to get such awful treatment. When that nurse got off her shift a male nurse came in whom she had obviously filled in about the situation and he too was just awful to me. I had to call my parents to come in. They did go down to patient relations and file a formal complaint about both nurses and the head nurses. Methodist guaranteed it would be taken care of. I sure hope so because NO ONE should have to go through that when they have just had major surgery and are in pain. I can't remember the first nurses name..I'll have to ask my parents, but the head nurse was named Samantha and the 2nd nurse was named Russ. I hope none of you are unfortunate enough to get these people to care for you at Methodist.
Don't get me wrong...ALL the other nurses were absolutely wonderful.
Anyway. I am recovering slowly. The first week went great, but I had a set back once I progressed to the full liquid diet yesterday. I only had 2T of cream of wheat and a glass of milk later in the day. I woke at 3:30 am to horrible stomach pains and diarrhea and the feeling I was going to vomit...you know...watering mouth. I think I completely dehydrated myself. The nurse told me this morning if I can't get more liquids in I would have to come in. it's 2:30 and I"m only on my 2nd glass of water. It feels like it's getting stuck. The nurse thinks I may have swallowed too big of a bite and possibly caused some swelling or I may be lactose intolerant. I hope it's not the latter.
More later.
Steffanie
