My body tries to kill me and I can't even get ice chips? (TMI warning)

The BBQ Pit
1

Last Thursday morning, my stomach started to hurt. I attributed the pain to possible food poisoning from Wrapworks and soldiered through the work day as the pain increased. By the time I got home, I was in so much pain that I could do nothing but lie on the couch and wish the pain to stop. I couldn’t sleep, and by 3 am the agony had become so excruciating that I headed down to the Fairfax County Hospital, where, after lengthy blood tests and a CAT scan of my gut, that I was diagnosed with acute appendicitis. Friday evening I woke up in the post-op recovery room and then was carried to my hospital bed.

Now, I was more than happy with the majority of the hospital staff, who took good care of me, allayed my anxieties, and checked in on me regularly. However, the night nurse on my wing needs to work on her patient skills.

  1. DON’T turn on the bright overhead light when the softer bed light is available.

  2. When a patient has to ask for ice chips and pain pills 3 GODDAM TIMES, maybe you might consider bringing them instead of saying you’ll get them, wait 20 minutes, remember that you forgot something, bring the pain pill but no ice chips to swallow it with, be reminded of the ice chips and STILL forget to bring them for a further lengthy interval.

  3. Remember that being catheterized during an operation causes problems with urination, especially for men–it’s not being willful or not trying when I can’t muster more than a few drops when I first wake up, it’s that pushing urine through sore, swollen urethra is pretty fucking difficult! You’ll get your sample so back the fuck off!

Mind, I was exceptionally compliant and submissive to the hospital staff, doing everything I was asked to–this is retrospective bitching now that my mind is not quite so clouded with fucking pain.

2

Nothing is worse then being in pain and helpless and having incompetence around you.

Sorry for the rough time man. Get better.

3

I’ve never had major surgery, so I don’t quite know what it’s like to be lying in a hospital bed, but I would think that it’s pretty disgraceful for a nurse to take over 20 minutes to bring some ice chips.

4

Jeez, a guy gets gut open and has some of his guts removed, and he thinks he gets to bitch about every little thing.

Just kidding, gobear. Get well soon. Enjoy the narcotics while they last.

5

It’s worse, if I’m reading the OP right…it was 20 minutes for the pills. Oy.

6

I bet those 20 minutes must have felt like an eternity!

Get well, gobear !

7

Sorry about your body turning on you, gobear.

Re the nurse, you might consider the possibility that the nurse neither forgetful nor incompetent, but rather overworked and understaffed. Nurses are like waitresses. Some waitress suck. Other waitresses are great, but management has given them way too many tables to wait on. Either way, your experience as a customer will suck.

In talking to my friends who are, or rather, who were nurses, nurses are now given double or triple the patient load that they used to be given. The quality of care has proportionately decreased. The number of mistakes they make on the job has increased significantly. The amount of time they can devote to each patient has decreased. And good, competent RN’s are leaving their profession in droves.

My uncle went in for knee sugergy on Wednesday. The hospital told him that he should plan on his wife spending W and Th night in the room with him, in case he needed assistance going to the restroom, etc. What does that say about the state of nursing care today?

8

In 1995, I was so lucky as to have a back operation WHILE I was on the first day of my period. I had been told not to wear a tampon for this, but to use pads. When they told me to get completely undressed (including my panties) and wait to be wheeled down, I asked, “What about my pad?” They told me to just keep it stuck between my legs. Wonderful.

A few hours after I was back in my room, the nurses wanted me to pee. I’m sorry, it must be psychological, I just can’t pee in bed (even if I know there’s a bed pan under me). They were quite frustrated with me as if I was making their life hard on purpose. They said, “If you don’t pee by 10pm, we’re putting a catheter in.” I don’t mind having a catheter in (though it guarantees me a urine infection every time), if it’s been put in while I was “under”. But hell no! You are not putting one in now.

10pm rolled around and it wasn’t gonna happen. The nurse came in with her bags and tubes. I said, “No, I’ll get up to go to the bathroom.” (Keep in mind, this is about 7 hours after a back operation). Then she looked at me like “For fucks sakes, now I have to get the other nurse to help me walk you to the bathroom!” Yeah imagine that! I need help to pee, IN a hospital! What are the chances?

I manage to get up and don’t ask me how I made it to the toilet. They had a booster seat on it, so I didn’t have to sit too low. I felt horrible. I was trembling. I got cold sweats. I got very nauseous. Finally I said, “I’m gonna throw up.” So one nurse goes to get a bedpan, which I completely fill with green barf. I said, “I’m gonna need another pan” (while I’m forcing to keep myself from puking). She looks at me like I’m really pushing it with her patience. She empties the pan which I fill again. I ask, “Why is it green?” (I’m very concerned about that). One nurse answers me by saying, “Why is vomit any colour?” Well thanks for the fucking tip, bitch!

Finally I’ve peed. Good girl! I’m feeling the worse I’ve ever felt in my life. I can barely hold myself up. One arm is holding the wall and the other is holding the sink next to me, to take pressure off my back. Then I noticed my pad. FULL. Way past the point of maximum absorption. Clots and all. (sorry, I warned TMI). So I asked, “Can someone change my pad please?” Well that was the epitomy of requests! YOU THINK IF I COULD CHANGE MY OWN PAD, I WOULD ASK YOU TO DO IT? DO YOU KNOW HOW EMBARRASSING THAT IS? Under her breath, the first nurse said something nasty. I didn’t hear it. But the other nurse did and she let out a short chuckle.

For two days, I asked why I couldn’t feel my left leg. They kept saying I’d have to wait to see the doctor (who was doing his rounds ~ just never showed up in my room ~ which was a private room). I’d ask for pain relief, and the nurses would say that I could have some once I walked up and down the hallway twice. I had to be “ambulatory”. Maybe if I wasn’t in pain, I COULD walk up and down the hallways! Bright idea, no?! I finally managed to do it, and an hour after my return, the nurse gave me two Tylenols. I did ALL THAT and you’re giving me TYLENOL? I was on codeine for my back before I got to the hospital, WTF do you think TYLENOL is gonna do?

Finally, I woke up on the third morning, and without consciously realizing what I was doing, I packed my bags. I called a friend and asked him to come pick me up, because I was leaving. When he showed up, he said, “I thought the doctors said four days?” I said, “I don’t give a shit what the doctors say. They don’t come to see me anyway. When I’m in pain, they make me walk the hallways for Tylenol. They make me feel like I’m a bother. So I won’t bother them. I’m leaving. My 85-year-old grandmother can take care of me better than them; just bring me to her apartment.”

One nurse (a nice one) noticed that my bags were packed and my coat was on my back. She came into the room and learned that I had taken it upon myself to leave. She wanted me to sign a paper that I was leaving ADO (Against doctor’s orders). I told her that I hadn’t seen the doctor since I woke up from surgery, so I have no clue what his orders are. I signed nothing and left. Fuck 'em.

Being in hospital is hell. I completely empathize with you. I’ve come to the realization that when someone is in hospital, they would need a friends and/or family members to take shifts, to be with them 24/7.

9

Sorry to hear you were sick, gobear. Hope you’re feeling better soon.

I was in the hospital for five days back in December and noticed that, especially late at night, the nurses were crazy busy and took forever to do stuff. I had to wait 15 and 20 minutes for my Demerol sometimes, and, obviously, as the fact that I was on Demerol implies, the wait was unpleasant. I also had one bitchy nurse who insisted on watching me use the bathroom (the problem that put me in the hospital had to do with my digestive tract…but still! Who in the world feels comfortable with some stranger watching them poop? She wasn’t trying to get a sample or anything), but I got the feeling that except for her, all the nurses wanted to do a good job, and if they didn’t, it was because they had too much to do. sigh makes me wish I went into nursing.

10

My sympathy, and hopes for your continuing recovery.

If the nurse was truly incompetent, as opposed to overworked, as PuniditLisa suggests, consider writing a letter. The part about the light, for example, certainly seems to me that it’s a matter of basic attitude, and a simple change in procedure rather than anything that would be fixed by having more resources.

Couple of years ago, while recovering from surgery, I had one nurse who was truly awful. The worst of several things she did was to try to get me to take a med that I knew had been discontinued in favor of something else. I refused to take it, and insisted that she check the doctor’s orders. She actually wanted me to take the discontinued med anyway, and then take the new med later. When I wrote to the hospital administrator, I pointed out that had I not been awake and assertive, I could have been given things that were incompatible. In my case it probably would not have had serious consequences, but the nurse’s attitude was one that could eventually cause real problems. I got a personal phone call and letter in response; obviously I don’t know what retraining or disciplinary action was taken. They definitely seemed to be taking the situation seriously, though.

On the pain issue, some hospitals now have self-administered pain medication, which is really wonderful. The gizmo is set so that you can’t overdo it, but you can press a little button when pain starts to increase. You never get to the “OMG I have to have relief NOW” stage, and you experience less stress. It’s been shown (sorry, no cite and IANAD) that people in pain don’t heal as well or as soon as those who have ameliorating treatment.

11

My mother is a dialysis nurse and let me say from personal experience that she is almost always overworked during her time there. I literally grew up in and out of nurse lounges, watching Days of Our Lives and drawing on graph paper as she ran around from one machine to the next trying to check everything that needed checking, getting meds for those who needed them, hooking up and taking people off their machines. She’s a highly dedicated, trained, and experienced nurse, having done it or something very similar to it for over 30 years of her life yet still isn’t able to ever get home on time (she works 11AM-1PM three days a week), sometimes pulling in two hours late. So, even for a really good nurse, there’s simply very little time during most days to linger long at any place.

No excuse for not getting you pain pills rapidly, though. Such things are high priority for the sake of patients and nurses alike. If the patient feels no pain, the nurse feels no pain.

12

I am sorry to hear you had appendicitis and was smart enough to get yourself to the hospitals. That’s one of my fears-getting appendicitis but being too dumb to go to the ER.

13

I mean, I’m sorry you had appendicitis, but it was good you were smart enough to go to the hospital. I’m having brainicitis.

14

All this for a mere $2763 a day! Hmmpf. May I suggest the next time you are recovering from surgery, they just move you to the Ritz-Carlton where it doesn’t take 20 minutes to get anything and it’s a damn sight cheaper too!

Since this is the Pit, I’m going to take this one step further. I am really tired of hearing the “overworked and underpaid” crap for health care workers. What’s wrong with the nurses that they continue to allow the physicians and hospital admin to drive Mercedes while they are pulling 20-hour shifts?

I say stand up and be counted, dammit. Don’t allow this inequity to continue to get worse than it already is. Get off your collective butts and take a stand. The media and general public will be behind you 100%.

Sorry, I had a Norma Jean moment there, but you get my point. Healthcare in this country, while IMO is still the best in the world, is on the decline because of the overpaid upper eschelon and poor hospital management.

15

Well, there’s a few factors here:

  1. Where they have taken a stand, the hospitol just brings in scabs. There’s a current strike in (Michigan, maybe?) that’s been going 2 years.

  2. Nurses usually get into it because they want to help people. It’s not easy to allow somebody’s care to suffer while you have to stand by.

  3. The public and media cares more that they cared for while they’re in the hospitol. Now, obviously from a long-term view, better working conditions for the nurses would help that. But most people are rather short-sighted, especially when they’re sick; they want to be taken care of right then (for good reason).

16

First of all, it’s Norma Rae, not Norma Jean. (Norma Jean was Marilyn Monroe’s legal name.)

Second, the doctors are taking it up the ass a lot worse than nurses are. Reimbursements from insurers are dropping, not increasing. Many bright, promising young people aren’t going into medicine at all because it’s a lot of work for not a lot of money. Why go to college, medical school, internship, residency and possible post-residency subspecialty training when you can get your bachelor’s and maybe master’s and make twice the money? And given that doctors are spending an increasing amount of time on paperwork, that’s money that’s actually lost, since insurance companies don’t pay for paperwork.

Third, if doctors have it bad, hospitals have it worse. Hospitals are now having to accept lump sums for patient stays. If I am authorized three days of inpatient care, but I need five days of care, that’s two days’ worth that the hospital is losing. Insurance companies base their reimbursements on a rather complex formula that takes averages and the ideal into account. If your case isn’t ideal, and you need more care, too bad. The insurance company probably won’t cover those extra days of care. So hospitals are forced to cut costs where they can.

Finally, to some extent, the nursing profession brings some of their hardships on themselves. It’s almost impossible to get into a good nursing program because space is so limited. I’ve also known a number of nurses coming into the profession who were treated so badly by older nurses that they got out of nursing or who found jobs in doctors’ offices.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not defending hospitals who cut patient-care staffs to the barest bones or putting all of the blame on the nursing profession. It is a tough problem to solve, and it can’t be solved painlessly overnight. Opening new nursing programs is a good start, as is management not tolerating abuse of new nurses by older ones. But it’s going to take some backbone from the entire patient care sector to change things. And until that happens, nothing will change.

Robin

17

First of all Myrr21 has it right. You get into the nursing field not because of the money or the respect (you don’t get any), but because you truly want to help people. A lot of the bad ones you see are nurses who have simply become burned out on the field, who can simply not work themselves up to caring. Plus you’ve got the assholes that are involved in every field.

Second, the pay itself isn’t actually that bad in many nursing fields. The problem isn’t that hospitals aren’t compensating nurses appropriately for the work they do (although many don’t), but rather nurses are not entering the field at a rate sufficient to compensate for losses due to retirement, death, or career change. My mom’s hospital offers incredibly flexible hours, good benefits, and extremely competitive pay yet is still perpetually short-handed. No one gives you respect for R.N. after your name, unlike M.D., unless you’re waving large needles in front of sensitive areas.

18

Everything everyone said above and more…

I’m an RN who worked night shifts for 18 years. By the end of it, I was making $30/hr working for a staffing agency. A lot of nurses end up taking the agency route because, though they may work just as hard (if not harder) doing it, and they still don’t get any respect (maybe even less for being the ‘agency nurse’), then at least they can be well paid for the awful working conditions that exist in hospitals these days for RNs, LPNs, and nurse’s aides alike.

Last year, Consumer Reports published an article about hospitals that stated quite clearly that the ideal nurse/patient ratio for the average hospital medical floor (not ICU or other speciality areas) to ensure patient safety was 1:4. That’s no more than four patients per nurse. NEVER in my career did I have anything less than eight patients to care for, and usually it was more like ten - ten very sick, possibly post-surgical patients who absolutely needed every single moment of attention I could give them. This kind of thing has gotten especially bad the last several years - the patients on the regular medical floors in hospitals now are the ones that would have been in the ICU 15 years ago.

I got so tired of hospital nursing that I, like many other nurses, decided to look for something else. I now work for a company that provides health education/disease management services for members of various insurance plan I still get to help people and have contact with them and I really do feel like I’m doing something good…without having to walk out of work physically and mentally exhausted, and knowing that there was -so much- to do that I didn’t do the best job I could have at any of it.

I’m not the only one. Good nurses are leaving hospitals in droves for these kinds of opportunities. (And the disease management provisions in the recent new medicare bill are bound to ensure that even more opportunities will open over the next few years.)

GythaOgg, RN

19

So, so true.
:frowning:

20

Awww, gobear, I’m sorry you had such a bad experience. Glad to hear you’re on the mend, though.

I come from a family of nurses, so I do understand the overworked, underpaid issue - heck, my aunt goes from Oregon to Florida every winter because she can make enough as a nurse in Florida in four months to support herself and my uncle for the rest of the year. It’s absolutely ridiculous - and obviously, nurses are in great demand in South Florida because of all of the older people, but I have more issues with the way older people are treated. When my grandpa was in the hospital on the edge of death, it was like pulling teeth to get any sort of help for him most of the time. The nurses in the hospital sucked, period. And it wasn’t that they were overworked - it was that they spent a lot of time at the desk gossipping. Yet my grandfather was in his bed in enormous pain because they couldn’t do their damn jobs. Thank God for my grandmother (also a nurse) and my aunt - I was there when they let one of the nurses have it for her lax atittude in front of the doctor (although he wasn’t much better).

Luckily, when Grandpa was in the hospital this past year for cancer, he was in a different hospital and one that didn’t carry the attitude that he was only an old person, he’s going to die anyway - the nurses there were wonderful to him (and I saw that firsthand, too). His physical therapist made me cry because she was so good to him.

My only true experience with nurses was after major surgery about eight years ago. I had some serious back surgery and was in a lot of pain (gotta love that morphine drip every eight minutes). My nurses were fantastic - there was one Irish woman with this great brogue who was just about the most nicest woman I’d ever met. She thought I was funny because when I woke up, the first thing I did was ask for my underwear back (I was way modest back then). For that reason, I guess I became her pet for the next two days - I wasn’t wanting for anything for those two days when she was on the shift. My night nurses were fine, but a bit slow - I was also on my period (but they let me wear a tampon), so I had to change it, and for some reason, when I’m on my period, I need to pee an awful lot more, and I already have an irregularly small bladder (without going into too much detail, I had surgery on it when I was five to expand it, and I always have to go a lot) so I called for the bedpan about four times in the night. I guess they thought I was being difficult because the last two times it took half an hour to get it to me (and it’s not that they were busy - when I called, they said they forgot). My biggest problem was my roommate in the hospital - she’d wake up at 6 AM and turn on the TV loudly and start calling people and talking at the top of her lungs! “Hey, Sheila! Guess where I am?? Yeah, that DAMN KIDNEYSTONE!”. If I hadn’t been in so much pain, I probably would’ve screamed “Shut the FUCK UP!” at her. As it was, my mom got the Irish nurse to shut the woman up.

I was very disappointed to leave the Irish nurse - she told me I was one of the best patients she ever had:) - okay, so maybe it was a line. But I liked her.

Ava