Sorry, I was too. I’m a little defensive about it because, all in all, it wasn’t bad. But that part was traumatizing in a way I didn’t realize until I had to go through it again. And without a support person. It was weird, I was at the same hospital as before, but they treated me SO MUCH BETTER. Out of both pregnancies, with their complications and difficulties, I still got two wonderful children. So I feel a little bit like I have no right to complain.
I think the power dynamic between patient and doctor is a bit amplified in the hospital as well. You are all working toward the same goal of the patient being better but there’s a mismatch in priorities. You should never want to go to the hospital.
I’ve had medical people tell me, condescendingly, that “at least with childbirth, you get a baby out of the deal!”. Yeah, that helps overcome the hospital-inflicted misery just fine.
I’m not surprised you’ve found it to be traumatizing (though I’m glad they sort of redeemed themselves the next time). As I said, I still have trouble driving by that hospital. Other people I know have even worse horror stories about the place. A friend had a hysterectomy there a couple years back, and I’m usually her “designated driver” for medical stuff but that time, fortunately, her brother came in from out of town to help out. I would not have been a very good helper.
And when I had my wrist surgery (10 days before husband’s knee work): the doctor said “we’ll do a regional block”. And I said “That’s IN ADDITION TO a general, right? Because locals of any sort don’t work terribly well on me”. He assured me it was. And, weirdly, this one actually worked - felt like I had a pork loin attached to my shoulder rather than an arm. They sedated me before doing it, which I suspect helped - again, tense patient = hard to administer a needle. The only bad thing about it was that it wore off after 12 hours or so, then things really sucked
At least on my area, the movement is in the other direction, away from versed & fentanyl and towards propofol. Yeah, patients on versed are mostly conscious and can usually respond. Patients on propofol are out, and can’t respond. The paper i read was almost certainly about propofol, which is much more popular with patients because the time between “waking up” and “feeling okay” is shorter, and also many people feel really good when they wake up from propofol. (i didn’t, but that’s another story.)
Sorry, but I’m really swamped at work, and it would be irresponsible of me to go hunting down medical papers for a couple of weeks.
I got a total shoulder replacement at Boston Medical Center 6 weeks ago, and the quality of care was great, good communication, empathetic nurses, and pain meds when I asked for them (which was 2 oxycodone every 3 hours. It’s the most invasive thing I’ve ever had done). The also gave me intravenous Zofran, which meant for once I wasn’t puking on that level of painkiller. But… I did get the hourly wakeup all night for various test and inspections. I think they did 3 full blood work-ups in the one night. I got a ding that my test results were in the portal, so logged in to check them since I wasn’t sleeping. It showed among other things a blood sugar level of 200. I was so zonked I decided I had become diabetic overnight and got pretty upset. Not until a few days later did it occur to me I had a glucose IV in my arm at that time!
This is one of my fears about going into a hospital, or if I were ever to be so fortunate, a nursing home. I’m one of those people who finds TV to be pretty seriously high-level torment. I assume there is an underlying Screwtapian reason for allowing blaring TVs all over hospitals; the cruelty is the point.
Propofol is the drug of choice around here, it seems. I think that when I had a tooth extraction, that was part of the cocktail, but for all my GI procedures, good ol’ Milk of Amnesia has been the only thing used.
It’s about 5 seconds between feeling that burn (stuff hurts like a motherfucker when injected into the hand) and lights out. I can’t speak to how “out” I am on that versus the older cocktails, since, well, I’m not at home in my head at the time. I had a faint awareness of “something going on”, once, during a colonoscopy, but then the lights went right back out. I do know that its effect can be very short-acting - after my most recent upper GI, I glanced at my watch in the recovery area and it was 20 minutes after I’d last looked at it, before the procedure.
I’m pretty sure they did the versed / fentanyl mix when I had the wrist surgery. I have no idea how I got from the gurney onto the operating table - I assume I must have been able to cooperate, since I didn’t see anyone being taken out in traction afterward from the work of hauling my carcass onto a table.
Since I’m avoiding work right now: When they use propofol to sedate ICU patients, apparently the calories really add up and they have to account for that, to avoid overfeeding, which poses other nutritional concerns.
I agree, but mostly if they don’t give me the ‘special’ sedation, I will vomit afterwards. So, they not only give me the sedation but need to give me an anti emetic, as well. Just go with no sedation, and it will all be well.
I had my first without sedation and had no problem. I think the doctor was amused by my level of interest. However, a former coworker of mine had a horrible experience without sedation and hers was rescheduled with sedation. It turned out that she has a very twisted colon, therefore she experienced a great deal of pain.
I was sedated, but just got mellow without going under. The thing that kept me from looking at the doctor was 1) my position and 2) he had a video screen placed where I could watch the whole procedure. I suppose if he had found something bad or polyps that had to be burned off it would have been less interesting to watch.
I’ve heard of navel-gazing, but not from the inside! That said, when I had an endoscopy (other end), they gave me a report with various pretty photographs of my insides - but that was after the event.
I watched my colonoscopy with keen interest. The upper endoscopy is too uncomfortable, and there’s also a lot of stuff on your face (so I can’t wear my glasses through it) so I mostly just endured that. But the colonoscopy was fun. You don’t usually get to see those parts of yourself.
Regarding the video - I was expecting the camera and the light that the camera needs. I hadn’t expected the little spray hose. The prep gets most of the stuff out of your colon, but there’s still yellow remnants clinging to your membranes. So there’s a little spray hose to wash it away and provide a better view.
I shared a hospital room with a loud snorer once. I strangled him with his own IV line and the judge ruled it a justifiable homicide and made his widow pay my court costs.
Depends on the quality of the prep. I have done two. The age-50 one they didn’t need to do that. The age-60 one they did.
Note that the difference wasn’t how closely I followed the “rules”, nor was it the rules themselves, as I was given the same guidelines, or nearly so, both times. The difference is that my aging colon doesn’t empty itself as well.
I find that having the TV on, or SOME sort of auditory entertainment, a huge help in distracting me from misery. That said: as noted, my TV = your torture - and what if the person with the remote is into Faux News, violent sports, or whatever. If earphones were required for anyone listening to such, or sleep masks provided for those who choose NOT to indulge, or maybe just like a little peace and quiet!
My first hospital experience (with the shared room and the incontinent roommate), a TV would have helped a lot. This was pre-iPods etc, and I had nothing to distract me so I could get some sleep. It was hellish.
Things like a snoring roommate etc. - THAT is something hospitals really need to deal with. How the HELL are you supposed to recuperate when what little sleep the staff deigns to permit, your roommate prevents. I have tot be fair and say that my incontinent roommate wasn’t that big of a disturbance - but the concept of a potty chair 3 feet from my bed was disconcerting. I once shared a hotel room with another parent on a Girl Scout trip, and at one point she said “Oh yeah. I used to snore terribly. But I lost some weight and it’s a lot better!”. I was forced to tell her afterward that no, it really was NOT better and maybe she should look into a sleep study.
I had this too, which is why I think he found my commentary funny. There was one, yes, one black bean from the last meal I ate. The rest looked like the inside of a ribbed stocking.
When I went for a sleep study the sleep lab felt like a bizarre combination of a hospital and a cheap motel room. I was hooked up to way more wires and monitors than I’ve ever had in a hospital, had a camera on me, and was basically required to try to sleep fully clothed and on a different schedule. They wouldn’t give me an Ambien I spent several hundred dollars to get 7 minutes of sleep and they wanted to do a follow-up with Ambien because they didn’t get any useful data.
