Appalling treatment in the hospital

[RHOV]

appalling treatment in the hospital

AgentX20 mentioned in another thread that he would wait to share his horrible hospital stories for another thread, so here it is!

what's the worst experience you've had while in the hospital? rude nurses? mix-ups? ten million blood draws from the same poor, bruised vein?

 

[jed]

i had an orderly that is slightly slow. he was a great guy, not very good with pronouncing medical names tho.

me and wifey saw him on his drug run, picking his nose and eating it.

thats all i have.

 

[merrywidow]

i got MRSA.
and was in hopsital for 6 and a half weeks.
sharon xx

 

[Agent X20]

I feel somehow responsible for this thread now! Don't want to give the impression that all hospitals are awful places and staffed by irresponsible bums! My wife is a medical professional and I know there are others on this forum.
But... my story happened in 1972... so I think I can safely let rip (so to speak)

I was only 14, but put in an adult ward, for some reason, the consultant I was under specialised in strokes and heart attacks (???). The wards in this corner of the hospital were huts... yes huts! And they were being re-decorated at the time, so the hut next to mine was closed and all the patients crammed into my ward. The other ward was a psycho geriatric ward... so I was mixed in with a load of old people... the more active ones were very dispruptive and regularly peed on the floor.
The heart attack/stroke patients seemed very old (to me at the time) and were dropping like flies... one guy died in the bed next to me in the night and was wasn't discovered until they tried to wake him for breakfast. His place was taken by a guy with a gangrenous leg, and he just screamed and moaned all night.
OK... it was a hospital, and it wasn't the fault of the patients, they were very ill... but why put a 14 year old kid in there?

I was back in the same ward about 9 months later... this time it had been re-furbished and everything was restored to normal. This time the problem was with the staff. This bit may be a bit familiar, but I was slowly starving to death and I think some of the nurses may have thought there was nothing wrong with me and I was "putting it on" - so I was threatened with being held down and fed through a rubber tube if I didn't get some food down me! Nice!
End of rant!

 

[Guest]

i could write a book with my numerous tales of horror in hospital.. i think the worst one by far was when i had just had my first resection operation...

i was back on the ward, wired up to a saline drip & morphine PCAS.. over the next 24 hours i started showing signs of being extremely poorly - i was screaming out in pain to begin with, then became very quiet and subdued, drifting in and out of consciousness.. my skin began to fill up with fluid, my lower jaw went into muscle spasm and locked, my temperature was soaring (i looked back at my charts weeks later and saw the ever-rising spike).. YET - my symptoms were ignored, i was dragged out of bed by two nurses who told me it was time i was up on my feet.. they dragged me the length of the ward, one nurse holding me up on each side, under my armpits. i fainted. got put back into bed. 48 hours after the first surgery, i was rushed back into theatre for a 2nd, then the next day a 3rd.. then taken by ambulance & police escort to another hospital, and put in ICU for over a week.

i had peritonitis and septicaemia.

i survived. just. but no thanks to that ward!

 

[jed]

agent, no guilt over this thread buddy. in the end, a lot of us wouldn't be here if there weren't good people in the hospitals

some bad happens tho, lets laugh about it

 

[Colt]

As for blood draws that is entirely the fault of your doctor. We as phlebotomists just get the orders and spend as much time fighting with the doctors, nurses, and unit clerks to avoid unessesary sticks as we do doing our actual job.

Just a few minutes ago we drew a woman who is a hard stick and then as we were walking off the floor the doctor ran up the hall and started asking us to draw her again. This is the 2nd morning in a row this has happened to this woman. We had to draw her but I hope that doctor remembers the dagger eyes and chewing out come tomorrow morning so that it doesn't happen again.

As for vein health, it's almost always the fault of the IVs. The needles we use for drawing blood are tiny and are only in a small hole for a minute or so. The IVs on the other hand are quite large, run a smaller tube through the vein for some distance, and they're in there wiggling around stretching and contorting the poor thing. It frustrates us to no end seeing a perfectly good vein ruined with scar tissue from an IV because good veins make our lives so much better.

On top of that, the nurses take the good veins. Your average person has 1 or 2 veins that are decent for sticking out of a total of 6 usable ones. The greedy nurses always put the IV in those veins leaving us with nothing to use. They may have an easy time putting that IV in but that IV was 1 stick. We have to stick you 5 times over the next 2 days and you're going to be a lot more unhappy if we have to go searching for an invisible vein 5 times over 1 time with the IV.

Oh, and after they've trashed that 1 good vein to the point that the IV no longer works and it will take ages for it to recover they move to that rather terrible but still remotely usable vein that we were using the last 2 days. Now you've got nothing reasonable to draw from but we're still obligated to try because that blood really is needed. This is also the point that we start going on tirades in the break room.

I know what my best vein is and I have a personal rule that I don't allow IVs to be put into it. My 2nd best vein is for IVs but that really good one isn't going to see anything bigger than a 23 guage butterfly needle.

Which brings me to a couple other things because I like to babble...

Ask for a butterfly needle. Straight needles are faster for the phlebotomist because they don't lose suction to the tubing but straight needles stretch and contort the vein and wiggle around with hand fidgeting and tube changing. When the older phlebotomists see a good vein they go right for the straight needle. It's what they are used to because the butterflies are new. It may not NEED a butterfly but if you want that vein around and healthy 10 years from now the butterfly will help.

And if the tape hurts you or causes a reaction ask for coban. Coban is more expensive so it'll be avoided unless you ask for it or it's really really needed. Coban is a brown wrinkled stretchy band that comes in a tape-like roll. There is no glue so it won't stick to your hair or skin. The wrinkles simply cause it to stick to itself through friction and static.

 

[CookieCat]

Wow Colt! I'm really tired so I was just going to read and not post, but felt I had to to say thanks!

I'm just like you said - I've got one really, really good vein that gets jabbed and jabbed and jabbed. Luckily it's held out so far (its a beauty!), but it has already got so many scars on the outside so god only knows what its like on the inside. I've been told it wont ever get scarred to the point it wont work anymore but do I trust them? Nup. Not one bit!:yrolleyes: That's the vein I usually end up with an IV in...

Then I've got the other slightly usable but trickier vein that usually winds up as the blood letting vein. It is big enough but 'wobbles' and can shift and cause problems. The rest of my veins are pretty shot. Takes so many attempts to get things happening.

So I appreciate your advice Colt. No more straight needles for me... and I'm saving up my little 'beauty' for blood letting only. Thing is, getting IVs in hurts more so in some ways I'd like to go straight for the good one and not have too many goes, but what you said makes heaps of sense.

As for hospital horror stories, yeah I've got a few... and you already know some of them. Being told I was 'slightly dehydrated and anxious' and didn't cope well with pain after my laparotomy and then finding out I had a liver abscess is prob. near the top of the list! But I've got heaps. Won't go into them right now - I just get angry. I have to say that even with the PICC line stuff up, they've been pretty good with me this time round. So can't complain too much...

And those doctors and nurses who are good are worth their weight in gold and make all the difference. Suspect you and Jan fall in that category Colt. One of my nurses who looked after me last year heard I was in and rang me to say she would visit over the weekend. And my gastro doc is always saying she has spoken to this or that specialist about my case or has been researching on the internet for me. That kind of caring goes above and beyond the call of duty. :thumright:

Cookie :cookie: (Oh wow! I just 'found' myself on here !!! Lol!)

 

[Agent X20]

Colt... just one point, I always prefer my blood to be taken by a phlebotomist... they're doing it all day long and I'd swear sometimes I don't feel anything at all. On the odd occasions when doctors take blood... watch out! Ouch! I nearly fainted once... a doctor was in there so long, probing for a vein with the damn needle.

 

[katiesue1506]

Yeah... everytime a nurse does my blood draws they hurt like hell, and I'm a very easy stick... the phlebotomists are just in and out and done quick like that. Nurses take forever, miss the vein the first time, pick the most obscure vein, and then freak out when they blow it. **shakes head**

My past Remicade infusion will have been my worst hospital story. I get there and theres this new IV nurse (new to the hospital, but not to the game) She has me sit down and not only did I have to remind her to weigh me, but also to give my Benedryl and Tylenol, and the take my BP and temp. Then I reminded her that I needed to have blood drawn first and she said okay. She let the phlebotomist draw my blood BEFORE running my IV line... which if she'd just set me up with and IV line in the first place I'd only had to have one stick. I also had to tell her about all the bubbles she was allowing in my IV lines. Instead of just unhooking the line and letting the saline run all the bubbles out, she felt it was a good idea to hook a syringe up to my line and suck the bubbles out as they hit the syringe. She ended up sucking the blood out of my arm and into my line, three times. Now, my dad's very squeamish so throughout this whole process I'm trying to make sure he's not looking at my IV lines, because he WILL pass out.

Then the IV nurse starts programming my IV pump and it won't start. It keeps beeping at her. She messes with it for 20 minutes and it still won't work. THEN my favorite IV nurse walks into work for the day and I give her this grimace. She comes over and is like "oh! you have the wrong filter on her lines, that's why it won't start" So my favorite nurse starts me up and even unhooks my lines to run the bubbles out. I heart her so much!

After all of this, and an hour later, my Remicade finally starts and it ends up taking a total of 4.5 hours for the infusion. While all this was happening the bad IV nurse keeps saying to me "don't worry I know what I'm doing" "don't worry, those bubbles won't kill you" "don't worry I'm just having a bad day" and she's freakin' out. HELLO... telling me that you know what you're doing and not to worry makes me WORRY!

She was suprised to see my heart rate at 125 when she checked it... YEAH you didn't freak me out or anything! GRR...

 

[CookieCat]

Oh poor little Kimberlie! That is just sooo damned wrong, to treat a sick child like that! I'd like to go back in time and give that nurse a piece of my mind! (((HUGS)))

I know I said before they've been pretty good here, but I'm gonna have a whinge. Yeah, I understand they are busy and they have other patients etc. etc..... but waiting over an HOUR before my buzzer was answered and I finally got pain relief??? I ended up sobbing by the time they came!!! :ymad: And yeah, I did buzz more than once.... didn't overdo it like one of the buzzer-happy patients in here, but just enough to remind them if they weren't near the nurses station when i buzzed.

Not at all happy!!! :ymad:

 

[MINI Cooper]

I suppose I can formulate a list....:ylol2:

•Went into ER 4 times before they noticed the GIGANTIC abcess that was
my appendix in a CT scan. Despite this, they didn't want to do anything about it.
My father was there, luckily, since I was barely conscious with the pain, and
DEMANDED they do surgery. What did they say afterward? "oh, it's a good thing WE
decided to go in and operate!" My dad held his tongue, somehow.

•Dropped to 74 pounds before the hospital would finally admit me to put
a picc line in. This was after my mom brought me into member services
crying her eyes out because her child was dying and the hospital would do
nothing about it. I waited for 3 days before they could even locate a picc
nurse to do the procedure.

•The first time they did the dressing change on my picc line, it was a nurse
who didnt know what she was doing- it was her FIRST time. She forgot the
antibacterial pad that goes over the injection site. She finishes, then comes
back in and says "OOPS, we did it wrong and have to do it ALL over again!"
It was very painful. I just sat there and cried in frustration.

•When my picc line got clogged, went to ER and they said, "we don't know anything
about picc lines, so we aren't allowed to touch it. You'll have to come back
into oncology in the morning." Nice. When I'm DEAD??? ER knows NOTHING in my
book, already seen from 4 misdiagnosis of the appendix.

•I can't even count the number of times nurses have tried to 'stick' me
and did nothing but bust every vein. Even with the ultrasound. The worst
was when they tried 8 times and while they were doing it, SHE WAS ON HER
CELL PHONE!!!! She's lucky I was drugged and couldn't move. My question is
why does Kaiser ALWAYS have trouble with my veins and blame me for it,
while Stanford has found a vein first try every time?

•And as for this last visit, they had discharged me, I was dressed, husband
has left work to pick me up, I was about to exit when the doc comes in
and says "OOPS, we forgot to consult with your stanford doctor- he wants
you to stay longer. Nothing like tasting freedom, just to have the door
slammed back in front of your face. The nurses felt bad, not their fault,
it was my Kaiser doctor.

I'm sure I have left out stuff, but I will spare you all :tongue:
But it sure does feel good to vent sometimes!

 

[RHOV]

when i was on imuran, i needed blood draws every few weeks. the gi office set up a standing order for my labs at my local clinic, but every time i went in, they couldn't find them. i had to go back multiple times over 2-3 days until it was all worked out. sometimes they drew blood for the wrong lab, too.

after my first colonoscopy when they took me out of the recovery room, they took me to the wrong family. awkward. and i had even managed to tell them where my dad was! they didn't listen to me.

 

[amor151]

i was in hospital on a liquid diet through a NG tube for about 9 days around 2 months ago and i couldn't believe how clueless one nurse in particular was. the first time i had her she forgot to make me my modulen so i pressed the buzzer, she came in and i told her it was time for me to have it. she said she would be back in a minute with the modulen and set it up through my NG tube. and hour later with no repsonse i pressed the buzzer again and she came in asking me what i wanted this time. i reminded her about the modulen and she said she was just getting roung to it. 5 minutes later she comes in and says "right ive never made this modulen before and there are no nurses free would you mind walking to the kitchen with me and making it yourself?" i couldn't believe she had asked me that as at the time i was in agony and getting up and walking to the kitchen was not something i was willing to do. so she simply shrugged her shoulders and said "you'll have to wait then". when a nurse finally helped her make it she forgot to turn the drip on, i pressed the buzzer again and after 15 minutes a male nurse came in and said he would get my nurse immediately. by this time i am absolutely starving and in agony ive not had any food in so long. 30 minutes later she comes in, presses ONE button and the drip works. my dad came and complained and we were assured we would not have this nurse again.
2 days later and everything has been fine when incomes the nurse from hell. turns out ive got her for the next 8 hours, oh joy. after forgetting to give me my tablets and then giving me paracetamol instead of pentasa i finally get them. she then forgets that she has to take my blood pressure, tempurature etc. hourly and at the end of her shift proceeds to make up the results!

another one was when i went in for an endoscopy but had a bad reaction to the picolax which resulted in my stomach spasming for 2 or 3 hours. because of this i was kept overnight in a ward with 3 other beds. in two of the beds there were kids around my age and in the bed next to me there was a baby and a young mother. Nearly all the time i was in there the woman had her TV on what must have been almost full volume even if she wasnt watching it making sleep almost impossible. when she eventually decided to turn it off and go to sleep at 11pm everything was fine....until about 3. the woman was sick and called a nurse over which woke me up. i wasn't too annoyed by this as i assumed she might have been ill as she was in hospital. turns out she is perfectly healthy and its her baby whom is ill and her reason for throwing up was those "2 bigmacs she had earlier" the nurse decides to move the mother and daughter to another bed as hers is ruined which is fair enough...except she does not clean up the bed next to me which now REAKS of sick to such an extent that i was almost sick myself. i asked the nurse if she would clean the bed but she said that was the cleaners job who doesnt come in till 8am and there were no free beds for me to move to. i only really had one option and that was sleep head down in my pillow to block out the horrendous smell......hospitals. im only 15 and im pretty sure ive got a few more of these experiences to look forward to.....i can hardly wait

 

[CookieCat]

Amor151, your experience of the nurse asking you how to prepare the modulen brought back one of my nastier experiences...

When I had one colonoscopy, the doctor said I could have the Fleet prep put down my PEG - brilliant, I thought as I hate the taste! Then the nurse comes in and says, 'Well, how do you do this?' Ummm.... I'm like - 'Well, you're the nurse!" :eek2: So she spends the next half hour reading the instructions, and finally mixes it and puts it down the PEG....

A few hours later and I am in agony with severe cramps like nothing I've had before with preps. I suddenly get a sneaking suspicion and pull out the leaflet that came with the prep. Sure enough, she mixed it up wrong and didn't put enough water with it..... aaarrrrrrgggghhhh!!!!!

Let's just say I was well and truly 'cleaned out'!

 

[GregD]

A few months ago, my Iron count was really low, so I had to go in for a series of Iron infusions. I used to be an EMT, and spent a lot my time in training using my arm as a pin cushion, so needles don't really bother me. I also have pretty good veins and people rarely have trouble getting a line in.

Anyway, on my 2nd or 3rd infusion, the tech put in the IV and it seemed to be working fine. They put combine Benedryl with the iron, so I fell asleep pretty quickly after the line went in. I woke up about 20 minutes later with some of the worst pain I had ever felt in my arm. I looked down to see a sack of fluid the size of a baseball hanging off my arm (it had the consistency of a water balloon and I could hear the fluid sloshing around when I moved). It turned out that the tech went right through my vein and the IV fluid was draining directly into my arm. It took a good day or two for the fluid to dissipate and my whole arm was black and blue for a few weeks.

Another, albeit more humorous experience was when I went into the hospital and was getting prepped for surgery. They had a med school student set my IV. She was clearly very new at this and had to keep sticking me over and over. At the time, I was much more preoccupied with the thought of getting several feet of intestine cut out to really care about a few pricks with a tiny needle. My grandmother however, who was in the room at the time and can be very protective, was livid. She let this poor girl have it, yelling things not appropriate to repeat on this forum. The girl ran out of the room crying and I wouldn't be surprised if she dropped out of medical school because it. I felt pretty bad for her.

-Greg

 

[Colt]

Understand that in hospitals there are a lot of really unusual things that come up just based on the sheer number of procedures, medications, etc, that can be done and it's pretty much impossible for everyone to have been fully trained to do everything. There's so many different things that you're pretty much guaranteed to do something for the first time at least once a week for your entire career. I have to admit that nurses get it the worst. They're expected to be able to do the job of anyone in the hospital yet their overcrowded training means that they were only ever able to cover each topic once for about 10 minutes. Some people deal with those new or unusual things better than others and even then everyone has off days.

I've even had days where I can't hit the broad side of a barn with my needle and then the next day I can hit a vein that no one else in the hospital has been able to get all day long, even using ultrasound. It's no different for even the best of us. The best phlebotomist I know refuses to admit to a patient that he's any good because that's going to be the one stick where everything goes wrong for no apparent reason.

Don't decide someone's terrible at their job based on one bad day or one bad procedure. That nurse that didn't know how to mix fleet soda may be the best damn IV nurse in the hospital and you'll appreciate her when she saves you from 5 dried up IVs and an extra 20 sticks.

If someone's bumbling around though don't be afraid to ask politely if they wouldn't mind having someone else do it today. Chances are they'll be fine next time if it's just a fluke day. If they're still having problems then you can start figuring out if they always have trouble. I had an incident a while back where I'd missed my prednisone and I was pretty much breaking down physically. I was being clumsy as hell just getting my stuff ready and the patient asked if someone else could do it. She was getting nervous (she had good veins and I would have stuck her just fine regardless or I wouldn't have started) and she knew the name of someone who had done it in the past so it worked out. It wasn't her saying I'm scum and get away it was her especially liking someone else and requesting them. That turns a potentially humiliating and career damaging thing (every time you ask someone to do something for you it prints another letter on your pink slip) into a face saving and for the other person positive and ego boosting thing for the other person. I wasn't offended. What ran through my head was "thank god, I need a break."

Also take into account that hospitals are so extremely rule driven that no one can do anything except for the person who does it. Do something that's not your job and you'll be written up for it. It gets really ridiculous but there are reasons for it. I can't get someone a drink while I'm in their room. The reason is that it could come to light later on that person was supposed to be NPO. It makes me look like an ass but no one is allowed to know anything other than the absolute minimum they need to know for their job (to protect the patient's privacy of course) which means that if I do anything outside of my job I'm probably doing so without enough knowledge to keep from getting the hospital sued. Even something as simple as getting someone a drink or elevating their head on the bed.

 

[CookieCat]

Hi Colt,

Point taken. In general, as I said on another thread, I do try to be understanding and accepting of nurses and remember that they are human like everyone else. I am generally known as an 'easy patient', will always make my own tea/coffee if I can, keep my own bm chart etc. to make their lives easier.

The mess up with my PICC line might have been due to the fact that the doctor who did it was only an intern and it was his first time. But I don't blame him for it. It could have gone wrong even with the top doc doing it; I could just be a difficult person to put a PICC line into. I do feel frustrated that the mess up could have been avoided if the hospital was bigger and had more equipment (like mobile ultrasound), but that is a funding gripe and not a personal one....

However, the Nurse I had who didn't know how to mix the fleet seemed to be incompetent on every level. She would ask me about my meds, about my PEG feed etc. etc. Yes, she may have been trying to involve me in my own care, but it came across that she didn't know what she was doing and I certainly didn't feel safe whenever she was on shift. After I got the PEG in, I wasn't told not to eat and so I tried some soup thinking it was the right thing - only to be doubled over in agony 20 mins later. I rang the buzzer and this nurse appeared and just panicked and said she didn't know what was wrong. My Mom had to ask her to go get help.

Yes, in hindsight, I should have asked the nurse to ask someone else to do the Fleet prep when it was obvious she wasn't sure what she was doing. But I didn't want to seem rude and I thought she would be able to read the instructions at least! That's what I mean on the other thread when I say that sometimes I am a little too accepting and patient - I sometimes get ignored because they know I won't kick up a fuss. I have to learn to be a bit more assertive I guess.

As for the rules that stop you doing other peoples' jobs - I understand why they are there, but they are frustrating for patients and for the staff aren't they?

By the way, for the record Colt, from my experience you 'vampire nurses' are usually amongst the nicest and I have a lot of respect for your skills! Still I am very happy that my daily bloods can be taken out of the PICC line now - a definite bonus!

 

[Colt]

Thank you for the compliment. When you inflict pain on people all day long a sense of humor and politeness go a very long way toward making you job easier. In fact, a sense of humor was listed as a requirement for hire. Seriously.

You start out on a bad footing just because of what it is you're there to do. If you can't put your patient as ease they're very likely going to jump when you stick them and cause some serious problems, and they're going to be nervous and it's going to hurt them a lot more. So most of us consider our bedside manner pretty important.

PICC lines are great. Especially since I don't even draw from them (they're the complete responsibility of that patient's nurse) so someone else does all the work for me on those. The only exception is blood cultures which have to be completely sterile so they require 2 fresh sticks every time they're ordered. Then they're a pain in the ass because, like IVs, they usually rob me of a perfectly good vein.

Usually the nurses try to talk their way out of using the PICC line too just because they don't want to take the time out of their day to do it but we're pretty hard line on stuff like that. One of the fun things about this job is that we chew out higher ranked people and people making 10x our salary all day long and we get away with it because they're not really in our chain of command.

Oh, and another thing with the IVs is that patients constantly ask "Why can't you just get it out of the IV? Are you sadistic?" That one always breaks my heart. I really wish we could. Unfortunately that IV is contaminated with medication and would ruin our tests and the IVs are built for things going in, not coming out, so there's a serious risk of ruining the IV or even causing a nasty infection.

The only time we can take advantage of the IV is right as it's being put in. As soon as they finish putting it in it's all over. I've walked into numerous rooms right as the nurse was on their way out and had a collective 'Oh crap. Too late.' with the nurse.

If someone is really bad make sure you use whatever customer survey/report system your hospital has to pass the word. Just be polite about it. No one takes a note saying "That bitch took all my blood" seriously. Anyway, their supervisor needs to know so that they can get some help learning these things. The last thing anyone wants to do at work is ask for help because it makes you look like you can't do your job (true or not) and no one wants to lose their job.

A note simply stating the facts of how whoever mishandled whatever goes a long way toward making sure it doesn't happen next time. They'll probably just be instructed on how to do it properly, have someone walk them through it the next time, or something like that because frankly the supervisor doesn't want to be understaffed unless they think that employee is actually dangerous. If that person really isn't capable of handling high risk hospital work then it's better that they end up in a nursing home or home care than lose their license or end up in jail for a fatal mistake.

My own mother's that way. She's just not a good enough nurse that I would feel comfortable having her handling complex procedures in a hospital though she's been in that situation a lot and it's caused her a lot of problems. For more simple things though she's fine and she's very good with making sure procedure is followed and keeping people in line. I have no trouble having her supervising a bunch of nurse aides, I just wouldn't want her putting an IV or definitely a PICC line into me. That's not the kind of job she's suited for. Frankly nursing is such a broad job that it causes some very dangerous skill mismatches. They need to cut out half of the materiel they teach them and use that 2nd half to train them in specialties or certifications like IV nursing, administrative nursing, long term care nursing, etc.


I realize I'm in large part just randomly babbling about stuff but I figure the more information I can give you guys the better perspective you can have on if the hospital staff are doing a good job or not. A lot of things really aren't our fault like really loose or small veins, and other things really are our fault and you guys chalk it up to bad luck. Plus I like to read my own words. It's an ego thing.

 

[drew_wymore]

The only time I've had a bad bit at the hospital was back in 2005 when I developed pneumonia pretty rapidly. It went from a cough to full blown within 3 days. I visited my GP 3 times over the course of 3 days and had a whole bag of meds and they did nothing, the 3rd visit on a Sunday they did a chest xray and 4 of the 5 lobes were full of fluid, I got a shot of Rochephin (sp?) and the next day still wasn't feeling better and my temp spiked to 104.7 so I went to the ER. The triage nurse took my vitals and asked what was wrong and I told her I had pneumonia and she says "how do you KNOW?" and I said well the chest xray my doctor did showed it. I waited for about 2 hours before I saw a doctor, when they hooked up the O2 machine and found that my O2 readings were in the mid to low 70's ... they got their ass in gear and things went pretty good from there with the exception of the attending physician accusing me of having AIDS because there was no way a 26 year old would get pneumonia, blood tests proved him wrong ;-)

 

[Colt]

Oh, I forgot to post about this earlier but the reason nurses are urged to get your out of bed even when you're completely miserable is that laying down for extended periods of time will give you pneumonia due to gravity and drainage issues. That and bed sores. There is so much fear about bed-rest pneumonia because it really happens fast and gets very severe if not taken care of. It's one of the major causes of death for nursing home residents.

 

[CookieCat]

Hi again Colt,

Thank you for your perspective. I had thought about the position people your job are in before, but you do make it even clearer and it helps to understand. (((HUGS))) to you for your bad days when the patients (and other staff) give you hass and make you feel like a big meanie!!!

I always try to get a grip on where people are coming from and appreciate the skills they've got rather than the ones they haven't. I had a lovely nurse this morning - not so much what she did for me but they way she handled the moaning man in the next room. Because she treated him with patience and respect but still told him when she needed to get on with other things he was a lot quieter and more managable. Made for a happier ward all round, I can tell you!

I also agree with getting out of bed. They don't want me exercising too much and burning off too many calories, but I dont want to lose the muscle tone I've got. So I am taking a daily walk around the ward when my Mom comes and can wheel the drip pole with me, and doing stretches when I can. I would rather go through a bit of pain and discomfort than pneumonia, bed sores and further muscle wastage! Sometimes nurses have got to be 'cruel to be kind'... but there is a right and a wrong way of doing it, hey?

The nurses also have to take the blood out of my PICC but they've been pretty good about it. And the 'vampire nurses' get a big smile when I say I've got a PICC.... wonder why?? Lol.....

Drew, pneumonia sucks. I had it a couple of years ago - I can never see how they say it's a peaceful way to die now! Apart from one stage that I got so sick of coughing I wanted to die! At least they treated you right once you got the diagnosis.

 

[RHOV]

thanks for all the insight colt! i think you'll prevent a lot of unnecessary animosity towards nurses!

 

[Colt]

Oh, don't get me wrong. A lot of nurses are just jerks and make no effort to be compassionate. But, they're instructed to get their patients out of bed if at all possible for good reason. I don't know why they never explain that when they try to get people to go for walks or whatever. It's very clearly laid out and well explained to nurses and nurse aids in their training. It should be common knowledge.

 

[Guest]

i think what some nurses don't realise, when a patient is very poorly or worried, is that their attitude to the patient makes a massive impact. often, the doctors are too busy or unapproachable to ask for information/reassurance, so the nurses are our only avenue..

i have witnessed both sides of this - when i was recovering from my surgery, the nurses on my ward became my best friends for that surreal part of my life - i called them my real life angels - always put time aside for me to cry on their shoulder, or sit and talk to me in the bath because i was so wobbly and weak..

but i've also had the bad experiences.. one in particular was when i got taken in with a bowel obstruction only a few years ago.. i was vomiting, in bad pain, my stomach was swelling alarmingly, and every hour right through the night i was being taken for an xray to see how much the bowel was swelling.. they talked about surgery being on the cards if it got any worse. there was one male nurse on my ward that night, and i asked him what would happen if the obstruction didn't start to clear itself. he replied they'd have to operate to remove it.. but then they probably wouldn't be able to get my swollen bowel back inside me. i asked, then what??? he just shrugged and walked away.