I went in for a scheduled surgery, a very invasive operation. I had met with the surgeon a few times beforehand so I knew what to expect with respect to the surgery.
It went well, I woke up in ICU, had a couple of difficult days there. One idiot ICU nurse insisted I make my bed! Sure, a guy with 11 lines in his body was told to make his bed. I told her to f off and grow a brain.
Another ICU nurse was determined a give me another IV. When I questioned why she said someone might need it. I told her when it's needed I'll allow it. This same nurse later told me she was suffering from congestive heart failure. She huffed and puffed more than I do when I was walking around the ICU floor.
Finally I was placed in a ward. A nice semi-private. For some reason that only lasted a day at most. I was then switched to a 3 bed ward. My first night there was unpleasant, the other occupant was moved out in the evening, the third bed was empty but neither scenario stayed that way for long. A young guy was moved into my room, I learned he was admitted via ER when he collapsed there and needed emergency surgery to remove a large chunk of big intestine due to Chron's. He was pretty quiet as he was out of it.
In the wee hours a porter delivered the 3rd occupant to my room. The porter treated the man like trash, handling him roughly and banging him around. Considering the patient had a broken hip and was aged the porter was a cruel idiot for how he acted.
This new patient cried and moaned loudly all night long due to pain. He kept me awake all night. Staff could do nothing for him until a Dr. saw him.
The next few days were a nightmare of daily xrays, having blood drawn, getting needles for blood thinning, being told to use puffers, practice breathing and all the while unable to eat or drink anything and unable to sleep because of all the lines in and out of my body AND the constant moaning of the man with the broken hip in the third bed. Staff were really annoyed with him because he was constantly yanking out his catheter and generally making demands for attention 24/7. To be fair, hey, broken hip, old man, not enough pain killing and he's going to act up.
Speaking of pain killing everyone around me was getting better pain relief than I was. My PAC morphine pump was always malfunctioning or running out. I spent long time periods waiting for my machine to get serviced or filled and my pain level would creep up. Slowly they reduced the number of lines I had attached, but I still couldn't get comfortable enough to have a proper sleep. This went on for a week until I passed a test that allowed me to graduate to eating pureed foods and drinking liquids. Thank goodness, I was going nuts not being able to consume anything by mouth.
For my second week here I was a lot more lucid and realized the staff were really dedicated to looking after me and making sure I was getting well. I lost a few more lines but sleeping was still just a series of naps here and there. The old man with the broken hip made such a disturbance I told the nurses either move me or him as I couldn't handle his middle of the night cries for attention. They moved him. The young Chron's patient was happy to see him go also. There was still a nurse or two that tried to open up another IV for reasons they couldn't elucidate so I flat out said no.
The days were long and boring, the nurses did their thing on a regular basis, I saw the residents or my surgeon each morning to be told how well I was doing. More lines came out, the drain lines from my chest hurt like hell coming out. I was down to a feeding tube and PAC via my RH IV. Gone was even the nasty nasogastric tube.
Then came an army of rehab type people, a dietician and home care coodinator, all wanting to set me up so when I went home I'd have proper care. A nice touch which made me feel good but in reality I struggled and suffered terribly at home for the first 6 weeks.
The hospital is an old building and shows it's age. It's dirty, with black mold in the bathroom, things are broken, look crappy, and the place felt like 55F during the Feb cold snap. we had to ask for blankets and those out of it who couldn't ask simply went cold. It never dawned on me to ask so I just froze.
Every nurse I had, except for one lazy girl, would help me when I called, they were patient with me, would help arrange my lines, fix my morphine pump, bring me new bedpans, empty the old and generally all around were kind and said things that encouraged me to feel good.
If I had to spend time in this hospital again I could handle it knowing how decrepit it is. It's the staff that matter and I give them high marks, from my surgeon to housekeeping. Do watch out though, there are people there, like the porter that delivered the old man to my room, and the lazy nurse in my ward, that should not be working in health care with people. read more