I was pleased when this office was able to schedule me for a Laser Lithotripsy procedure to split a large kidney stone within one week of getting a referral. Their outpatient surgery center was nice and clean and the front desk staff were great. That's it for the good stuff.
On surgery day, I arrived before the 12:45 arrival time, and I was rolled back into the pre-surgery area just before 2:00. This area was freezing cold. I'm guessing it was probably 60 degrees of blowing air in there. Not the place to be wearing a stupid gown and cheap hospital blankets. It was horrible. The nurse blew out a vein in my hand on her first IV pic try.
My procedure was supposed to start at 2:15, but I soon noticed that patients that arrived after me were being taken first. Turns out they pretty much lied to me about the procedure start time and I was the last surgery of the day which started at 4:00, so I spent 2 hours in that torturous freezer, listening to people that arrived after me go into surgery before me. Seemed like a psychological experiment.
Surgery went well I guess and ended at about 5:00. The surgeon didn't have the courtesy to speak with me about how it went afterwards. I asked the nurse if the doctor had called in scrips for pain, nausea, anti-biotics and she said she thought he did. Turns out he didn't. So they pushed me out the door with a now 4mm kidney stone between my kidney and my bladder that I needed to pass, with no pain management. They literally were turning out the lights as I left.
This is my first experience with a kidney stone, and after getting home I experienced the completely debilitating pain during and after urination. It got so bad that at midnight, I had to go to a hospital ER near my home where they gave me some morphine, did a new CT scan to make sure my stent didn't migrate, and gave me scrips for pain, inflammation control, anti-nausea, and anti-biotics.
Overall, it was a horrible experience. read more