I'm Switched!!!!

[writegirl]

You sound like "Wonder Woman"! I'm thrilled you're doing so well. Welcome!

Oh believe me, I'm no Wonder Woman. Yesterday was difficult all day because I had a nurse who liked to withhold my pain medicine until I was all but begging. The night before (on day of my surgery) the night nurse was awesome. She gave me dilaudid in between my doses of hydrocodone. But the day nurse the following day made me respond to 20 questions about my pain level each time before she would give up the fucking hydrocodone. At one point, she told me that "Plenty of patients get your surgery and have no pain medicine afterward " She then snipped " And they don't ask for it either. And you,re no longer allowed to have dilauded between doses as the surgeon only permits that during the first 24 hours." And then, "People get addicted to that hydrocodone, so we have to watch how much you're taking."

I then reminded her that my surgeon has prescribed "that hydrocodone" for me to take every four hours. I shouldn't have to get an inquisition every time I need the pain medicine he trusts and, in fact, had me fill to have at home post-op. You're supposed to make sure I get it every four hours, not question whether or not I need it.

She still made me wait forever before getting it for me and I had to ask for it each time. The problem with that aside from just the pain (which doesn't go away with the pain meds, but is merely reduced) is that because the area below my ribs is so tender and swollen, I'm having a hard time breathing deeply. It scares the shit out of me to be taking shallow breaths after major surgery because I could wind up with blood clots in my lungs or pneumonia. I explained that to her and assured her I don't want to get addicted to narcotics-- that I don't even take Tylenol. She nodded like she understood me, but that did not inspire her to get me my meds any quicker when I asked for them.

The result is that I'm still breathing shallowly. I had the same great night nurse so I explained what happened all day and she said that I should ignore that other nurse. Still, even she questioned how much pain med my surgeon prescribed. I'm afraid they're gonna try to make Boyce think that I'm trying to get too much medicine for pain, so I touched it out all night. I got my last pain med around 10:45 PM and didn't ask for another until 6:00 this morning. When I asked, the night nurse said "You're way overdue" and I said "I tried toughing it out, but I've reached the absolute limit." And she said "Oh, don't do that--we don't want you doing that."

I maybe got a little snippy with my response because I told her point blank--you could have asked if I was in pain all night, but you didn't. After yesterday, y'all have me feeling like I'm wrong for asking.

I woke up at 3:00 AM and walked the halls a bunch of times and walked them again at 6 AM when I finally asked. First thing out of day nurse's mouth today was "I see she just gave you pain medicine at 6:15. What's your pain level now. When I said 4 she said "It's probably gas."

Yes, of course. My pain wouldn't have anything to do with my guts being resectioned--must be gas.

 

[southernlady]

That day nurse needs to be reported, esp for making you feel like your pain isn't worth controlling.

I had to escalate an issue to Dr. Boyce at one point cause the nurses were "just following orders" and not thinking. Didn't occur to Boyce to amend his "standing" order on how to drink fluids until I talked to him.

I have Familial Essential Tremors, first noticed at 10-12 and they have gotten worse over the years. So drinking out of a medicine cup meant I wore most of the water on my gown. Once I brought it to his attention he amended the order to allow me a regular cup or one with a lid. The idea of the medicine cup was to limit you to small sips.

 

[southernlady]

BTW, Dr. Boyce mentored with Dr. Smith who was in Atlanta and moved to FL.

 

[Caitlunn]

@writegirl yeah, I would be taking down names, for sure. I'm not normally a big fan of reporting bad behavior to bosses, if I feel like someone is just having an "off" day, but clearly this is an ongoing issue. Sure, I guess being stingy with pain medication makes sense in a kind of screwy way, but seeing as how most bariatric patients have been psych evaled to the teeth by the time they actually hit surgery, you would think they would maybe cut you some slack.

If these nurses deal with post DS patients all the time, do they know what the anatomy of one looks like? That's a lot of moving around your guts! Which means pain!

I hope you're feeling much better soon and heading home, where you can manage your own damn pain, lol

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Congrats..and I feel your pain.

Or, maybe it's my pain. I had to deal with a cranky nuclear med technician yesterday for a nuclear cardiac scan. Without giving her any reasons, I wanted to know how many times and for how long I was going to be positioned somewhere and would be unable to move. (Interstitial Cystitis, the bladder thing, likes me to pee very often and SIBO, which has caused diarrhea DAILY since December, has its own time schedule.) She "reassured" me that she does this every day and she's never forgotten anyone on the table.

She may be competent as a technician, but there was apparently no test for compassion.

YOUR NURSE, otoh, failed the test for human decency and needs to be reported to administration.

 

[JackieOnLine]

I have met more than one nurse who feels it's their duty to cut back on all those BAD drugs people want to take because they weak willed or whatever the hell their reasoning is. makes no sense, but then a lot of nurses smoke cigarettes. what the hell?

some of them, at least, seem to get off on the power.


do you get to go home soon?

 

[GenJones]

Congrats on making it through! Your day nurse needs to go back to nursing school. Post-surgery patients need pain medicine on a reliable basis, no stretching out the time periods. Night nurse sounds much more reasonable. Good luck going home!

 

[Munchkin]

Take all the pain meds you need. And report that nurse too!

 

[Larra]

I would also report that nurse, and I don't make suggestions like that lightly. Being in pain like that hinders your recovery. And it's not as though you asked for something more than what your doctor prescribed, and one hopes he knows about little things like addiction, the ongoing epidemic of people drug addiction, and such. She decided in her infinite wisdom, that she knew more about how to prescribe pain meds than he did. I have great respect for the nursing profession, but she was wrong to fail to follow doctor's orders. If she felt you were overmedicated or that his orders were out of line, she could have discussed this with him. Clearly that never happened.

 

[writegirl]

That day nurse needs to be reported, esp for making you feel like your pain isn't worth controlling.

I had to escalate an issue to Dr. Boyce at one point cause the nurses were "just following orders" and not thinking. Didn't occur to Boyce to amend his "standing" order on how to drink fluids until I talked to him.

I have Familial Essential Tremors, first noticed at 10-12 and they have gotten worse over the years. So drinking out of a medicine cup meant I wore most of the water on my gown. Once I brought it to his attention he amended the order to allow me a regular cup or one with a lid. The idea of the medicine cup was to limit you to small sips.

Yeah, the night nurse lost it when she saw me sipping out of the numbered cup they give us for the protein shake. She was like "Oh no no no!" and scolded me, but her heart was in the right place. I still don't get it. If I was drinking from a numbered cup and knew where I started, I could tell how many ounces I drank by looking at where I finished.

 

[writegirl]

I would also report that nurse, and I don't make suggestions like that lightly. Being in pain like that hinders your recovery. And it's not as though you asked for something more than what your doctor prescribed, and one hopes he knows about little things like addiction, the ongoing epidemic of people drug addiction, and such. She decided in her infinite wisdom, that she knew more about how to prescribe pain meds than he did. I have great respect for the nursing profession, but she was wrong to fail to follow doctor's orders. If she felt you were overmedicated or that his orders were out of line, she could have discussed this with him. Clearly that never happened.

I agree wholeheartedly and while I am glad it happened to me and I am a patient who was and is doing well and I had the presence of mind to argue with her, I can't help but think about the poor patient who is not doing well--the one struggling with every breath. I know for a fact that there was another DS patient who got the surgery the day after me--I know because we are FB friends on my surgeon's group page. I never saw him up and walking. Every time I passed his room and the door was open, I could see he was trying to sleep but his face was twisted with agony. I got scared that she may be doing the same thing to him and he is definitely a heavy weight. I did let Dr. Boyce know that she was withholding my pain meds. I could tell by his expression that I wasn't the first to tell him this.

It was around 12:30-1:00 by the time I was discharged. I hadn't had pain meds since 6 AM and when I asked the tech who takes the IV stuff out of your skin whether I should request another pain med before I left he said "Oh, you probably don't want to do that because it will delay your release." So, basically the attitude is that it is better to let patients leave the hospital while suffering. It's so frustrating.

 

[writegirl]

@writegirl yeah, I would be taking down names, for sure. I'm not normally a big fan of reporting bad behavior to bosses, if I feel like someone is just having an "off" day, but clearly this is an ongoing issue. Sure, I guess being stingy with pain medication makes sense in a kind of screwy way, but seeing as how most bariatric patients have been psych evaled to the teeth by the time they actually hit surgery, you would think they would maybe cut you some slack.

If these nurses deal with post DS patients all the time, do they know what the anatomy of one looks like? That's a lot of moving around your guts! Which means pain!

I hope you're feeling much better soon and heading home, where you can manage your own damn pain, lol

This morning, when she again did not give me my pain meds (told me it was too soon, too early) I asked her if she knew what procedure I had. She said "Yeah, BPD" I said "Do you know how complex that procedure is?" she just nodded and I got the distinct impression that she things this surgery is like the sleeve or the RnY.

 

[writegirl]

That day nurse needs to be reported, esp for making you feel like your pain isn't worth controlling.

I had to escalate an issue to Dr. Boyce at one point cause the nurses were "just following orders" and not thinking. Didn't occur to Boyce to amend his "standing" order on how to drink fluids until I talked to him.

I have Familial Essential Tremors, first noticed at 10-12 and they have gotten worse over the years. So drinking out of a medicine cup meant I wore most of the water on my gown. Once I brought it to his attention he amended the order to allow me a regular cup or one with a lid. The idea of the medicine cup was to limit you to small sips.

I'm sorry you went through that. Boyce was pretty responsive whenever I spoke to him, but surgeons can be a bit aloof. Their priorities are different than those of the patient. I hope that by telling him there was an issue with this nurse that he'll handle it.

 

[hilary1617]

Congratulations on a speedy and successful procedure and best wishes for an smooth recovery! Please remember to stay hydrated once released.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

This morning, when she again did not give me my pain meds (told me it was too soon, too early) I asked her if she knew what procedure I had. She said "Yeah, BPD" I said "Do you know how complex that procedure is?" she just nodded and I got the distinct impression that she things this surgery is like the sleeve or the RnY.

I had that happen about two years ago. Kidney stones. They told me that their protocol was that IF I got another injection of dilaudid, I'd have to stay four more hours, instead of getting out in an hour. I called Mr. Sue, advised him to bring both my oral dilaudid and my Norco ASAP, so I could decide when he got there. I took my own damned pills and went home in relative peace.

But...the hospital nurses don't work for Boyce. Hospital Administration needs to know about this chick. In writing. It might help someone like the man you mentioned.