Revealing the Hospital Scandal

Okay, so it's not exactly a scandal. Last week while I was waiting to go home -- and I seriously could not get out of there fast enough -- I wrote a short blog in which I alluded to some really bad behavior from several of the hospital staff charged with my care. I had never been to that facility and will never go there again. I haven't been dwelling on it, but I thought I'd share. Tomorrow is my post-op follow-up and I'm deciding how much of it I will share with my doctor -- especially since he was part of the problem. I should have known something was up when he moved up my surgery day with no regard for how it might affect my plans or might inconvenience me and my sources of help.

I know I have crappy veins, and I have learned to live with it. I feel worse for the nurses/technicians trying to take my blood or insert an IV than I do for myself. I'm used to it. I showed up an hour earlier than I needed to for my prep. I know that the more dehydrated I become, the harder it is to get the veins. Four different nurses tried for a total of an hour before asking the anesthesiologist. He wasn't an "ordinary" anesthesiologist but the one who does the nerve block. Even with his guiding sonogram machine, he wasn't able to get a vein on the first two tries. He said, "We'll try one more time, but we may have to put it in your neck." I responded, "While I'm awake?" I had to have this done once before but was knocked out with gas first. When he said, "Yes," I asked if I would be given something to help me relax first. Keep in mind that this vein-finding mission had been going on for more than an hour and I was a little tense and frustrated. He said, "If that's something you can't deal with thinking about, you don't have to have your surgery today." I felt like I'd been slapped in the face. Fortunately, he was able to get the vein -- in my arm -- on that third try. The nurses who had heard what he said wouldn't make eye contact with me. I could tell they felt bad.

The two other incidents weren't as bad -- and I don't want to write a book here about my negative experience -- but in aggregate they made for the absolute worst hospital experience I've ever had. I know that hospital staff deals with surgery and medical issues all day every day, but they need to remember that patients don't. It's a scary and vulnerable time, and I'm not usually a scared or vulnerable person. I think I good segue into my conversation with my doctor could be the bruises of varying color that line both of my arms and the backs of both hands (where veins were blown out). Ultimately, what matters most is that the surgery was successful, and I until tomorrow I'm just assuming it was. My doctor never talked with me afterwards, so I'm not sure. My friend said, "You're not going back to that doctor, are you?!" I feel like I have to since he is the one who did the surgery, but I won't after I complete my post-op period. I'm not especially demanding, but I do feel that I should be treated with respect and compassion while I'm having a medical procedure done. That's not too much to ask for.