your own champion - very long, sorry

Hi all,

I'm actually feeling alot better today -woohoo!   For those that dont know I finally made it home from the hospital yesterday (four days in) from surgery.  Dr. said that surgery went great.  they removed my band (it was severely scarred to my liver) and did a sleeve, all lap.  Surgery ended up taking about 3.5 hours starting at 2:30 (I had been there since 5:30am) but I really dont remember much till about 9:30pm.  About 2am they really got on me to start sipping and walking (which is good).  I couldn't keep any fluid down, kept vomiting, dry heaving etc.   Nurses kept telling me "well you have to have the leak test done so you have to keep this in"  I understand that but how do you keep it in when you're body is rejecting even water.   sigh.... so my stress level increased.  I was finally able to keep in about 3 oz of the contrast (supposed to have 10) and they whisked me down to radiology go get a pic before it all came back up again.  As soon as they were done,up it all came. I went back to my room and they kept giving me water, popsicles, broth etc,nothing is staying down.  Also during this time they gave me po pain meds because if I cant stomach it at the hospital then I wont at home.  I get this, but like I said I CANT KEEP ANYTHING DOWN.  It's now after 4pm the next day, my iv blows, it takes them 11 tries to get the next one and had to send for what they call the "swat nurse" to get it started.  My PA shows up and I'm telling her all this, she is getting more upset the more I'm telling her.  This was not being relayed to my doctors office.  They thought I was just having a little trouble with some nausea.  She goes out into the hall and I hear her basically "rip the nurses another one". She comes back in the room and I mentioned to her that they also only have my infusion pump set to 30ml per hour and for someone who is as dehydrated as I am shouldn't they be pushing as much fluid in an hour as they can.  She looks, goes back into the hall and the process begins again.  I kind of felt sorry for the nurses, but kind of not.  I understand you have doctors orders but sometimes things fall outside the norm and you have to check with the doctor to make sure what he wants on that patient's basis. next thing I know, my pump is turned up to 100ml per hour and I'm finally getting pain meds - yippee!  The next day I'm taken into surgery early, they do an EGD and and find that my stomach opening was completely swollen shut. They stretched it open, I went back to my room and voila, I can drink something!  Happy day.  My surgeon accompanied me back to my room and I heard him out in the hall, he asked for a specific nurse to take care of me only during the night shift.  And all this is at a Center for Excellence. He is very upset over what he felt was the "ball getting dropped'.  I ended up staying for three nights, four days.

Sorry this is so long, I guess the moral behind it is to speak up if you feel like something is wrong and it's OK to question the nurses orders and have them call the doctor.  Sometimes they dont question them when they should.  I know there are alot of good nurses out there, I 'm a surgical tech so I totally understand, but when  a patient isn't progressing they shouldn't just keep trying to make you progress.   Please dont think that I am bad mouthing nurses here - I totally respect the field and know many very fine nurses myself.  That's not what I'm intending from this post.  Just always make sure that you are voicing your concerns and that they are actually listening to you or that you have a good support person who will speak up for you.

I am big on patients advocating for themselves!  I don't think a patient should question every aspect of thier care but I think if they feel off about something it is the nurses responsibility to relay that information to the patients Dr!  I was unable to drink anything and spent the first 6 hours post op dry heaving if I even moved.  This was very painful and my nurses thought it was me reacting to the anesthisia based on my history.  They pretty much kept me gorked out on morphine....when I would wake up they would walk me I couldn't make it even 50 feet without vomiting.  They had been in contact with my surgeon the whole time.  My surgeon was rounding and saw this.....he came up to me and said he had known I was having issues and thought it was the anestesia but I was past that point and he was going to change my pain meds because he thought I could be reacting to the morphine........he was right!  He changed me to dilauded and I was like new!  It only took them 8 hours to figure it out........but working in health care I understood the process and didn't rock the boat.....just as you were doing I'm sure.......I however felt like I was being listened too.....there is a huge difference!

On a side note.......I'm surprised they had you drink the oral contrast on the floor and not down in imaging!  Usually the Rad likes to watch the pouch fill with contrast......unless they have had more success with finding leaks by allowing the contrast to distend the pouch and have time to catch a "slow leak"......sorry it's the Rad Tech in me......LOL

I tried advocating for myself also but it finally took a student nurse to come to my aid. She completely bypassed the nurses and went straight to the Resident taking care of me. I heard him "rip them a new one " too. He was so ticked off. I had been crying for about 6 hours before anyone wuld do anything for my pain. It was not a good experience but I was at a military hospital and this is the norm for them.

As far as the RAD goes, I am surprised too. They made me drink it while I was in the imaging room and they let me watch it go down too, that was SOOO COOL!!! Anyway, I am glad you are doing great!

I had some really great nurses, but I had one that I called Nurse Ratchett. I felt like she was scolding me about something every time she talked to me, rather than trying to educate me about something I might be doing wrong (like not crossing my ankles in the bed - I had no idea that could cause a clot). I had to argue with her when I realized I was having an allergic reaction to the morphine (which was a very similar reaction to what I had previously had with Percocet, so I recognized it right away), and when she did turn it off she did so in a way that was basically like saying - "now you've done it, be careful what you ask for". Fortunately, I only had her for one shift, and everyone else was great! One night nurse even tried to prolong intervals between taking vitals so that I could get some rest!

Tonia

Glad to hear you are on the mend.

Maria