Greetings most wonderful Friends! Please forgive me for my serious lack of posts. I’ve been in this strange funk, kind of like being in the Twilight Zone and I can’t figure how to get out of it. And, no, it’s not the pain meds (oh, how I wish it was) I’m lucky if those just keep the pain at bay. It’s more like I am just existing not too much, not too little. I live in fear of breaking the 90 degree rule so that certainly doesn’t help my state of mind. I was able to catch some much needed Z’s last night. Boy, a little restorative sleep does wonders! Anyway, I finally got most hospital experience down and I apologize in advance for the length.
I have been in pain mgmt. for a little over three years for nerve damage and Fibromyalgia. After several trial and error treatments, my PM doc and I finally found a combination of medication and therapy that worked well for me. As the pain in my hip progressed, my PM doc had to tweak my medication a bit to get me through the waiting period for my hip replacement. We discussed my PM doc consulting with OS in the hospital but I ended up taking the first available date my OS had and unfortunately my PM doc doesn’t see patients at that hospital. I wasn’t very worried about this as I had covered all the information regarding my pain mgmt. with OS.
The most important of my meds is a low-dosed pain relief patch. It provides long term pain relief via a transdermal patch which is placed on the upper part of the body for up to 72 hours. My OS, GP –General Practitioner, and the hospital and of course my PM doc all had this information. It was written all over my hospital chart. I arrived at the hospital at 6am and I was scheduled to be the second surgery around 10am. While I was getting my gown on and my IV inserted my OS came in and told me “I guess you heard that you were bumped up?” I hadn’t heard that yet but both my husband and I were thrilled that we didn’t have to wait! Then the head nurse asked how long had it been since I put my pain patch on and I said yesterday. Then the anesthesiologist told me they would just take it off right before surgery and re-apply a fresh one as soon as I got out of surgery. I was also told I would be on a PCA pain pump. I asked why THR patients couldn’t get one of those nerve blocks that the TKR get. He said “I am going to see about getting you something like that too” then I was out.
It’s also important to add that the nurse that did my pre-op, the week before, asked how much I weighed. Hubby was there with me so naturally I had to make a joke about my ever fluctuating weight. Then she said let’s go get you weighed because body weight factors in to the pain medicine dose for the PCA pain pump. During this visit, the nurse also went over my medications and told me that my patch would be applied right after surgery. This was another confirmation as to my pain meds post-op. I will never again ASSUME that my pain will be managed should I ever need to have surgery again.
Back to “day of surgery” I went in about 8:30am and it was over by 10:30am. The OS told my husband that it went very well and that I was in recovery. I remember waking up in severe pain and the nurse was telling me to calm down and that they had already given me pain meds. She said I need to relax and let the medication do its job. I cried all the way up to my room and my husband was shocked to see me in so much pain. He asked where my PCA pump was and a nurse told him that my OS didn’t order a PCA pump. My pain level was unbelievable, it was a 50 out of 10 and I kept thinking I was going to pass out. I just couldn’t understand why I was in so much pain and that’s when I frantically began searching for the pain patch that was supposed to be on my chest.
I was crying so hard I couldn’t get the words out to tell my husband that I wasn’t wearing a patch! He immediately went down to the nurses station to find out why I hadn’t received a patch to replace the one they removed before surgery. Again, he was told there were no orders for a pain patch and that my OS was in surgery so we would just have to wait. All this time I am praying to my Lord God, Jesus Christ. When I say praying I mean screaming and crying a prayer as I knew that no human being in the near vicinity was going to help me. My poor husband was beside himself. He had heard me scream, cry and beg for mercy and there was nothing he could do to help me. He also had to keep me from removing my legs from yellow foam cushion they were strapped down to.
By this time I had been in extreme, indescribable agony for almost 5 hours when a nurse came in with a pain patch. As I watched her take the patch out of the wrapper she actually said “Well, he DID NOT want to order this for you”. Incredible! I may never know what she wanted me to do with that information but in my world that’s nothing but a cold, heartless excuse for a human being much less a nurse.
I had been without the medication in the patch for nearly 8 hours. Not only am I experiencing post-op pain, I am also several hours into detox from the pain patch. The only thing I had been given for pain in the past 7 hours was two 5mg Percocet. They weren’t even alarmed at my high blood pressure and up until that day my blood pressure has always been within normal range, about 120/80. I knew I was in for a long night because it was going to take several hours for the medicine in the patch to get back to a normal level.
I had heard that my OS was making rounds shortly after the patch had been applied but he never came to my room. Not sure if he was or wasn’t on the floor. The GP did stop in to see how I was doing and we told him what was going on. He said he would look into the situation but I never saw him again. By 5pm I have had my pain patch back on for 2 hours after an agonizing 7 hours of detox. I have no PCA and will not get one. I did not get a nerve block prior to surgery although it was mentioned. I am being given (2) 5mgs of Percocet every four hours and 1mg of Dilaudid every 3 hours through my IV. Now that may be plenty for some but not for a person that has been in pain mgmt. care for 3 years.
I had quit screaming but I still cried through most of the night. A nurse’s aide came by with a bedpan because they took the catheter out right after surgery. She insisted I lift my body up using the triangle bar that was hanging above my head. I gave it all I could muster but chain broke while I was still holding the bar! I can’t believe I didn’t get hit in the head by it. The aide asked if I was ok and I said yes then she just left the room and I never got to go to the bathroom. When I called the nurses station to ask for assistance again, the nurse told me to relieve myself in the bed and they would come by later to clean it up! I was not about to sit in urine for hours on end. So I just waited for the next shift change in hopes that someone would eventually assist me with the bed pan.
We were 21 hours into this nightmare before I was finally able to get a little sleep. The next day was better just because it was the next day. I was finally able to see my kids and my mom. Sadly, the nurse on duty let me go 5 hours before she brought pain meds so I had to endure another round of getting the pain under control. Every time I was due for pain meds it seemed like they had a shift change and the nurse on-duty does not share any information with the nurse coming on. That meant my husband and I had to repeat what I was taking and how often and explain why. It was truly ridiculous. I would be given a time for my next dose but wouldn’t see a nurse or anyone for that matter for 45 minutes to an hour and a half later. Every time this happened my pain would get out of control once again. To add insult to injury, one of the nurses had the audacity to tell me that I needed to call them 30 minutes before my dose was due so I could keep my pain under control. ARRGGHHH!!
Believe it or not, there’s more but I think I have already written a small article so I will end it here. Such a shame cause this entire experience could have been avoided. Oh and one more note, I told the OS that the nurse said he really didn’t want to order the patch and he simply said “that’s not true”.
Canada
But I'm so glad you're back at home and doing so much better. I had great nurses in the hospital except for one, but, man, can even one bad person EVER affect your stay!!! At a time when you're so vulnerable and need all the kindness and help you can get, it's terrible to have people who are paid to make sure that that's the case NOT do their job!!! 
Anyway, I'm thinking of you and am so happy that the bad experience is all behind you and you're recovering well!!!
Keep it up and I look forward to reading your story!
Each day you will see the differences. It's all good now.
They need to know how disappointed you are with your care. 
