TKR was on Monday

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skichick63

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Let me tell you, I'm embarrassed to work for the hospital where I had my TKR surgery. The nursing staff stunk -- some were pushy, others mealy, unable to make any decisions, and if I got one more student nurse or recent grad, I was gonna scream.
I came out of the surgery with a foot that's completely numb and feels like I'm walking on rocks, feels puffy and like it belongs to someone else. Supposedly this is from the femoral nerve block. If it were not for this numbness, I really think I could be walking without crutches.
Duing my stay I had to beg for more pain medicine at night. That's all I asked for, something better at night to knock it down. I was hardly taking anything during the day and had my flexion to 115 degrees. Then some know-it-all nurse came in and said, "you're not supposed to touch the controls on that CPM" ... I said, I beg to Differ... my surgeon said I knew what I was doing and I could take it up to my own comfort level... she left the room without giving me back the controls.... this was just one example... glad it's over... wish I could feel my foot!
Barb, RN
 
Barb, so very sorry to hear your hospital experience was not very good. And for it to be your place of employment...UNREAL!! I hope you voice your complaints to them and to your doctor as much as you can and still keep your job. There is no excuse for it. On the other hand, it sounds like your surgery went really well if you have that kind of ROM already. I am happy to hear that and hope that the numbness you are experiencing will just be very temporary.
 
Oh boy, Barb. Can I ever relate! I am so sorry you had such a rough time. But the indignation of being treated like that in your own hospital is indescribable, isn't it?

When my sister had her first knee done, she had an unexpected and gross swelling but received only a short, unsympathetic comment that she 'probably had a blood clot"! Not surprisingly she rang me in tears and convinced she was about to die!

She, being a vegan, was rarely given a decent meal. Despite all my efforts to prepare them, she was often offered a ham salad and when she refused it, the ham would be removed and the remaining salad offered as a replacement! She once had a nice meal of vegetables presented but the sister had decided it looked too dry and had half drowned it in gravy made from meat juices!! Mostly her diet consisted of the biscuits, sweets and fruit her son and I brought in for her.

One time she asked a nurse to help her into bed and while she was even saying to her "please don't drop my bad leg" the nurse practically tossed the swollen limb onto the bed and then told my sister off for making a noise when she screamed and burst into uncontrollable tears with the pain.

Second knee, overall, she had a total of 4 injections of morphine and about 4 doses of oral morphine in the 9 days she was in hospital. And then, not only THAT but they got the surgeon to have a word with her about her 'abuse' of the morphine. And she actually heard the sister outside the ward saying how she had had her morphine every 4 hrs on the dot (lies) and 'still she's begging for more'!

I never heard of a patient being so badly treated. I wanted her to make a complaint but she was so traumatised by it she can't bear to think about it anymore.

Sad thing is, I am quite sure she got that treatment simply because I was working there when one would have expected the opposite. Do you wonder I don't want to go to that ward when I have my knee done!
 
So sorry to hear how you were treated Barb, but I hope you can help make it better for others through your input.

It sounds like you are doing really well and I wish you continued success. Hope to hear from you again soon!
 
Here's another....
My 82 yr old room mate was slightly forgetful/confused at night, understandable.

I heard her moaning at night and asked her if she needed something for pain, she said "Oh, yes, that would help so much". So I pressed my call light and said "My roommate is in pain and would like something for pain." comment was "she needs to ask for it herself"
I was livid... and said, get down here and assess your patient.... I have not heard you ask her if she had pain for 8 hours! (I lost all ability to be cordial).

I just don't understand these peoples perception of the use of pain medicine. This is a very traumatic procedure!

I medicate my patients well, they heal better if pain is controlled well. I feel as long as they're breathing, and comfortable, everyone's happy! I've called doctors back many times in the night if I didn't think their orders were adequate. I've had malingerers and drug seekers too, but it's usually pretty easy to tell.

I will be on a rampage when I get back to work.

Yes, one of the nurses actually dropped my leg too.

Prior to surgery, I requested that my pain med not be morphine because it caused projectile vomiting and didn't work for me. I asked for a dilaudid pca because I need to feel in control of my pain, not at the liberty of some new grad nurse saying "your meds is nor due for 20 minutes,
I'll be down as soon as I can..." 40 minutes later --- this happened!

I called over to the recovery room and had my workmate call the supervisor on my behalf and we got the pca back. It should never have happened!!!!
 
Sorry to hear about your bad experiences Barb. Thank goodness you are recovering well despite the fact. I also had mainly awful nursing staff. I won't start there though as it has been an issue with me since I tried going back to nursing in the late 80's, in the UK, I just could not work the way they wanted me to, I trained in the early 70's when nurses were in it as a vocation not a job. Sounds as if you are still in it for the right reasons. Your patients will be glad when you are back!!

Anyway, I wish you a very speedy recovery. Sue SEN
 
Soory for your bad time and glad it is behind you. I too had and older sweet room mate who even had expensive private duty nurswe hired by her family. They were great but would call the Dr. evry time the woman was distressed and the Hospitalist would keep prescibing something different to calm her down. This poor woman ended up and 3-4 different drugs that put her in a stae where she could hardly speak clearly. They thought she had had a stroke and sent her for a MRI or catscan at 3am. Only then did the DR show up to asses her. Catscan came back fine. She was so over medicated she was sick. And those nurses didn't do anything the Dr didn't authorize. She was the same hospitalist that did all my pre-op stuff and she was wrong on many counts about things I told her and knew of myself and my body. She still ran her tests only to show ME right. She shouldn't be practicing on people if you ask me.
 
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