Is It Just Me Or What?

deafskeptic

deafskeptic

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I had something very unpleasant and painful thing happen to me on Monday.

I have a 5" by 4" centimeter hole in my chest as a result of my heart surgery in Dec and it needed draining so my dad ordered a V.A.C. machine for me. I was to have a nurse come to me on Monday.

The nurse came on Monday and as she set up the machine with me, she told me it wouldn't hurt very much. I'm like ok, I hope she's not bsing me. Ok so she cut out a sponge to put in my wound. That hurt a bit but no big deal. Next she set up a seal for my wound and that didn't hurt at all. When the seal was ready, she turned on the machine and started sucking up my wound. The pain was awful and I kept screaming "this is not acceptable! I want to smash this machine." It wasn't till my dad gave me some vicodin that it got better. Then the nurse stopped for a few seconds. Then she started again even I kept screaming "NO! DON'T DO IT!" as the pain was just awful. It took me half a day to recover from the pain.

What's even worse is that my mother told me she was embarrassed by my behavior. I told my mother that I was sorry that she had little empathy for others. I got a lecture from my father as well on how I was supposed to endure pain as part of the treatment.

Yesterday I got a new nurse to help me with the V.A.C system and my wounds from surgery. She told me it was going to hurt but she would try to do it gently.

Before she came, I removed the sponge but it was painful for me to remove it because it got stuck to the wall of my wound and when I removed it, it bled where I removed the sponge and it left a large red splotch behind. I showed it to my mother who said in a curt tone it was just body fluid when I told her I was bleeding from where I removed the sponge. Uh, I had just cleaned out most of my body fluids from the wound so that wasn't it.

When the nurse came, she told me that the red splotch actually was a blood clot. Then as she was about to pack my wound and prepare it for sealing, she asked me if I had taken any codine before she came. I said no. She said that in the future the next time she was coming that I should take it 30 mintues before she came. I said ok.. Then she pulled out a piece of cloth that I hadn't seen before on Monday. She asked me if I knew what it was for. I said no and she said it's an oily piece of cloth that won't stick to my wound and that it should be put in first then the sponge after it. This way the sponge won't stick to my wound and it'd cause me less pain. I told her what happened on Monday and I could see her wincing at what happened and she said it sounded like the sucking of my wound had caused some internal bleeding and that would account for my pain. Then she sucked up my wound and then she told me it was over. I was like that's it?. It hurt a but but nothing like Monday.


I don't think I was out of line on Monday as it was very painful and I think it could've been avoided. I swear there's a cult of pain among some medical folks.
 
I am very sorry you had to endure such pain. If it would have been my child, I would have been decking the nurse! When my new born was diagnosed with hypothyroidism found on his PKU I was devistated! We had to go in for blood work daily for the firsdt two weeks of his life. Each time they had to draw blood I would get a hot flash and nearly pass out. It was horrible to watch. (That was my oldest) Some nurses and doctors have no regaurd to how a person feels and just go about their business. Sounds to me like your nurse was like.. "It doesn't hurt"..and had no care that it was really hurting you badly.. THough you found out with nurse number 2, that they are not all that way.
You have the right to refuse treatment from a nurse who is not listening to you. Request another if you get her again!
 
I am so sorry that you were the victim of an uncaring and unsympathetic practitioner, deafskeptic. Her behavior was completely unnaceptable.
 
Oh no! I can relate...I had surgery on my arm and the pain meds didnt work..I was screaming when they were cutting the muscles. I told them to STOP so they had to stop and reschedule for me to have in-patient surgery. You were NOT out of line..that kind of pian..it would take a tremendous high tolerance for pain to keep calm.
 
Next time your parents berate you for your 'behaviour' flat out tell them - Until YOU have had your chest sucked out, YOU don't know what its like or how it feels so don't tell ME how I should act!

As for the nurse, I would report it to the hospital or clinic she was working for. She did NOT follow proper patient care protocols by continuing treatments despite your requests for her to stop. Although you are a minor - you do have a legal say in your medical treatment. I do believe because of her behaviour during patient care could set her up to lose her license to practice nursing. Judging from the attitude of the nurse, this is probably not the first incident.

The second nurse however, I would specifically request that nurse to treat you. You do have a right to a choice.

If your parents give you trouble about it, ignore them. By disregarding your level of pain during treatment and ignored a blood clot (which can become serious if left untreated), they are disregarding your safety. Gently and calmly remind them of this.

Remember its YOUR body and YOUR treatment! You do have a legal say in this despite what your parents may believe.
 
Dixie said:
Next time your parents berate you for your 'behaviour' flat out tell them - Until YOU have had your chest sucked out, YOU don't know what its like or how it feels so don't tell ME how I should act!

As for the nurse, I would report it to the hospital or clinic she was working for. She did NOT follow proper patient care protocols by continuing treatments despite your requests for her to stop. Although you are a minor - you do have a legal say in your medical treatment. I do believe because of her behaviour during patient care could set her up to lose her license to practice nursing. Judging from the attitude of the nurse, this is probably not the first incident.

The second nurse however, I would specifically request that nurse to treat you. You do have a right to a choice.

If your parents give you trouble about it, ignore them. By disregarding your level of pain during treatment and ignored a blood clot (which can become serious if left untreated), they are disregarding your safety. Gently and calmly remind them of this.

Remember its YOUR body and YOUR treatment! You do have a legal say in this despite what your parents may believe.
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:gpost: I applaude. :cool:
 
Dixie said:
Next time your parents berate you for your 'behaviour' flat out tell them - Until YOU have had your chest sucked out, YOU don't know what its like or how it feels so don't tell ME how I should act!

As for the nurse, I would report it to the hospital or clinic she was working for. She did NOT follow proper patient care protocols by continuing treatments despite your requests for her to stop. Although you are a minor - you do have a legal say in your medical treatment. I do believe because of her behaviour during patient care could set her up to lose her license to practice nursing. Judging from the attitude of the nurse, this is probably not the first incident.

The second nurse however, I would specifically request that nurse to treat you. You do have a right to a choice.

If your parents give you trouble about it, ignore them. By disregarding your level of pain during treatment and ignored a blood clot (which can become serious if left untreated), they are disregarding your safety. Gently and calmly remind them of this.

Remember its YOUR body and YOUR treatment! You do have a legal say in this despite what your parents may believe.
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Excellent words!!

deafskeptic, I am sorry you had horrible bedside manners in the first nurse but glad the second nurse really helped you a lot better.

I hope the next time your parents show more compassion towards your pain tolerance.
 
Dixie said:
Next time your parents berate you for your 'behaviour' flat out tell them - Until YOU have had your chest sucked out, YOU don't know what its like or how it feels so don't tell ME how I should act!

As for the nurse, I would report it to the hospital or clinic she was working for. She did NOT follow proper patient care protocols by continuing treatments despite your requests for her to stop. Although you are a minor - you do have a legal say in your medical treatment. I do believe because of her behaviour during patient care could set her up to lose her license to practice nursing. Judging from the attitude of the nurse, this is probably not the first incident.

The second nurse however, I would specifically request that nurse to treat you. You do have a right to a choice.

If your parents give you trouble about it, ignore them. By disregarding your level of pain during treatment and ignored a blood clot (which can become serious if left untreated), they are disregarding your safety. Gently and calmly remind them of this.

Remember its YOUR body and YOUR treatment! You do have a legal say in this despite what your parents may believe.
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Uh, Dixie, I'm not a minor.

I love that second nurse and I'll see her tommorrow. I told my mother that my reaction was a pefectly natural one and that I was sorry she didn't have more empathy for other people. My mother used to be a nurse years ago before she married my dad and my Dad is a retired MD as well.
 
Appearently your parents are what I call old-school medical professionals. Often in old-school medicine (IE pre-HIPPA era) few medical professionals were taught bedside manners, and they likely practiced medicine way before medical malpractice lawsuits were filed by the dozens. They probably come from a crop whose main focus was to treat the ailment and not the patient. Meaning treat the ailment with a complete disregard for the patient's comfort.
 
Dixie said:
Appearently your parents are what I call old-school medical professionals. Often in old-school medicine (IE pre-HIPPA era) few medical professionals were taught bedside manners, and they likely practiced medicine way before medical malpractice lawsuits were filed by the dozens. They probably come from a crop whose main focus was to treat the ailment and not the patient. Meaning treat the ailment with a complete disregard for the patient's comfort.
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Oh I think you're quite correct in this and they're very very old school in other stuff unrelated to the medical field too. They got their degress in the 1950s.
 
Dixie said:
Next time your parents berate you for your 'behaviour' flat out tell them - Until YOU have had your chest sucked out, YOU don't know what its like or how it feels so don't tell ME how I should act!

As for the nurse, I would report it to the hospital or clinic she was working for. She did NOT follow proper patient care protocols by continuing treatments despite your requests for her to stop. Although you are a minor - you do have a legal say in your medical treatment. I do believe because of her behaviour during patient care could set her up to lose her license to practice nursing. Judging from the attitude of the nurse, this is probably not the first incident.

The second nurse however, I would specifically request that nurse to treat you. You do have a right to a choice.

If your parents give you trouble about it, ignore them. By disregarding your level of pain during treatment and ignored a blood clot (which can become serious if left untreated), they are disregarding your safety. Gently and calmly remind them of this.

Remember its YOUR body and YOUR treatment! You do have a legal say in this despite what your parents may believe.
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i would agree it! nice posting
 
deafskeptic said:
Oh I think you're quite correct in this and they're very very old school in other stuff unrelated to the medical field too. They got their degress in the 1950s.
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Yep - they qualify as old-school alright!

Tell them that medicine and methods of treatment and how patients are treated have changed since they retired. Im guessing they retired in the late 80s?
 
my father had heart valet surgery June 2004 and i dont think someone need help when he get out hospital and he went to heart rehab but my dad is trooper.
 
Dixie said:
Yep - they qualify as old-school alright!

Tell them that medicine and methods of treatment and how patients are treated have changed since they retired. Im guessing they retired in the late 80s?
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My mother hasn't been a nurse since she married my Dad. He retired in either 89 or 90 but I don't think telling them about methods of treatment will work as both of them are very inflexiable in their thinking espcially my father. I've told them stuff like this till I'm blue in my face.

To give you an idea of how rigid my Dad's thinking is, 20 years ago he refused to buy me a typewriter at first because in his college days, he didn't need a typewriter as a student. I was asking for a a typewriter despite the fact many of the kids at college were getting computers so they could write research papers. I'm not making this up either.
 
deafskeptic said:
My mother hasn't been a nurse since she married my Dad. He retired in either 89 or 90 but I don't think telling them about methods of treatment will work as both of them are very inflexiable in their thinking espcially my father. I've told them stuff like this till I'm blue in my face.

To give you an idea of how rigid my Dad's thinking is, 20 years ago he refused to buy me a typewriter at first because in his college days, he didn't need a typewriter as a student. I was asking for a a typewriter despite the fact many of the kids at college were getting computers so they could write research papers. I'm not making this up either.
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Good grief! I know what you mean. My parents are very similar. In my 10th grade year we had to make a project in my spanish class and my instructor specifically stated that she wanted the Spanish restaurant menus in color. Well needless to say we didnt have a color printer at home. As a matter of fact we had an OLD OLD LaserJet printer from 1993 and a PC from 1992 with Win2.1 OS on it. I mean like the original GUI operated version of windows that pre-dated Win95 by 3-5 years, and this was in 2000. I got the project done but it was an EXTREME hassle as I did not have access to the same project making software that my classmates had access to, and I got points deducted from the project because the menu was in black and white ink, heavily pixelated, and the printer had a very bad habit of wrinkling the bottom 2 inches of the paper. It was awful. My parents didnt believe me when I told them that the instructor would count off for black and white work only. When I showed them the graded paper - they finally realized that in order for me to complete projects effectively for school they were going to have to update the computer.

When we got the new computer (finally 2 months later), we got online to see the value of our old computer - and we found out in good operating condition - about $10 USD.

So I know how you feel. I remember having to write out a 10 page book report by hand. Wow, talk about hand cramps!
 
Dixie said:
Good grief! I know what you mean. My parents are very similar. In my 10th grade year we had to make a project in my spanish class and my instructor specifically stated that she wanted the Spanish restaurant menus in color. Well needless to say we didnt have a color printer at home. As a matter of fact we had an OLD OLD LaserJet printer from 1993 and a PC from 1992 with Win2.1 OS on it. I mean like the original GUI operated version of windows that pre-dated Win95 by 3-5 years, and this was in 2000. I got the project done but it was an EXTREME hassle as I did not have access to the same project making software that my classmates had access to, and I got points deducted from the project because the menu was in black and white ink, heavily pixelated, and the printer had a very bad habit of wrinkling the bottom 2 inches of the paper. It was awful. My parents didnt believe me when I told them that the instructor would count off for black and white work only. When I showed them the graded paper - they finally realized that in order for me to complete projects effectively for school they were going to have to update the computer.

When we got the new computer (finally 2 months later), we got online to see the value of our old computer - and we found out in good operating condition - about $10 USD.

So I know how you feel. I remember having to write out a 10 page book report by hand. Wow, talk about hand cramps!
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Lol. You have my sympathies. And it doesn't help I have ADD. Many people with ADD have a hard time with anything to do with writing by hand due to problems with staying focused - myself included. I have good English skills but I avoid writing by hand as much as possible.

My dad bought me a word processor only after a few months and with my sisters backing me up. I hated the word processor. Want to know why? It was slow with very little memory, so when I typed stuff in there I had to wait several minutes for words to show up. It was very hard to edit my typos. I swear it was designed to lower my tolerance for frustration level as much as possible.
 
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