Back from the doctor
Jan. 14th, 2008 10:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
outsdrJust got back from the surgeon's office. His receptionist took me back to the exam room, looked at my stitches, said everything looked fine, and that the doctor would be in to see me in just a minute.
The doctor breezed in, told me that it was just a lipoma, and that the surgical area was going to heal up to be more firm than the surrounding areas because the tissue would heal together harder, and that his receptionist would take out the stitches and put on some butterfly bandages.
And he turned to leave.
I barely had time to say, "Wait..." as he was closing the door behind him, it happened that fast. "I have a few questions."
He came back in and listened, and he never really changed his demeanor, but to me, it seemed like he really didn't want to be there. I asked him how big the lipoma was, and he said "about this big" making a circle with his hands, then checked my folder to find the actual size... 8 cm X 2cm x 5 cm. I then asked him why no one told me that I'd be given a general anesthesia, and he said that it was all up to the anesthesiologist, and that a local wouldn't have been a good idea because of how deep it was and how large. I said it wasn't a problem that I got it, but that it came as a surprise to just wake up from it. He said the anesthesiologist should have explained all of that before the surgery and about the breathing tube and all the rest. I said that yes, the anesthesiologist had come by before hand, and had asked whether I had any loose teeth and some other questions, but he never said anything about general anesthesia or the breathing tube or "all the rest". I told him that while it wasn't a problem that I had received the general anesthesia, it did come as a shock to wake up from it without expecting it. He said he would speak to the man, and I said that he should, and then he left.
The receptionist then removed the sutures, and did it gently and painlessly. She then put on a few butterfly bandages, explained that I could shower with them on and that they'd come off on their own, and that if I had any questions to call her.
When she said that, I realized that she was the first and only person to have done so. No one during the entire thing ever asked me if I had any questions. My veternarian spends more time with me than these doctors did.
So, yes, I will be writing a letter to hospital's board of directors. Maybe it will cause some change in policy, but unless it's an emergency, I don't want to have any surgeries done in this town again. I'll travel if necessary.
(slight edit to correct that the general anesthesia wasn't a problem; and it wasn't- but not being prepared for it WAS)
The doctor breezed in, told me that it was just a lipoma, and that the surgical area was going to heal up to be more firm than the surrounding areas because the tissue would heal together harder, and that his receptionist would take out the stitches and put on some butterfly bandages.
And he turned to leave.
I barely had time to say, "Wait..." as he was closing the door behind him, it happened that fast. "I have a few questions."
He came back in and listened, and he never really changed his demeanor, but to me, it seemed like he really didn't want to be there. I asked him how big the lipoma was, and he said "about this big" making a circle with his hands, then checked my folder to find the actual size... 8 cm X 2cm x 5 cm. I then asked him why no one told me that I'd be given a general anesthesia, and he said that it was all up to the anesthesiologist, and that a local wouldn't have been a good idea because of how deep it was and how large. I said it wasn't a problem that I got it, but that it came as a surprise to just wake up from it. He said the anesthesiologist should have explained all of that before the surgery and about the breathing tube and all the rest. I said that yes, the anesthesiologist had come by before hand, and had asked whether I had any loose teeth and some other questions, but he never said anything about general anesthesia or the breathing tube or "all the rest". I told him that while it wasn't a problem that I had received the general anesthesia, it did come as a shock to wake up from it without expecting it. He said he would speak to the man, and I said that he should, and then he left.
The receptionist then removed the sutures, and did it gently and painlessly. She then put on a few butterfly bandages, explained that I could shower with them on and that they'd come off on their own, and that if I had any questions to call her.
When she said that, I realized that she was the first and only person to have done so. No one during the entire thing ever asked me if I had any questions. My veternarian spends more time with me than these doctors did.
So, yes, I will be writing a letter to hospital's board of directors. Maybe it will cause some change in policy, but unless it's an emergency, I don't want to have any surgeries done in this town again. I'll travel if necessary.
(slight edit to correct that the general anesthesia wasn't a problem; and it wasn't- but not being prepared for it WAS)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-01-14 09:26 pm (UTC)something in common
Date: 2008-01-17 12:46 am (UTC)here's an excerpt- all that is worth reading for me... i dont want gorey details.
OH and this all reminds me of when I had to be in the hospital for a few days because of surgery on my arm and the nurse would come in and turn the tv which my mother had to pay extra for.. she would turn it so that only she could see it... turn on her soaps and have the girl from the room next door wheeled over in a a wheelchair and the shit of it all was sometimes she was sitting on the edge of my bad to watch it... disgusting really, but that was just a bitch of a nurse.. oh and that first night after the surgery that I crashed out during and had a code blue... they put me in a room where the call button did not work and they were aware of it.. and never came to check on me and I cried for hours because I had to pee and I could not get up all hooked to an iv and recovering from anesthesia. I hate hospitals and doctors and most health care people.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5heqtNdcsFQe7TTFxBFqJoKCpNxygD8U5EQ780
______AP ARTICLE_______
Now that he's more coherent, Beck doesn't want to forget the things that really upset him during his medical nightmare.
He said he and his wife were made to feel less than human when he came to the hospital's emergency room in intense pain (Beck isn't naming the hospital). As his wife struggled to carry him, a triage nurse "was actually drumming his fingers on the door and sighing, like `come on,'" he told The Associated Press. "He never made eye contact with me during the whole thing. He never talked about pain. He left my wife and I in the dust."
It took more than two hours to get any medication for pain "and it wasn't a busy night at all," he said.
Then there was the nurse who casually dismissed his request for oxygen, and a shower stall littered with old bandages. Several people treated him with compassion, but enough didn't that Beck believes there's a wider problem there.
"There was a woman who served meals to me every day, for five days," he said. "She would joke with me and talk. She made my stay more tolerable because she treated me like a human being ... She looked me in the eye. That's what has to be changed about health care. We have to stop looking at medicine as just a science and put the people back into it."