Strangest Experience
- Thread starter thestrangequark
- Start date
tsq, I'm very glad you're feeling better now. And that you have been able to control your blood sugar as well as you've done.
We're all just glad you're all right now
- you've had quite the horror story there.And yeah, I'm in medicine. It's always the ones you least suspect...
Glad to hear you're okay tsq, nothing fun about having to rush to the hospital.
And frrrreeeaky about the eyes there! I'm nearsighted myself (as in very, I see sharply for about 8 inches then it gets very blurry very quickly) and it would very odd to suddenly see clearly without glasses again.
And frrrreeeaky about the eyes there! I'm nearsighted myself (as in very, I see sharply for about 8 inches then it gets very blurry very quickly) and it would very odd to suddenly see clearly without glasses again.
Very happy to hear that you are alright now. Not counting the vision thing.
My friend (co-worker actually) is diabetic, and she has told me some horrortales about her life. And just recently she has been suffering more than usual, so i can imagine you were quite afraid there for a while. Keep getting better, and keep off the sugar, its nothing but poison anyway. (well.. a drug anyway, if you are sugaraddicted such as i am.. ha ha)
My friend (co-worker actually) is diabetic, and she has told me some horrortales about her life. And just recently she has been suffering more than usual, so i can imagine you were quite afraid there for a while. Keep getting better, and keep off the sugar, its nothing but poison anyway.
(well.. a drug anyway, if you are sugaraddicted such as i am.. ha ha)
I'm pretty sure it was something I ate, but I'm positive it wasn't MSG. I stick mainly to natural and organic foods. I can't be sure what food it was, though, because everything I ate before I got sick were exactly the kinds of things that could easily cause food poisoning: chicken Cesar salad, fresh blueberries, fresh veggies and hummus, and mushroom soup (though I doubt it was that). When I got home the first thing I did was throw out all the food.
Most of it wasn't so bad. The staff in the ICU were wonderful. The only thing that was truly horrible was the morning of the day I was released:We're all just glad you're all right now
I was moved onto the regular medical ward out of the ICU that morning, and it was like moving to a completely different hospital. The staff were rude and inattentive. Around 8 in the morning the IV in my right arm infiltrated. Now, I'm not a whiner or crier when it comes to pain, and I'm not demanding overall (the only times I called the nurse during my entire stay was when I needed to use the bathroom -- I was plugged into three different machines with all sorts of wires and tubes that had to be unplugged so I could walk the whole two feet to the restroom!), but the pain of this infiltration was extreme. My arm was swelling so fast that the hospital bracelets were getting tighter and tighter, the skin was getting pale, and it was so painful I couldn't move it -- and it made me cry. My room door was open, so I know I could be heard (I could hear the man across the hall sneezing, so my moaning must've been perfectly audible). Yet I had to pound the nurse call button for an hour before anyone came to help. And when the nurse finally got there, she stood literally right outside my door as I was sobbing, and told me to wait while she chatted with some guy about fucking Atlantic City. After about five minutes she finally said, "Okay, I'm gonna check on this girl now."
What the fuck?
I'm still pretty infuriated. My grandmother's a nurse and she told me they should have been checking the IV anyway, let alone responding to my call. My arm is still swollen and extremely painful. My grandmother told me to keep it elevated and under a warm compress, which seems to help, but it's difficult not to use my favored hand very often.
And yeah, I'm in medicine. It's always the ones you least suspect...
^Thanks Flukie.
One irksome thing is that the reading glasses I bought yesterday have stopped working already because my vision is changing so quickly. I had to go get another pair today.
One irksome thing is that the reading glasses I bought yesterday have stopped working already because my vision is changing so quickly. I had to go get another pair today.
You should get glasses that have telescoping lenses that adjust to your vision.
They'd look dorky on anyone else, but you'd find a way to make them look smashing.
They'd look dorky on anyone else, but you'd find a way to make them look smashing.
Dollar store. I'm not kidding. I have a tendency to lose reading glasses, so I get them at the dollar store and keep a pair in every room of the house.
That really sucks what happened to you in the regular ward, tsq. Those staff should all lose their licenses for treating you that way. You were a patient, and their mistreatment of you was a betrayal of trust. And their ignorance could have seriously injured you. 
You shouldnt have had to go through all that. Here, if a patient needs attention, the staff on duty are responsible to ensure something is done about it as soon as possible. Thank goodness your case was just that your cannula had tissued, requiring either stopping the infusion and getting a doctor to resite the cannula (although nowadays some nurses should be able to do it themselves, if they've "had the training"
) or for the doctor to decide if it's even required at all. I'm trying not to imagine the same situation had something worse happened... 
There is a big difference between how ICU nursing differs from standard ward-based nursing - it's not just the fact that it's one nurse per patient, nor the fact that these nurses are trained to do more advanced tasks, but I feel that they really do go out of their way to make sure the patient is comfortable and catered for. On the general ward, they have several patients per nurse (often up to half a dozen) during the day, with fewer staff at nights, but then again that's no excuse for a slack attitude like the staff you described, especially if a patient like yourself had just come out of ICU and could still have been seriously unwell.
I hope the arm is better now.
Wow. Sounds like you had quite a scare. Glad you got through it. Stay well. 
^Thanks.
Zion, I think you're absolutely right about the ICU nurses. Unfortunately, my arm isn't getting better. I'm going back to the clinic because it is still incredibly painful -- so bad that just wearing a sleeve hurts -- and it's still swollen. My grandmother, who is a nurse, said it sounds like an infection (she's in Seattle, so couldn't look at it herself), so I took my temperature and do indeed have a fever (103).
I just want this all to be over with, but everything seems to come with further complications. Fortunately last week was February break for public schools, so I didn't miss any work, but I've taken today off and if things don't start improving I'm worried I'll miss the whole week. This is all just so frustrating, with the vision problems topping the list.
Zion, I think you're absolutely right about the ICU nurses. Unfortunately, my arm isn't getting better. I'm going back to the clinic because it is still incredibly painful -- so bad that just wearing a sleeve hurts -- and it's still swollen. My grandmother, who is a nurse, said it sounds like an infection (she's in Seattle, so couldn't look at it herself), so I took my temperature and do indeed have a fever (103).
I just want this all to be over with, but everything seems to come with further complications. Fortunately last week was February break for public schools, so I didn't miss any work, but I've taken today off and if things don't start improving I'm worried I'll miss the whole week. This is all just so frustrating, with the vision problems topping the list.
Ouch. Did you go to the clinic today?
Did you go to the clinic today?Similar threads
