Here I am, back in the hospital. Oh yay! This time though, I feel sick. The plan is to give me a powerful antibiotic, Vancomycin, intravenously and kill this infection. So a nurse arrives shortly after Im in my bed, to insert the IV. If youll recall, when I had my mastectomy surgery two weeks prior, the nurse had a horrible time trying to get an IV started. She could get the needle in the vein but couldnt thread the vein for the IV. Well, that problem was still a problem. This poor nurse tried a few times but THIS nurse was unwilling to keep trying at the risk of causing me any pain. I was grateful that she chose not to keep poking me. She apologized and left the room. Shortly after she left my floor nurse came in and told me that the decision had been made to put in a peripherally inserted central catheter or PICC line. Only a radiologist can insert a PICC line and I would be taken to radiology shortly. I waited and waited and waited and several, by that I mean four, hours later I was taken to radiology. Now before you get upset that it took four hours, please remember that I was not upset. I understand that I am not the only patient in a hospital and that each person has a particular problem that may or may not take a few moments to handle. When I got to radiology I was greeted by two VERY nice women who set me up for the radiologist. The radiologist, who was a women, came in and placed that catheter right in my vein like she had done it a few hundred times. Boom, I had a PICC line. If youve never had a PICC line, theyre pretty handy. The rest of that stay at the hospital I did not have one other needle inserted in my arm. The PICC line was the point where blood was drawn and IVs were administered. Pretty darn nice I would say. Once the line was in, they could start the IV. It took forever it seemed and finally, I called my nurse who told me that she had been unaware that I was back in my room! The IV was started shortly after that. I want to stop and comment about the nursing I received during this stay. I, again, realize that I am not the only sick person in a hospital when I am there. I get that nurses are spread thin at times and that many things cause that, budget cuts, high census, scheduling problems...many things. However, this particular floor and this particular stay were not the best that I have had at ST. E. Dont get me wrong, a couple of the nurses stood out with stellar care. I even remember the names of the two top nurses, Kristy and Rachel! But overall, I was not pleased. So I told them as nicely as I could (my objective was not to anger the very people entrusted to care for me) that they needed to step up their game. I made sure that they knew that I was aware that they had other patients and understood their workload was not light, but that I felt a bit neglected. And thats all it took. After that, no problems. I bring this up because its a very good example of taking control of your care. I hear so many complain about their hospital stays and I always wonder if they told anyone they were unhappy. Remember, people cant fix it if they dont know its broken. So I was getting a powerful IV and would have four more bags of this antibiotic before I left the hospital. I was scheduled for surgery the next morning so all I could do was sit around and watch TV. I wasnt feeling so sick that I couldnt get in and out of bed to the bathroom. So, around 10 PM, I had to use the bathroom and got up to do so. Fluid starts gushing out of my left breast. Its a pinkish color and theres a lot of it. So much that my clothes are covered and the floor is a mess. I called my nurse and she starts to try and figure out how we are going to get this thing bandaged so that everything I touch is not saturated in seconds. It was comical to say the least. She would dress the site, tape it up and within seconds it would leak. Off would come the dressing and another one would be put on. NOTHING was working. Finally she got what is called (I hope Ive got this correct) transdermal. Its a tape that almost becomes like your skin. She taped the living heck out of my side and we decided that instead of taking anything off when I would start to leak, we would simply add more transdermal. I was wrapped up like a turkey in saran warp but it worked. It only had to last until surgery the next morning and keep my bed and clothes from being saturated and it did that with flying colors. All I had to do was get through the night.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 12:34:22 +0000
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