Silly silly nurses. Let me begin my saga of the surgical reality check (and subsequent fall from overconfidence) with this one statement: It is obscene and down right irresponsible for people to be summarily ejected... errr... discharged... from the hospital less than 24 hours after surgery. My Mom (who knows I'm writing this by the way) had three procedures. A rectocele repair, a total hysterectomy and oophorectomy. 3 procedures for the price of, well, for the price of three or maybe five, given the state of healthcare today. Now I've been told that you can haggle with your insurance company, and on occasion you may be successful, to get a few extra days in the hospital. I, formerly overconfident nurse, did not know that or I would have gone to the mat with those insurance people. Three days would have been quite reasonable.
We've already run into three fairly common complications of surgery here at the house of surgery recovery. This has resulted in a trip to the emergency room and one narrowly averted trip to the emergency room. So much for all of my fabulous nursing skills, they were only good for identifying that there was a problem I wasn't able to handle.
So I'm wondering, have I adequately told people about these potential complications on the website? Did I let people know what do you do when even sips of water cause vomiting? Did I explain that it may be an emergency if you are on the third post operative day and you haven't pooped? Have I been clear enough that if you can't pee, not even a drop that you need to call your doctor?
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Oh Jenn, it’s just stunning, isn’t it? The money they’re willing to pay goes for the surgery and not for the patient’s care afterward. It’s frightening to think what someone without your skills would have done—most of the rest of us. Would we have known the danger? I’ll be watching for your new articles!
My husband, all 300 lbs of him, had radical prostatectomy and was in the hospital over night. I was given instructions about how to care for his cathater and given a telphone number for questions. City Of Hope is a wonderful hospital, but I was not prepared to pull and push him in and out of chairs and bed. Nor was I informed of all the things that could be happen that would be very scarry but normal (such as bleeding from unexpected places). Well, we are on the 3rd day and all plumbing is working which is causes one less thing to worry about. But, I don’t think I can return to work as soon as I expected. Luckily, everyone understands.
I don’t think the caregiver is ever fully prepared for the work required for nursing. My respect to nursed has only increased.