Saturday, January 27, 2018

Not all wine and roses....

James was napping midday today and he needed to sleep, so the nurse let him, pain meds were missed. You have to stay on top of the pain. No pain meds = pain. James wakes up. I call nurse saying he's in pain. Just then the respiratory medicine person swoops in to clean out the stoma. And the nurse shows up to give the meds. So everything happens at once and the pain is not managed. Not at all. Full on pain. James likens the cleansing of the stoma under the best conditions to waterboarding. Add on top of that jabbing a white hot poker in your eye or rather in your neck. We certainly don't need to do THAT again. Tonight the nurse made sure all meds were in place before the respiratory med tech returned for the early evening cleanse. He gave him both the regular pain med plus the booster. Loved our nurse John tonight. Thank you John.

Footnote... I left the hospital and noticed a tire was low. Stopped to fill the gas tank and used the station air hose to fill the tire and somehow managed to do the reverse. Tire is now completely flat. Sander to the rescue to help change tire for wee donut and we'll figure out air issue at home in the a.m....... or use alternate car. I have options. Shhhh don't tell James.


3 comments:

Colleen said...

I find there is really no reason for him to be in pain. I have no patience for it even though I know it gets busy there. But after such a traumatic surgery he needs to be able to get well mentally, physically and emotionally. I am glad he has his beloved advocate by his side! Can you imagine some people don't! I hope James has a better experience with the next cleaning and day in general!

Love to Phoebe and Saunder. I imagine it must be tough. But they are made of tough stock!!!!!

Love and Healing Light,
Colleen, Steve, Zoƫ B. and Steve

susan b. smooth said...

It's hard to imagine why the cleaning had to continue in that moment with James in pain, awful! Agree that James is so lucky to have you there to advocate, although that is an exhausting role for you and shouldn't be needed. I'm so glad that's over and hope it doesn't ever happen again. Glad to hear you have had some good attentive nurses since. XO

Meridy said...

There is NEVER an excuse for leaving a patient in pain, and especially for leaving a patient to go through a stoma-cleaning procedure without proper pain management. **shakes fist at the sky**

(My husband recently went through several knee surgeries with several unfortunate glitches, so I'm not suffering fools gladly these days...)

Love, love!

Meridy