CT Guided Drainage & Hospital Complaints
Aug 6, 2008
On Monday, I was told I needed to have an abscess drained which was getting bigger and the main source of all my current pain. The doctors assistant made an appointment for the following morning at 7:30. The assistant didn’t have any other information for me, but told me the hospital would call to confirm.. so I could ask any questions I had at that time or even reschedule if I needed too. The only thing she knew was I needed to have a driver with me… which we both took to indicate I’d be going home.
I never received a phone call… and, that was the start of how the whole next day went. One goof or over-look after another. The experience at the hospital was terrible..
The procedure itself wasn’t bad. The doctor doing the drainage explained what he was going to do - because my abscess was way down in my pelvic cavity it was difficult to get to. He explained that an abscess is a huge infection and thought maybe I should stay at the hospital for a night for observation.
He was going to take a tube through the muscle in my butt cheek (he was funny - he said “BUTT-ox”, but it was how he said it that got my giggle) guiding it by a CT scan. From there, they were going to leave a drainage tube in it to allow for the infection to completely drain. He told me it would be painful, but they would give me medication to make it as easy as possible - that scared me.. I’d been in pain all morning and was ready for a break.. so to hear the procedure would be painful really stressed me out.
After all was said and done, I don’t remember any of it - twilight sleep, how nice… so pain wasn’t an issue during the procedure at all.
Originally, I agreed to stay in the hospital because I felt it would be the safest thing to do under the circumstances. I’d have better pain control, and hey.. I’d even have my own room and a/c.. But, when I started have issues I had to rethink whether being there, or being at home, would be better for me.
First, I had no pain medication all morning - not since 11 the night before. I was hurting. Since I didn’t receive a call from the hospital the night before, we didn’t know where to go.. our first stop was the information desk.. who said she didn’t have anything listed for me and to go to Radiology… Radiology said I wasn’t suppose to be there to go to Same Day surgery.. Same Day said “Oh, that’s how you spell your name! It’s hyphenated! I couldn’t figure it out on the phone yesterday.” (.. I now know who dropped the original ball, don’t I?) And then, she sent me down to the lab for blood work.. and told me she’d see me later..
In pain and walking all over the darn hospital because no one bothered to clue me in ahead of time.
Just a short time later I was back in Same Day .. and let them know I was in pain. Bob let them know I was in pain.. my mom, who works there and assured me that their main concern is making their patients comfortable, also let them know I was in pain.. To no avail.
I didn’t go back to have the procedure done until about 9:30. So for 2 hours at the hospital, I hurt.
About 1 o’clock, the twilight medication they’d given me started to really wear off.. so I was started to feel pain again. Considering the Doctor doing the drainage told me how painful it would be, I thought they’d have pain medication on the ready for me. So far, not.
Bob brought me lunch. The nurse gave me a little 1/2 sized can of soda - this was the only thing they gave me all day - not even ice water.
The container the drain was hooked up to leaked all over my gown, the bed, my underwear.. After I ate, I got up, cleaned up, got a new gown.. when my nurse came back I told her what happened and she wanted to know if anyone helped me.. she’d been on lunch and someone was suppose to be there with me.. um.. no.. never saw another nurse, other than the ones who stuck their heads in the room to see what I was eating (not one, btw, asked if *I* was ok).
At 2:30 or so, they took me up to a room, didn’t offer any ice water, didn’t ask if I wanted anything, just told the other nurse I’d eaten and didn’t need anything (I didn’t want anything anyway, but it would have been nice if someone had asked me).
The nurse asks me 100 questions I’d already aswered at least once before, but I think it was twice.. I kept dozing off - ice water would have been nice.. pain relief would have been even nicer.
A resident doctor came in and wanted to know why exactly I was there.. I told him about the drainage and he said yes, he knew that, but WHY was I in a room? He thought I was doing an in and out procedure.. I thought so too.. I asked him about pain med, he asked me if I had problems with my crohn’s.. I was livid, my mom laughed at him and told him that’s why we’re there.. I asked him if maybe he should take a look at my chart.. Apparently, there was nothing IN my chart.. they didn’t even know who I had for a regular doctor.
At this point I was mad.. more than mad. I was ready to go home. Apparently, the dr who didn’t the procedure didn’t write up anything for pain (I was later told he actually DID, but it was overlooked - and it was for vicodin anyway.. which wouldn’t have helped.. ), and the nurses were trying to get ahold of the dr who’s care I was now under … finally, at 3:20, I was given pain reliever.
But, it was a done deal. I was going home. I wasn’t going to stay there and beg for pain medication, have to track down a nurse for water.. and after everything, did I at this point really think they had my best interests in mind? No.
So, I had a nurse tell me how to take care of my drain from home, and I left, against doctors orders. If insurance doesn’t pick up the bill, the hospital will eat it, because they’ll never get a dime from me. And I won’t be going back to that hospital again.
Note: I didn’t even mention the nurse who thought I had lovely veins.. she was so excited to get good veins. what a joke.
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Related Keywords: abscess, ct guided drainage, CT Scan, hospital complaints
