Friday the 13

I don't usually hold much regard for superstitions like Friday the 13th but yesterday proved me wrong. Thursday night I had trouble sleeping. I kept feeling a pressure like someone pushing their hand against my chest. On Friday the feeling returned a couple of times during the day. As the afternoon wore on I the feeling would return and then disappear after strong exertion. I told April and she insisted that I go immediately to get checked. As it was almost 5 pm I thought about getting a doctors appointment for Monday. April convinced me that I shouldn't wait. So I went to the ER at a local hospital (which I will not name). I was immediately whisked into an examination room. To jump to the end I emerged Saturday at noon after passing a stress test that said my heart was fine. The 19 hour process from Friday night until Saturday at noon was at times reassuring, frustrating, painful, and exuberant. I was so happy to walk out of my hospital room directly to my car. It felt like I was an inmate released from jail.

In December I spent 3 days with my father at the Freidert (don't know if I spelled that right) Hospital in Milwaukee Wisconsin. The difference between the Paducah hospital and the Milwaukee Hospital were like night and day.

At the Milwaukee hospital the staff checked on my father and every 30-60 minutes or so someone would walk in to just check in. They asked my father if he needed anything. Over the course of one evening the main nurse and the assistant nurse, a social worker, a chaplain, a physical therapist, a speech therapist, several lab techs and others came in to check on my fathers condition. Some checked in to see if he or my family had any questions and helped us to care for my father as well. They listened to what we said and responded with answers or by finding someone who could explain. They always asked my father how he was feeling. If he had any pain and if he was comfortable. The Milwaukee hospital had customer service down to an art. From the time he entered until they left him at the door there wasn't anything they could have done better. This was the week of Christmas with all its ups and downs and a snowstorm to boot.

At the Paducah hospital after the shift change on Friday I was left in an exam room with no one telling me what was going on for over an hour and a half. Then when the person finally did appear and talked to me, I was shocked when he told me I was being assigned a room for the night. He said "Oh I thought they already told you." I told him that no one had told me and that no one gave me a reason why I was staying. I later looked at my armband and saw the doctors name. I realized that I had seen the doctor for less than a minute and a half the entire evening. I never saw a doctor until the next morning to explain what was happening. No one ever did come and tell me why I was staying or what my blood tests, chest xray, or any of the other things showed and why I was receiving the medication I was. Apparently the doctor had decided to hook me up to a Nitroglycerin drip IV. When the orderly started to push me out of the exam room to a room for the night he neglected to see that I was hooked up to an IV and I had to stop him so he didn't pull it out of my arm as he took off without the IV. When we got to the room there wasn't a rolling IV stand in the room. The orderly hooked the IV to the bed post and left me tethered. I had to ask the nurse if she could unhook my IV for me to use the restroom. She seemed surprised that I was left with no rolling IV stand and went and found one for me so I could finally go. The oddest moment was when the phone rang and I answered it. Someone on the other end asked "is the nurse in the room with you"? I told them I was alone and they said thank you and hung up. I'm not quite sure what that was all about. Did they lose the nurse?

They told me I would get a headache from the Nitroglycerin. Boy was than an understatement! By 11:45pm I had not eaten since the morning and had asked for something to eat since the Nurse told me I would be staying at 9 pm. I asked a couple of times and they told me they would check on it. Then it would be another 1/2 an hour before the next person came in and they told me they would check on it. One of the night nurses finally took pity on me and took it upon herself to go down and get me something. They told me there was no staff on Friday nights so the supervisor had to make me food. That was what took so long. I told everyone who came in the room my headache was getting worse. Because I told them my headache was getting worse and no one offered any pain relief I figured it wasn't allowed because of the Nitroglycerin. I know people can't read minds but when I said my head was pounding I would have thought they would ask if I needed something for the pain. Finally I told a nurse that I would kill for an aspirin and they said "You can't have aspirin but we can probably get you some Tylenol." I was left speechless. Why hadn't anyone told me I could have something for pain earlier. The Tylenol arrived soon after. The Tylenol barely made a dent in my headache. When I told the nurse this she said she would see if maybe we could turn down the volume of the Nitro drip. I waited and waited asking others who came in over the course of the next hour if their was anything they found out about getting the Nitro reduced. No one knew. I even asked the main nurse again and she said she would check on it as if this was something new. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and hit the call button and told the nurse that I had to get some relief from my headache and begged for the Nitro to be turned down or stopped since I hadn't had any chest pain for over 6 hours. The nurse came in within minutes and turned it off when I promised to call if my chest pressure returned. My chest pain never returned after the first hour I entered the hospital.

It took them 19 hours to let me go. I feel I would still be there if my family doctor hadn't stopped by to see me Saturday morning and agreed with me that there was no reason for me to stay other than waiting on a stress test. He told me if I failed the test I was going to stay. But if I passed I should be going home. I had been feeling like I was no longer a patient but an inmate being held against my will because the hospital was afraid to let me go for liability reasons.

The room I was given had heating controls that either made the room too warm or too cold. Several times during the night I had to get up and drag my IV over to turn off or on the heat.

I was thrilled to hear a voice call me on the phone after my family doctor apparently went to talk to someone and to tell me that I had been scheduled for a stress test, unfortunately they had no idea when but that there was a doctor on call for the day and they would try to work me in. The doctor was tied up elsewhere and they were waiting to see when he would come in. I finally got the call about 10:30 to take the test. While I was taking the test the doctor who was monitoring the stress test turned to the nurses while I was on the treadmill and chewed them out for the way the things were run on a Saturday morning. Telling them to focus on customer service. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the nurses because I knew they had no idea when he would show up from the earlier call. Unfortunately his chewing out the staff while he was supposed to be supervising my stress test didn't make me feel any better about his handling of customer service either.

It just felt that people weren't focused on the patient. Like they were understaffed and everyone was having to cover and couldn't quite get everything done. Things didn't seem to work after that shift change Friday night. From the heating to simple things like the fact that when I got food and asked the person who brought it to me if I could have another drink. They said sure and I never saw them again and never got the drink. When I told them my head was pounding from the Nitro they didn't ask if I wanted something for pain. I had to say "I'd kill for some pain medicine". The hospitals my have lots of awards for their medical skills and even may have good customer service during the week days. But Friday night after about 7 pm. They could learn a great deal from the Milwaukee hospital.

I plan to write a letter to the hospital to express these thoughts in a little more detail. I don't know that it will do any good. I never felt they didn't care. The two night nurses were very caring. The original staff in the exam rooms were very caring. It just seemed that the whole system was disconnected. Then again that could just be my luck on Friday the 13th.

I probably won't go back to be checked again at a hospital if I have chest pains unless they are sustained and prolonged. My experience last night is one I don't wish to repeat any time soon.