hospital damn near killed me

Have you ever thought you were about to be killed? I did yesterday. I had vocal cord surgery so that I can speak again. The tissue in my neck got manipulated during the previous surgery to remove my thyroid tumor.

My surgery yesterday went amazingly. The anesthetist was the most wonderful medical professional I’ve had in a long time. She was on top of her game and was very kind. The surgery went quick and perfect.

My dr, mom and I had decided I should stay overnight in the hospital to monitor me incase I would go into anaphylaxis from the substance they inject into the cord to make it semi functional again.

I had surgery two weeks prior at the same hospital and had a few issues with their pharmacy and nursing staff, which upset me but I had spoken with my primary doctor and others to make sure those problems wouldn’t happen again. I thought this time for sure since my doctors had complained that it would go smoother.

It didn’t go smoother. I had to get my surgeon yesterday to release me because they made 3 major errors and problems for me in less than 2 hours. Like I said, the surgery was amazing, my ENT surgeon was great, the staff in the recovery room was awesome and then when I got onto my actual hospital room from the recovery room it all went to crap.

First, they tried to give me heparin. TWICE. Heparin thins the blood and apparently it is a policy to automatically give patients heparin so that they do not get blood clots. Due to my mast cell disease my normal Heparin that my body produces on its own is 7 times the highest limit amount, which is why my blood doesn’t clot, and I bruise so easy. IF I hadn’t have been conscious and able to scream no TWICE to reject the heparin who knows what could have happened. Considering I’ve had 3 surgeries in 2 weeks my guess is I would have bled out, quickly.

The second issue that was major for me is that the hospital was unable to let me take my own medications, the ones I have to pay a zillion dollars for that don’t make my mast cells go crazy. AGAIN. This is the same problem I had the last surgery and was sure it would have been sorted out by now. The hospital pharmacy doesn’t carry 4 of the medications that I take daily to control my mast cell reactions…so instead of letting me take mine from my backpack they just didn’t give me any. I need to take these meds 4x a day!!!

The final straw happened while I was eating lunch. (Because of my limited diet and things my body can handle I couldn’t just suck on popsicles unfortunately.) So for lunch, I had rice, mashed potatoes, grilled chicken and green beans. I ate in my room, alone, and no one checked on me. I kept choking on my food and having to smack my own back to get the food back up out of my airway. I had to get up and refill my water from the faucet so mush down my food. I am not sure if this was a complication the surgery I had just had or the previous, but I needed help and no one was around. THEN when someone finally came they asked what I needed and I explained and THEY LEFT! So, I didn’t finish lunch. I didn’t want to choke and die.

The other thing that made me need to get out of there ASAP is that they now require at least 5 glucose tests each day on EVERY patient. I am not diabetic nor have I ever been. Normally I am all about doing stuff to help the general public and understand how perhaps many people would need their blood sugars checked. The problem is that because my blood doesn’t clot properly, they would prick my finger and I would bleed and bleed and bleed. Yet then, an hour later they would come do it again. My blood sugar like always was perfect.

Need less to say I am very grateful that my surgeon let me go home to be monitored because to be 100% honest, Joshua is more knowledgeable about my conditions and how to react and assist than any nurse in the hospital apparently is. I am sad that I’ve reached a point in illness where I was literally less safe there than in my own home.

It’s incredibly disappointing. I don’t know what to do. I’ve now had a bad experience at 3 of the local hospitals, all the main ones! I’m at a frustrated point in life. I know I am a complex case BUT shouldn’t nurses be more on top of their game or at least read a chart to see what all the patient has so that they don’t go around poking and injecting patients in which it will kill??

SO SORRY REGIONS HOSPITAL, you officially lost my business. I can’t do it, too many ridiculous happenings that could have all been avoided if a nurse would have just simply looked at my health history…I even carry a folder with me that explains everything. But, nope.

I just thank GOD that I was awake enough to yell stop.

I came home, caught up and took MY meds they couldn’t give me and then fell asleep like a baby.

My voice isn’t back yet, but hopefully soon.