This is Julie's story
In May, 2019 I had a laparoscopy at our local hospital for a suspicious mass on my left ovary.
My experience at this hospital was wonderful.
CT scans, cystogram, blood work, catheter.
I couldn’t get pain relief as they didn’t want to give me opiates due to the bowel issues. I was having extreme bladder spasms and the pain from my dilated bowel was excruciating. The only advice was to keep on walking and I was on a clear fluid diet, the idea was to rest the bowel and to see if my bladder would self heal.
During all this I found the nurses to be less than sympathetic, almost irritated with me. Except for one stand-out nurse on my last day they were aloof, avoided eye contact. My bedding was not changed once during my week long stay, the sheets were never even straightened. I had no post-op wash with the result that I developed a rash under my breasts where the “paint” had pooled and caused irritation. I was in no way able to wash myself that first day even if I had been given a wash cloth I also had two unexplained 1” oval shaped identical burns on either side above my hip bones. I reported these but there is no note of them.
The curtains on all four beds were mostly kept closed. On my second to last day a woman was admitted to the bed kitty corner to me, a sign pinned to her curtain that she was on “precautions”. Of course I could hear everything going on and it turned out she had undiagnosed diarrhea (C-diff anyone?!!) and was supposed to stay behind her curtains. Her husband was in and out, they were elderly and couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of isolation.
My tests were booked at the local hospital and the care was excellent, including a trip to E.R. with the pain, another CT scan and the cystogram. The urologist was good, happy with my bladder healing itself and the catheter was removed. The only comment from the Cancer Clinic doc who did my surgery was “I’m sorry this happened to you”, as if it just happened, but not that she was in any way at fault.
But I am grateful that my biopsies were clear and I follow up with my lovely gynecologist here every 6 months for 5 years.
There was such a lack of care, even sloppiness, during my stay at the city hospital. I just hope I never have to visit that hospital or the Cancer Clinic again.
Great staff, great communication, quick and easy recovery, home later in the day. I really felt cared for. Following this I was diagnosed with bilateral borderline ovarian tumours and sent to the Cancer Clinic. There it was decided i needed to have my ovaries, tubes, lymph nodes and mentum removed laparoscopically, precautionary I was told. This was booked for August 16th at a BC city hospital. This is now 5 months since the CT scan that found the suspicious mass.
So Friday, August 16th I go in for day surgery, with the possibility of an overnight stay. I was wheeled into the O.R. where I met the anesthetist and his assistant. He was the one who explained things to me. He introduced the anesthetist who looked at me for one second and said hello. I woke up, feeling not too bad, and was told I was being transferred to a 4 bed ward. At this time I realized I had a fat lip with two cuts, I’m guessing from my lips being caught on my teeth during the intubation in the O.R. I mentioned it to staff but it wasn’t recorded. (I sent for my medical records once this was all over. I had to write twice to get everything from my chart).
That evening a nurse got me up to provide a urine sample. From this point on my pain got worse and worse. My abdomen swelled up and was taut as a drum. (this was charted as “abdomen distended but soft”). The pain was unbearable, unlike anything I had ever experienced, but I don’t think they believed me. No doctors were called even though they have a hospitalist on duty 24/7.
By Sunday evening I thought I was dying. The only visits I had from staff were for vital signs every four hours. I was encouraged to get up and walk, which I obediently did but my situation only got worse. I had blood work done on Sunday and that evening there were 4 specialists standing around my bed. My bladder had been nicked during surgery, my belly was full of urine and my kidneys were failing. On top of this I had developed Ogilvie’s syndrome, a rare form of bowel obstruction, cause unknown as there is no actual obstruction, and my colon was dilated to over 8 cm.