Posted 9/25/2008 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
I don't want to scare you, but you asked! The hernia surgery was my third surgery, it was six months after having my IC valve removed. It was the most painful thing I have EVER experienced.
My pain was not treated at all after surgery. The nurses told me to leave and get my prescription from the pharmacy before all the pain meds wore off. When I stood up, I was shaking and crying. The nurse put a wheelchair behind me that I collapsed into. I told them I was nauseous so they gave me a bag and WHEELED ME OUT THE DOOR!
My husband asked how they expected me to get up to our apartment on the second floor and they told him to carry me. I was scared and in more pain than I'd ever experienced before. We went to the pharmacy, waited for the pills, I popped a few and we went home. We sat in the car for 45 minutes until the pills started to kick in. It was over 100 degrees outside and our car's AC was broken. I got half-way up the stairs when my legs started to buckle from the pain and I twisted and would have fallen down the stair if my husband didn't catch me. I eventually made it back into the house. For the first time ever, I had to take the maximum amount of pain pills as often as I could. I quickly went through my prescription and fortunately, I still had most of a bottle left from my previous surgery.
I ended up with a large seroma (a pocket of fluid) that had to be drained 3 times and took 6 months to go away. My activity was restricted because the fluid was pushing on the mesh and we didn't want it to tear. I almost had to change jobs because mine required occasional lifting which I was no longer allowed to do.
I complained to the hospital and other agencies in writing. My surgeon was very angry when she heard what happened but she wouldn't say the complications were caused by the mistreatment. This is just the short story, it was actually worse than this. Despite having some of the abusive comments on tape, lawyers weren't interested in the case because I recovered completely.
Yes, we should have been more assertive and made a big scene but we were scared. My husband had never seen me react to pain like this. As the nurses kept telling us, this was a minor surgery, I'd had much worse, why was I making such a big deal out of it.
It's been over two years and I'm shaking as I type this. I won't even go to the library next to this hospital anymore. My experience was not typical, it's just that that they were shortstaffed that day and "they wanted to go to lunch and couldn't go until I left". Yes, that was the hospital's excuse for my treatment.