Dear Nurse Ratched: Find a New Profession

This is my second time writing this story. I had written most of it and it was just too long-winded and decided to take a different approach.

Nurses are amazing and I can’t tell you how many have been there for me and truly cared about my wellbeing. However, this is not about them. This is the story about those who shouldn’t be nurses and how I was put in the care of some incompetent people who just didn’t care, and it was at a time when I really needed help.

Quick recap back to April of this year when I was in and out of the hospital because of constant abscesses in my abdomen. Abscesses are scary and not to be messed around with. If one ruptures inside of you as it did to me many years ago, your intestines may perforate, and a massive infection will spread.

I was readmitted a day after being discharged because I had obstructing blood clots in both upper arms and my abscess had returned. I was sent home on TPN infusions, however, my line stopped working because of the obstructing blood clots. Upon readmission, I had an IV line in each hand since I needed a Heparin drip on its own. As you can imagine, it made simple things like going to the bathroom very difficult.

I was readmitted to a different floor so the staff was all new to me, but I didn’t think that would be a problem.

• It took all day to get the barium delivered to my room so I could drink it and have a CT scan to find out what was going on with the abscess.
  • Yes, part of the blame falls on the Radiology department for taking forever to send it, but my nurse said she was going to get it and two hours later still hadn’t brought it in my room even though my mom found her with it at the nurses’ station.
• The night nurse just didn’t care. I needed help with my dressing and ostomy bag because my fistula had a massive amount of discharge from the new abscess. With limited movement in my hands, I couldn’t do much on my own. Kevin had to practically drag her into my room to help change the dressing and bag. She seemed clueless around my ostomy.
• When I asked her about my CT scan she informed me that the hospital doesn’t do CT scans at night. Not true. It’s a hospital and there are always things going on. And considering I had drunk all of the disgusting barium, I was insistent of having the CT scan.
  • Nurse Ratched came back to ask if I wanted to do a pregnancy test that is required for the CT scan or just sign a waiver (something I had previously done). I let her know the waiver would be easier since it is difficult to get up and go to the bathroom right now.
  • Nurse Ratched came back later to start some IV medications and casually mentioned to me that my CT scan was canceled because I wouldn’t do the pregnancy test and Radiology doesn’t accept waivers.
    • It was about midnight at this point and I had been at the hospital since 9:00 a.m. and was tired, but this floored me. Why not come in and give me the option to pee in a freaking cup? Why would I want to cancel a test I’ve asked you about a million times AND that I already drank the barium for?!? I explained I will pee in a cup to get it done because it needs to get done and I just need help getting out of bed.
    • I had taken a sleeping pill so I fell back asleep when Nurse Ratched left my room to call Radiology and let them know I was going to do the pregnancy test. I woke up when the Nursing Assistant dumped a bedpan on my stomach and then left me.
      • This was not the help I was asking for!! I wanted help getting up. I tried to use the bedpan, but it turns out I can’t pee laying down. I somehow got up by myself and peed in the freaking cup.
    • I woke up around 6:00 a.m. and I heard Nurse Ratched in the hall on the phone with the lab checking on the status of my pregnancy test. The sun was rising. How was this possible that it took them this long?!
    • Around 7:00 a.m. I heard one of my doctors talking to Nurse Ratched and my day nurse, which was the same one from the day before, and asking why I hadn’t had my CT scan and why did it take so long to get a pregnancy test.
      • Nurse Ratched tried to blame me and explained that it took some time to get me to pee.
    • As soon as my doctor walked in I asked her to close the door and told her I need to be moved from this floor. I told her about everything that had happened up to that point and she was furious. She immediately pulled out her phone and started making phone calls to get me transferred, but more importantly to get the CT scan I had been waiting for 24 hours for at this point.
    • I had to drink an extra cup of barium because of all the time that had passed. But I did get my CT scan not too long after my doctor made some angry phone calls.
    • While I was waiting in my room to be moved, I still had the nurse from the day before who was not so great.
      • I was in pain and I told her, and she went out to get the pain medication. Twenty minutes passed and she hadn’t come back. So, I pressed the call button and I was told my nurse was on break and only my nurse could give me medications (not true) and that I would have to wait WHILE I WAS IN PAIN! I then asked for the charge nurse who never came. Kevin had to go into the hall and drag another nurse into my room who then told me my nurse was coming.
      • Nurses are entitled to breaks and deserve them, but their patients should be covered by another nurse when they are off the floor.
      • My nurse KNEW I was in pain and left the floor for her break anyway.
      • No one was able to take care of me while she was on break AND the charge nurse wouldn’t respond! It was so upsetting and exhausting.
    • Within a few hours, I was transferred to my old floor and the nurses remembered me (I was discharged the day before, so not as they could forget).
    • I felt ten times better once I was there because I had more confidence in the staff. Immediately my new nurse noticed my dressing needed to be changed and so did my ostomy bag. Together, with my help, since she wasn’t sure what to do with my ostomy, we put on a new bag and cleaned me up. She was receptive to what I was telling her, and it was a complete opposite of what I had experienced before.

Over the years, I can only think of a couple of times where I complained to the charge nurse about my care. Never have I been so upset with the nursing staff that I demanded to change floors and file a formal complaint. It was a very rough time, but I’m getting upset all over again thinking about it.

I’m glad I spoke up and demanded to be moved, I’m glad I made a fuss and that both Kevin and my mom were on top of the staff when they weren’t responding in time. I did speak with the Nurse Manager from that floor a few days later and I have no idea what came of it, I left it in their hands. I hope to never receive that kind of treatment again.