Am I in hospital heaven?

[Marianne Swiss]

Me: Breast cancer. Ops at Limmatspital. First op cancer gone, no surface cancer. 2 of 3 lymphs with cancer. Second op 0 of 7 lymps with cancer. 30 radiations at Triemli.

I called the hospital and told them I thought I had a lump in my breast. 5 hours later, I was getting my first ultrasound. Amazing!

The night before my first op, I had all the tactics to get a good night's sleep. The male night nurse comes in, and I ask him if he comes in and I am asleep, if he could just close my laptop and put it in my cupboard. He goes into a rant about how he isn't planning to steal my computer and I-don't-know-what. Well - I am awake again. I take my book, something to drink and go down to the smoking room (let's not get into smoking now, that is a totally separate discussion) to calm down and get to feel drowsy. The nurse not in charge kindly offered me a cup of tea that I took with me downstairs.

I return to the floor, and go to the kitchenette to put my empty teacup on the counter, and the male nurse comes in and tries to make nice with me. I am 50 years old at this point. I don't allow myself to be *** with by 25-year-olds of any caliber and I am not a fan of being disrespected. I refused to shake hands and be friends after his hostile behaviour. The whole episode ended with me being more stressed and going back down to the smoking room to chill out.

When I was calmed down, I realized that I was actually totally stressed out, because I was AFRAID of having this male nurse having any power over me while I slept. I went to the night "doorman/guard" and told him that I was afraid of returning to the floor. I was a newly diagnosed cancer patient on the night before my op. I had to go to another hospital for a scan at something like 7 AM. It was 2 AM and I hadn't slept a wink. I had a power-hungry (probably psychopathic) male nurse in charge of me during the night and I was SCARED!

The watchman got in touch with the doctor on night duty, and she met me on the floor and took me into a separate room, gave me a cup of tea (herbal, not British, hehe!) and listened to me and spoke calmly and took my issues seriously. I got another cup of (orange blossom tea? helped with getting drowsy, anyway) and spoke to the male nurse. She told me he was banned from speaking to me and his female colleague would be taking care of me from then on (she was a truly kind SWEETHEART!)

I think I got 2-3 hours' sleep that night. In the morning, the guy was tending to my roommate and came over to tell me I had to wake up (I was already awake, but ignoring him). I turned my back on him to let him know to stay away from me. His female colleague came in and nicely helped me wake up and get ready for the taxi to the other hospital.

A day or two after the operation, the night doctor from the "incident" came to my room (I had then been moved to another floor, so I was spared any more contact with the male nurse) and gave me an incident report form, which asked how stressful it was, how well it was handled, and gave me the whole back of the page for my specific comments to what happened.

I suspect that there was a reason that male nurse was set to only care for sleeping patients. I have no clue what happened after that, but I hope he ended up cleaning toilets instead of interacting with patients.

And why is my post titled hospital heaven? Because the wonderful female nurse on the shift was so incredibly kind to me. Because the supervising doctor listened to me and took me seriously and managed to calm me down enough that I could at least get a couple of hours' sleep before the back-and-forth to the other hospital and preparation for my first op. Because they took me even more seriously and asked me to document in writing (I know, most documents are in writing) my experience and what went wrong for me.

When I came back from the other hospital, I was met by one of the day nurses and told that all my stuff had been moved to another floor and that I should just report there and they would take care of me from then on. She also appologised for what had happened that night, which was very kind, considering she had absolutely no part in it. You can't imagine my relief that I wouldn't have to spend another night on the floor of the "man" who ruined my first night there.

The rest is lovely history. I had my op, woke up earlier than expected, my hubby came to my room and wheeled me in a wheelchair down to get something to eat and drink. I was in great shape for a few hours and then just went to sleep while hubby had to go back to work.

I know this post is long, but I just have to tell you that Limmatspital rocks about as much as you caring nurses rock! They have an almost restaurant menu for you to order your meals from. A guy from the kitchen comes by every day to take your order. Since I am a night person and dinner is early, they made me a special sandwich I could eat later so I didn't go to bed hungry. And the kitchenette on every floor offfered small bottles of either red or white wine to have with your meal or before you went to sleep. Definitely not what I am used to from either living in Australia or Norway!

I will end every one of my posts by thanking ALL YOU DEDICATED NURSES for the FANTASTIC JOB YOU DO and the CARE you give to your patients! I haven't often been a patient, but I have had family members in hospital and, although some family members are idiots, some of us actually really appreciate the care and comfort you give to our loved ones.

Hang in there! There are MANY of us out here who appreciate your sacrifices!

Marianne - living in Switzerland - otherwise geographically challenged