I am not a nurse. I'm just a patient. :) I just wanted your opinion on something. I am almost 6 months pregnant and recently checked into the hospital with extreme nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. To make a long story short, I sat in the hospital for 3 days before finally my doctor consented to giving me an ultrasound to check organs, etc. During those 3 days, I was seen by 3 different doctors (different doctor on call each day) and I was treated very casually and flippantly by everyone.
Finally, my doctor came into my room and told me that he felt I was "faking" contractions on the fetal monitor, that I wasn't having "real" pain, etc., and basically that he thought I was a drug seeking hypochondriac. 10 minutes later, the nurse gave him the u/s report.....huge infected gallbladder with tons of stones. I had surgery to remove it the next day.
However, he and his partners continued to accuse me of faking pain for painkillers. I was receiving demerol about every 4 hours. Now I feel like all the nurses are whispering behind my back or something, like I'm a druggie off the street.
If you were in their shoes, would you consider this "drug seeking behavior"? I was having a gallbladder attack, for goodness sake, plus subsequent surgery. I am of COURSE changing doctors now, but I still fear that the nurses at that hospital have somehow labeled me now because of this doctor.
What can I do to regain some semblance of respect? I feel as though my name is blackened, and I of course want my next experience at this hospital (hopefully I won't go back until the birth!) to be a good one. Nurses are 10 times more important than the doctors in making a hospital stay more comfortable and bearable. What would you think if you had been my nurse? Demerol every 4 hours for 5 days? Is that horrible? I'm not sure if I should change hospitals for the birth or not. Do you all just get a lot of drug seekers and it makes everyone suspicious or something?
I am sorry you had such a rough time. It is obvious that you need to find another doctor who is more caring with a better bedside manor. I wouldn't worry about the nurses we all tend to make up our own minds about our pts. We are programed to help patients and resolve their pain issues espicially now since JACHO (the hospital police) have designated pain the 5th vital sign.
I am apalled that the doctor did not even blush after your gallbaldder surgery.
The problem with most and mean MOST doctors is they have a god complex and think they can see all and do all and if they can not figure it out well you must be crazy or it must all be in your head. Problem with that attitude is they do not give the patient the benefit of the doubt. They just label and move on to the next case they can fix. The difference between a doctor and a nurse is the doctor treats illnesses, disease and the nurse treats the patient with the illness or disease.
I hope this experience has not turned you against the medical profession, maybe just maybe you may wish to make it better for someone else in your shoes someday and become a nurse yourself.
Demerol every four hours for FIVE DAYS? Wrong, wrong, wrong! Demerol should NEVER be used when pain is expected to persist for more than 24 hours. Meperidine (Demerol) has a neurotoxic metabolite, normeperidine, which can cause seizures. :eek:It has a half life of more than 24 hours and its effects are not reversible with Narcan. Very bad idea for a patient who is six months pregnant--or for ANY patient, for that matter. I thought Demerol was being phased out.
OMG! I had no idea that Demerol could cause seizures. It seemed like they did change it to stadol at some point....I don't remember. I was just in too much discomfort/vomiting/pain med fuzzy to remember. It was really a rough hospital stay overall.
Unfortunately, it has kindof clouded my mind a bit on the whole medical profession. I can't tell you how helpless it felt. At one point, after the accusal that I was a drug seeker, my DH and even my own mother began calling the doctor at his office to ask if we could have a second opinion, etc. He actually refused our calls! He refused to allow me a second opinion, and he sent a message through his secretary that the only second opinion he would allow was a psychiatrist. There I was, writhing in pain, and this jerk would not even accept my calls. And of course since he said all this about the drug seeking stuff in front of the nurses, I felt that it was all over the maternity ward....and now I'm very upset and worried that if I have preterm labor like in my last pregnancy, that I may have nurses who won't take me seriously because of everything this doctor said.
Anyway, thank you all for your opinion...I really appreciate them. Mostly I just wanted to know how this whole scenario sounded to a total stranger. Of course my friends and family think the whole fiasco was unbelievably ridiculous, but they are biased in their opinion since they know me so well. The nurses at the hospital don't know me, so all they can believe is what this doctor has said.
Yeppers...Pain is what the PATIENT says it is ...as a nurse, if the patients even states that a pain exhist...i report it to the doctor/and say "what would you like him/her to have".....Why are you so worried about what the nurses "said" or "think"...I agree with a past poster. They probably think he is a A-hole... Nurses are just stuck in the middle of THE PATIENT & THE DOCTOR. He gives the med order...Maybe you need to write you senator, congressman, the AMA, JCAHO, your lawyer...and tell them to pass legislatation to allow Nurses to prescribe medicines.......hope you are feeling better now :)..
Oh and Nurses do their OWN ASSESSMENTS and we do NOT know or treat our patients JUST by what the "doctor" says..The "nurses" at that hospital should only get to "know" you when they assess and are in direct care of you..
S&P: You definitely need a new doc! I fired mine after she told me that my abdominal discomfort was from not enough roughage. (Hell, my middle name is roughage! I "go" up to three times a day.) She said this without asking one single question about my diet.
She said "western medicine has gone as far as it can for you; you need acupuncture" (apparently her latest thing).
I would have done acupuncture, but I was sure something was going on besides a bit of colon trouble, and I wanted to move quickly as abdominal problems can be serious.
Yes, indeedy, my "roughage problem" turned out to be a mature dermoid cyst (teratoma) of the left ovary. Not life threatening but also not something that can be left in. I had the ovary out (a different doc) and then changed to a new primary care provider.
(This is the same gal who misdiagnosed my breast cancer; said it "probably wasn't anything" but I could see a surgeon if I was really concerned. Yeah, right!)
Trust yourself. And get a copy of your medical record. If there is something defamatory in there, you might want to talk to the JCAHO folks. Good luck with your new doc.
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I just wish to offer my support as a member of the board and an OB nurse. I have nothing of wisdom to add that was not said here. Just to say, the pain is what YOU say it is, not the dr. the nurse or the psychiatrist/psychologist. You alone judge your experience. I suggest you follow up the way suggested here to your satisfaction. I am so very sorry for your ordeal. Oh, and, welcome to the board!
Second opinion not allowed?? I don't think so. You have every right to ask for a second opinion from a physician outside of that guy's practice. A few years ago I had a hyperemesis (severe "morning sickness") pt who fired her doctor while she was an inpatient. In this instance, the doctor was not really a problem, but since the pt had been in the hospital for four days and she wasn't "cured" yet she felt her doctor didn't know what he was doing. The pt was just feeling sick and was becoming frustrated that she wasn't responding to treatment. Anyway, the pt has every right to change doctors and in this instance, she was assigned a new doctor from the "doc of the day" list. Our hospital has a policy for such a patient and in all of my years there, I have only seen a pt "fire" her doctor this one time.
What kind of insurance do you have? Many insurance companies will pay for a second opinion and if this doctor is an "in-network" doctor for an HMO or PPO, I would also complain to the insurance company about his refusal to allow a second opinion.
This guy sounds like an incredibly arrogant jerk. I wouldn't worry about the nurses at the hospital, they probably know him well. Well enough to know that he's an @ss; I'm sure they won't be biased by his opinion of you. If you were receiving good nursing care, I would go back there for your delivery (assuming your new cnm/md does deliveries there).
Do you all just get a lot of drug seekers and it makes everyone suspicious or something?
I had no idea that Demerol could cause seizures. It seemed like they did change it to stadol at some point....I don't remember. I was just in too much discomfort/vomiting/pain med fuzzy to remember. It was really a rough hospital stay overall. 
beckymcrn
145 Posts
I am sorry you had such a rough time. It is obvious that you need to find another doctor who is more caring with a better bedside manor. I wouldn't worry about the nurses we all tend to make up our own minds about our pts. We are programed to help patients and resolve their pain issues espicially now since JACHO (the hospital police) have designated pain the 5th vital sign.
I am apalled that the doctor
did not even blush after your gallbaldder surgery.
The problem with most and mean MOST doctors is they have a god complex and think they can see all and do all and if they can not figure it out well you must be crazy or it must all be in your head. Problem with that attitude is they do not give the patient the benefit of the doubt. They just label and move on to the next case they can fix. The difference between a doctor and a nurse is the doctor treats illnesses, disease and the nurse treats the patient with the illness or disease.
I hope this experience has not turned you against the medical profession, maybe just maybe you may wish to make it better for someone else in your shoes someday and become a nurse yourself.