L
LYIV
Guest
On October 14th, 2013, we rushed my mother to the ER due to her having extreme stomach pains and uncontrollable vomiting and dry heaves. After a few hours of wait, they admitted her to the hospital to take further tests on the matter.
Later that night/early the next morning, the doctors told us that my mother had a gallstone blocking one of her ducts which was causing the pain, and with that, caused her to have pancreatitis. (also causing pain) They then proceeded to give her medicine by IV route (Dilaudid 1mg) every two hours along with saline and nutrients since because of her pancreatitis, she could not eat any solid foods orally and could only be administered ice chips. They also gave her nausea medication so she would not feel sick.
Next day, the doctor pretty much "checked in" around 10pm or so and told my mom because of the high enzyme levels of her pancreas, surgery at the time couldn't be done. Getting the levels down and getting the pacreatits taken care of was what they were currently working on. My mother had a very tough night with pain that my mother described as having "Multiple child births." To say that my mom was needing that pain medication when the two hours came around was an understatement. In doing research, and speaking with people with experience on the matter, the pain my Mom was going through was somewhat normal unfortunately..
On the third day, the hospital did more tests to where they had told her that the gallstone had passed, and though she had a large gallstone still in her gallbladder, it was large enough to not cause any problems as it was too large to go through a duct.. We were also told that most people had gallstones and wasn't something to entirely worry about. So with that, the hospital just had my Mom rest with pain medication.
The fourth day we were told that my mother was no longer a candidate for surgery. This was confusing since we were told many situations the gallbladder was removed. A nurse may have "slipped" when we were told that it could be an insurance matter, in which, at this time, my father's insurance did not cover my mother for any major procedure. So with that being said, my family wondered if the "no surgery needed" was a legit statement or an avoidance of getting involved in a situation with a patient with insufficient coverage. We were never given a straight answer.
From day four to about day six (October 24th-26th) my mother started to have fevers during the evenings and terrible "gas" causing pain. They would then give her Motrin to break the fever and then GasX to treat her gas. However within those days, nothing was really turning around. The fevers still occurred every night, and her gas pain on top of her pacreatitis pain was now almost unbearable. However, her doctors were pretty much non existant in those days.
We wanted to speak to the doctor on a more detailed scale. We wanted to know details of pancreatits, if this bad "gas" was normal, if the gallbladder was in great shape despite having the large stone, and NOW why she was getting these fevers. Nurses would tell us the doctor would be stopping in however, the doctor wouldn't come. Anyone knows that fevers usually are a sign of the body fighting off something, so we were worried about something else happening. I told the nurse to relay messages to the doctors as my family wanted to be told in detail on what issues my Mom was having..
It was now day 6 and my Mom's pain would still peak to a number scale of 8-10 every two hours, and during much of the stay, nurses weren't on top of administering her pain meds, and at many times lead to terrible discomfort and dry heaving. Once again the hospital would administer her nausea medication from these dry heaves, however once again, we knew nausea had nothing to do with it as the fevers and severe abdomen pain were basically telling us that.
On the 7th day, we were told they would be switching my Mom from the IV Dilaudid of 1mg every two hours, to an oral Dilaudid 2mg every 4 hours. This scared my Mom and us for the matter since the pain level hadn't really lowered and the instructions of taking the new medication we felt would cause more problems. We were STILL in the dark with the situation with her gas and fevers with no one giving us information on what it could be and since now we were in the weekend, we pretty much guessed a doctor probably wouldn't be coming in until Monday. (And we were correct)
My mother took her first oral dose of Dilaudid 2mg in the later afternoon, and slowly but surely it kicked in. However it was not doing as well as a job as the IV did. This ALSO was occuring because her oral pain would be needed every 4 hours, the nurses not being on top of the situation and would give her the medication around 4 1/2 to 5 hours, and since it normally takes about 45 minutes to get into the system, my mom's body wouldn't be feeling the effects of the pain medication until 5 1/2 to even 6 hours! So when looking at the situation, having a body go from being used to having pain medication to treat severe pain every two hours, to treating severe pain with medication every SIX hours is a BIG step, especially when her health hasn't changed, and in fact seemed to get worse. We didn't understand that if my Mom's pain and health wasn't improving, why LOWER medication doses?
We were also given reasons of "under staffing." This reason also was given to us when an nurse who seemed unqualified to be there at the time, made a mistake with my Mom's IV which caused her to bleed everywhere from the bed sheets to the hospital floor. This happening on top of the pain meds not being given yet.
Later that night my Mom turned for the worse. The pain medication was not being received well in my Mom's body and her pain was just as bad as the first day. During a shift change, (which occurred on the 4th hour of when my Mom's medication was ready to be given) the new nurse also made a mistake and told my mother she had one more hour until her pain medication. When we spoke up, she did more research and turned out we were correct on the matter. This also lead to ANOTHER late administering of her medication, and my mother's temperature had gone up to 103 degrees, the highest it's ever been. We were told my mother would be receiving a Motrin to break the fever. With the pain being at an all time high, my mom having gas problems and a fever, we were hoping my mom would be treated as soon as possible. This didn't occur. An hour passed with no Motrin, fever still high, and this lead to my Mom having dry heaves almost every 5 seconds, echoing in the hallways, and my mother going through terrible pain. After almost 2 hours, my Mom finally received her Motrin, and at around midnight, an onsite doctor was finally called in because my mom's situation was so bad. The doctor checked everything out and had the nurses put her back on her pain meds by IV route and said that they would have to do more tests because something else HAD to be wrong since she was having fevers. He also said that there was inflammation in her stomach as well which was probably giving her a "gassy" feeling. Not trusting the nurses judgement, I told my Mom that when she had "bad gas feelings" to tell them you felt "Inflammation in your abdomen" so they would get you Motrin and NOT GasX.
Well we were now at day 8 and her main doctor STILL didn't come in the check on her even with the new information we had. Also no new tests were done to find what the onsite doctor described as "Something else wrong." This made us very upset because we were now at another crossroads with my mom's situation and nothing was being done. However, speaking to the nurses, we did convince them to give my Mom Motrin every 8 hours to control her inflammation. When they did this, my mom's pain levels started to slowly go down. This also made us upset, as we felt WE were diagnosing my mother's situation and not a doctor who should be.
On top of that, they then discussed her release the next day! We were outraged and when we mentioned tests that were suppose to be done, we were THEN told that they had an ultasound being ordered for her. This meaning she would NOT be leaving the following day. It seriously made us feel like they were sweeping my mom under the rug.
Day 9 they did the test and basically we sat waiting for results. My Mom was then put back on her oral pain meds, however that along with the motrin we suggested actually worked well together to ease the pain levels.
The final day, my mother was FINALLY visited by a doctor (Not even one she was assigned to) and the doctor told My family the fevers were caused by the inflammation and that with the combo of Motrin and the oral Dilaudid, she should be able to function and get well at home. Her pancreas was a lot better and the levels were good, and her other organs were fine. She was BRIEFLY told what diet to take at home, and later that evening, was discharged to go home. They would be prescribing a few days supply of Dilaudid 2mg, and to buy over the counter Motrin that she could take for stomach pain.
However, it still didn't end there. See, because of Dilaudid being a controlled drug, the prescription needed to be written on a water maked script paper. This doctor did NOT write the prescription on this specific paper, and when we brought it to our pharmacy, the pharmacist couldn't fill it. The pharmacist LUCKILY got in touch with the doctor and even reassured this doctor that if they weren't as lucky as they were and got in touch with him before he left (Since it was pretty late in the evening) the pharmacy would have had to wait until the following day to fill the medicine, which would have resulted in my mother having NO pain medication until the following day. Me being a pharmacy technician in training, I EVEN knew that yet this doctor did not.. I unfortunately was out of town this final day, so hearing this from afar made my furious that this happened. It was bad enough they did this to my Mom at the hospital, but even when being discharged, they still managed to act where they could have caused my Mom more pain.
In looking at the whole situation, if the doctors had been checking on my Mom in the days we were TOLD they would, they would have seen that everything my Mom encountered were normal things and she could have been sent home sooner. We also came to conclussion that the only REASON why the hospital was thinking something else was WRONG with my Mom was ONLY because their lack of being on time and accurate with my Mom's doses and prescribing of medicine which had her body reacting in extreme ways making everyone THINK something else was wrong..
Later that night/early the next morning, the doctors told us that my mother had a gallstone blocking one of her ducts which was causing the pain, and with that, caused her to have pancreatitis. (also causing pain) They then proceeded to give her medicine by IV route (Dilaudid 1mg) every two hours along with saline and nutrients since because of her pancreatitis, she could not eat any solid foods orally and could only be administered ice chips. They also gave her nausea medication so she would not feel sick.
Next day, the doctor pretty much "checked in" around 10pm or so and told my mom because of the high enzyme levels of her pancreas, surgery at the time couldn't be done. Getting the levels down and getting the pacreatits taken care of was what they were currently working on. My mother had a very tough night with pain that my mother described as having "Multiple child births." To say that my mom was needing that pain medication when the two hours came around was an understatement. In doing research, and speaking with people with experience on the matter, the pain my Mom was going through was somewhat normal unfortunately..
On the third day, the hospital did more tests to where they had told her that the gallstone had passed, and though she had a large gallstone still in her gallbladder, it was large enough to not cause any problems as it was too large to go through a duct.. We were also told that most people had gallstones and wasn't something to entirely worry about. So with that, the hospital just had my Mom rest with pain medication.
The fourth day we were told that my mother was no longer a candidate for surgery. This was confusing since we were told many situations the gallbladder was removed. A nurse may have "slipped" when we were told that it could be an insurance matter, in which, at this time, my father's insurance did not cover my mother for any major procedure. So with that being said, my family wondered if the "no surgery needed" was a legit statement or an avoidance of getting involved in a situation with a patient with insufficient coverage. We were never given a straight answer.
From day four to about day six (October 24th-26th) my mother started to have fevers during the evenings and terrible "gas" causing pain. They would then give her Motrin to break the fever and then GasX to treat her gas. However within those days, nothing was really turning around. The fevers still occurred every night, and her gas pain on top of her pacreatitis pain was now almost unbearable. However, her doctors were pretty much non existant in those days.
We wanted to speak to the doctor on a more detailed scale. We wanted to know details of pancreatits, if this bad "gas" was normal, if the gallbladder was in great shape despite having the large stone, and NOW why she was getting these fevers. Nurses would tell us the doctor would be stopping in however, the doctor wouldn't come. Anyone knows that fevers usually are a sign of the body fighting off something, so we were worried about something else happening. I told the nurse to relay messages to the doctors as my family wanted to be told in detail on what issues my Mom was having..
It was now day 6 and my Mom's pain would still peak to a number scale of 8-10 every two hours, and during much of the stay, nurses weren't on top of administering her pain meds, and at many times lead to terrible discomfort and dry heaving. Once again the hospital would administer her nausea medication from these dry heaves, however once again, we knew nausea had nothing to do with it as the fevers and severe abdomen pain were basically telling us that.
On the 7th day, we were told they would be switching my Mom from the IV Dilaudid of 1mg every two hours, to an oral Dilaudid 2mg every 4 hours. This scared my Mom and us for the matter since the pain level hadn't really lowered and the instructions of taking the new medication we felt would cause more problems. We were STILL in the dark with the situation with her gas and fevers with no one giving us information on what it could be and since now we were in the weekend, we pretty much guessed a doctor probably wouldn't be coming in until Monday. (And we were correct)
My mother took her first oral dose of Dilaudid 2mg in the later afternoon, and slowly but surely it kicked in. However it was not doing as well as a job as the IV did. This ALSO was occuring because her oral pain would be needed every 4 hours, the nurses not being on top of the situation and would give her the medication around 4 1/2 to 5 hours, and since it normally takes about 45 minutes to get into the system, my mom's body wouldn't be feeling the effects of the pain medication until 5 1/2 to even 6 hours! So when looking at the situation, having a body go from being used to having pain medication to treat severe pain every two hours, to treating severe pain with medication every SIX hours is a BIG step, especially when her health hasn't changed, and in fact seemed to get worse. We didn't understand that if my Mom's pain and health wasn't improving, why LOWER medication doses?
We were also given reasons of "under staffing." This reason also was given to us when an nurse who seemed unqualified to be there at the time, made a mistake with my Mom's IV which caused her to bleed everywhere from the bed sheets to the hospital floor. This happening on top of the pain meds not being given yet.
Later that night my Mom turned for the worse. The pain medication was not being received well in my Mom's body and her pain was just as bad as the first day. During a shift change, (which occurred on the 4th hour of when my Mom's medication was ready to be given) the new nurse also made a mistake and told my mother she had one more hour until her pain medication. When we spoke up, she did more research and turned out we were correct on the matter. This also lead to ANOTHER late administering of her medication, and my mother's temperature had gone up to 103 degrees, the highest it's ever been. We were told my mother would be receiving a Motrin to break the fever. With the pain being at an all time high, my mom having gas problems and a fever, we were hoping my mom would be treated as soon as possible. This didn't occur. An hour passed with no Motrin, fever still high, and this lead to my Mom having dry heaves almost every 5 seconds, echoing in the hallways, and my mother going through terrible pain. After almost 2 hours, my Mom finally received her Motrin, and at around midnight, an onsite doctor was finally called in because my mom's situation was so bad. The doctor checked everything out and had the nurses put her back on her pain meds by IV route and said that they would have to do more tests because something else HAD to be wrong since she was having fevers. He also said that there was inflammation in her stomach as well which was probably giving her a "gassy" feeling. Not trusting the nurses judgement, I told my Mom that when she had "bad gas feelings" to tell them you felt "Inflammation in your abdomen" so they would get you Motrin and NOT GasX.
Well we were now at day 8 and her main doctor STILL didn't come in the check on her even with the new information we had. Also no new tests were done to find what the onsite doctor described as "Something else wrong." This made us very upset because we were now at another crossroads with my mom's situation and nothing was being done. However, speaking to the nurses, we did convince them to give my Mom Motrin every 8 hours to control her inflammation. When they did this, my mom's pain levels started to slowly go down. This also made us upset, as we felt WE were diagnosing my mother's situation and not a doctor who should be.
On top of that, they then discussed her release the next day! We were outraged and when we mentioned tests that were suppose to be done, we were THEN told that they had an ultasound being ordered for her. This meaning she would NOT be leaving the following day. It seriously made us feel like they were sweeping my mom under the rug.
Day 9 they did the test and basically we sat waiting for results. My Mom was then put back on her oral pain meds, however that along with the motrin we suggested actually worked well together to ease the pain levels.
The final day, my mother was FINALLY visited by a doctor (Not even one she was assigned to) and the doctor told My family the fevers were caused by the inflammation and that with the combo of Motrin and the oral Dilaudid, she should be able to function and get well at home. Her pancreas was a lot better and the levels were good, and her other organs were fine. She was BRIEFLY told what diet to take at home, and later that evening, was discharged to go home. They would be prescribing a few days supply of Dilaudid 2mg, and to buy over the counter Motrin that she could take for stomach pain.
However, it still didn't end there. See, because of Dilaudid being a controlled drug, the prescription needed to be written on a water maked script paper. This doctor did NOT write the prescription on this specific paper, and when we brought it to our pharmacy, the pharmacist couldn't fill it. The pharmacist LUCKILY got in touch with the doctor and even reassured this doctor that if they weren't as lucky as they were and got in touch with him before he left (Since it was pretty late in the evening) the pharmacy would have had to wait until the following day to fill the medicine, which would have resulted in my mother having NO pain medication until the following day. Me being a pharmacy technician in training, I EVEN knew that yet this doctor did not.. I unfortunately was out of town this final day, so hearing this from afar made my furious that this happened. It was bad enough they did this to my Mom at the hospital, but even when being discharged, they still managed to act where they could have caused my Mom more pain.
In looking at the whole situation, if the doctors had been checking on my Mom in the days we were TOLD they would, they would have seen that everything my Mom encountered were normal things and she could have been sent home sooner. We also came to conclussion that the only REASON why the hospital was thinking something else was WRONG with my Mom was ONLY because their lack of being on time and accurate with my Mom's doses and prescribing of medicine which had her body reacting in extreme ways making everyone THINK something else was wrong..
