You won't believe this

[SandyRN]

I didn't have the procedures done. I had a MISERABLE time at that hospital and will NEVER go there again. The medicine that I took for the tests made me go into withdrawl, my pills basically washed right out of my system and by Monday morning I was in full blown withdrawl....vomiting, crying, shaking, couldn't walk, talk or barely move.

It started at the front desk. I begged for a wheelchair and waited 15 minutes for it...this is while I'm pale, laying on the desk, head flopped over it....then I get the w/c and Tom gets back, we finally ride up to the endo lab and I told every single person I needed to lay down and I needed an IV, NOW. I was too polite I think because they left me sitting there for 45 minutes. I told someone I was leaving, and she tried to get me to stay, so I waited, assuming she was getting a RN....15 minutes later we left.

Called the gastro today in tears telling them what happened and they are so upset at that hospital. I NEEDED THOSE TESTS DONE! I DID THE PREP....UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, word of caution, if you take ORAL pain meds, you might, MIGHT, might have a problem with them not absorbing. I don't know if this happened to anyone else but I am writing the maker of the meds to find out.

So, here I sit, crying....waiting on a doctor's call and a call from the Endo unit at that um, hospital, and I used that word lightly.

[dverba]

How could that happen to you???? My prayers are with you more than you know. I wish there was something I could do!

[SandyRN]

I don't know how it happened. :( It seems like sometimes if I don't have bad luck I don't have any at all. I'm not sitting here feeling sorry for myself exactly, but I am very upset. I WANTED the tests done and if the hospital had just taken care of me the way they should have I would have had them done. Instead they left me sitting in the waiting room with a room full of people watching Tom hold me and caressing my head to stop me from crying. SOMEONE should have done something. :(

Sorry, didn't mean to go off, but thanks for the reply. Guess I've got some pent up frustrations from the whole thing.

[dancemomof2]

What a crock. I wa hoping you would have answers not more frustration. Let us know what you find out.

[SharonA]

That is so awful, Sandy. Can you still have the tests?

[SandyRN]

Yes, I'm going to have them done, but now I have to go through the prep again. I'm talking to my pain doctor first though and he's going to have to talk to my gastro doctor as well. I want injections or something, the lollipops fentanyl makes or SOMETHING that will absorb in a different way for 2 days. I just can't go through that again.

The thought of going back to that hospital gives me the willies and its the only place my doctor goes. He's very upset and told his nurse that they would, DEFINITELY make special arrangements for me next time. After they way they ignored me, in a wheelchair for a good part of the time, I'm not so sure I believe him.

Got a call into the nurse manager of the endoscopy lab so we'll see what she's got to say to me.

sigh

[ads]

I wonder if the hospital has a patient relations or patient advocate department? The hospitals HUGE mistakes should be reported and corrected.

ads

[SandyRN]

I'll probably call the consumer relations or patient relations people as well. I thought I'd give the endoscopy lab nurse manager time to right the wrong first. If I were in her shoes I would want to know what went on in my unit so I could fix it....but then again, ya never know how she's going to respond...to her it might be a nothing problem. If I don't hear from her by tomorrow I will call other higher up people. Thanks for the suggestion, it's a good one, and I won't let it slide. Like my gastro's nurse said, I'll only be helping other patients so they won't have to go through this.

[SandyRN]

and there is not one thing on there about the population of people taking oral narcotic pain medications. They talk about the elderly, people with impaired Renal function, etc, but nothing about so many of us.

I'm truly ANGRY. This HAS to be the reason this happened to me....it makes sense. My absorption was messed up due to the prep and it makes every bit of logical sense to me that this is what happened to my pain meds....they just washed right through me.

Anyone else think of any other reason I would go into WITHDRAWL while TAKING MY PRESCRIBED MEDICATIONS as they are ordered?

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so mad there aren't words........

[ads]

Sandy,

I wish you the best in reporting this nightmare and it sounds like it was a horrid experience! It can take energy to report situations like this, so please make it as easy on yourself as possible. At times when this happens to me, I just don't report it because it isn't worth my energy. Please take care of yourself first. Again, sorry this happened to you.

ads

[Bessie]

Oh Sandy,
How awfu. I am so sorry they treated you that way. They must me ignorant and have no compassion. I am angry for you!!!! I know you don't feel well right now but when you get better I would let someone know how you were treated. Hang in there.
Love,
Laura

[leelee88]

OMG Sandy, I just read this...

That does sound logic about how the meds just went straight through you. But there should have been some kind of warning or something!!!
I hope you have better luck next time and I hope this never happens again..
Sending you (((hugs)))

[SandyRN]

I just found it online on a different web page that this prep may cause a change in absorption of pain meds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THAT!? Including my gastro's Nurse Practitioner?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! ALL of this could have been avoided....all of it.

:( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

[SandyRN]

I ALSO took my Maxzide which is an oral antihypertensive with a diuretic in it. THIS is also contraindicated. I think I'm now angry with my doctor's office. I didn't see him, I saw his NP that day. Never again will I see her. I've questioned her before but that day I left confident because she seemed to have gotten better since the last time I saw her.

Now I really am crying. I went through that prep, all that H*LL for nothing. and it could have been avoided, all of it.

[leelee88]

YES it could of!!!
You know thats like Trishanns post she was getting ready to have a Cat scan and the nurse told her she was going to have to drink 32 ozs of water for a CAT SCAN!! She told the nurse something sure sounds wrong about that. And of course the nurse had it confused with another test.. I just don't get whats up with some people these days.. This is people lives they are dealing with!!
Could you imagine if she would of had tried to drink 32ozs of water with IC? For no reason.
Just like that stuff cleaned you out including your meds it could have made you go into seizures or DTs.
This really makes me mad how we are treated..
(((hugs))) again Sandy I am so sorry you had to go through this..
You really deserve a break...

[SandyRN]

She was VERY nice and very apologetic. She asked me if nobody informed me of this prior to my prep and I told her no. So, I've got an appt on Friday with my pain doctor and the nurse told me to ask for injectibles (sp?) for 2 days, then they would take me FIRST thing that morning, so I would come right in and get done ASAP, with an IV, and nursing care. She said she felt so bad for me. She was truly nice and I do feel a little bit better about the whole thing. Now it comes down to the NP at the gastros office apologizing to me for not telling me EVERYTHING I needed to know.

Ya know, I don't feel like much of a RN right now. Why didn't *I* think of that possibility? Maybe because I believed in the care I was getting and didn't have reason to question it? :(

Thanks so much to everyone who has replied....I need the support right now.

[annabella22]

Oh Sandy, you poor thing! I am so sorry you had to go through that. I hope things get better soon! We are all here for you! :angel:

[hdb1982]

My granmother has to have a colposcopy tomorrow and I had to pick upi the golightly(sp) from the pharmacy today. When I was reading the instructions it said that same thing about absorption as you are talking about. It said to take your medicine 2 hrs before begining to drink and there is a possibility that any meds ingested after she begins drinking the prep may not be fully absorbed. I am so sorry they treated you like that. Nothing is worse then being sick as a dog and being ignored. I hope things go more smoothly next time.

[sandymarie]

:pray: i can not believe as sick as you are and all that you have been thru that they did not have orders already ready and a room for you when you got there. It's not like they did not know how sick you were. I hope this does not offend anyone, but they take better care of animals than they do us. I am so sorry you had to go thru this. I do believe this should be turned in. How many others have had to go thru this. I wonder if they will air a show that ic'ers are getting extinct due to the care they recieve. and I am not being trying to be funny. I have actually layed out on the er floor groaning and rolling myself due to this type of care and you know what they did. Nothing.


JJ:pray::pray::pray:

[dancemomof2]

Sandy don't blame yourself. You were sick enough that you shouldn't have had to think as a nurse only a patient. That was someone elses job that day to fully inform you no matter what. Glad you got 1 apology and sounds like better care the next time.

[Babs RN]

I agree with Leslie. Sorry you had such a miserable time and the people who needed to help you most didn't. I hope they get their stuff together the next time.

Hugs and feel better wishes,
Barb:hi:

[callie0767]

i am so sorry that happened to you.that is so maddening!!!!! it does sound logical that the pain meds went right through you sorry for that. why wouldn't they think of that ? idiots!!!!! anyway i hope you are able to have the test and do it comfortably for you.what ever happened to compasion from nurses and doctors ? ( i don't mean the rns on the ic). i haven't found many .good luck sandy

[Sally939]

Oh my, this is the first time I read this. It is a lot to take in. I am sorry that you had to suffer like that. The reason no one told you was they probally did not know, but should have. Where did you finally find the info about absorbing pain meds? Was it on a PI? It should be. The reason you, a nurse, did not know was because you were dealing with it. How in the world could a person that is going through a sever withdraw be able to identify the cause of the withdraw. I would ask the doctor to report this occurance to the rep or company. If a rep is ask to do so there is process they must follow to do so. Again, I am sorry you had such a bad time. I am even more sorry you will have to try it again.

[charmedx3]

Sandy! I was hoping everything would go smoothly for you! and here we thought it would be your veins that would give you a problem! keep us updated!

[da89165]

That is really a horror story. Just when you're at the most vunerable stage, you are neglected, dangerously ill-advised,......by the "healing" community!!!!

I had a similar experience earlier this year when I had to do the prep for a colonoscopy. I also have Addison's (adrenal glands don't produce enough cortisol).....which like IC is not well understood by the general medical population.

The prep of course causes dehydration and this put me into an adrenal crisis which is fatal if you're not given the cortisol in time. I thought for sure that at the "gastro center" that I was going to, would have the injectable form of cortisol there that they could add to my IV. I normally take tablets, but they weren't absorbing enough.

Come to find out, they didn't stock that medicine and I nearly died due to their ignorance. After that, I made sure my endo wrote an RX for me to carry some emergency injectionable medicine with me at all times.

It just fries me to see medical people act so causal when you're wrenched over in pain or about to faint. It's so not right!!!

This doc happened to have employed a market research company to collect data from patients after their procedures.....boy did they get an ear full!!

[ihurttoo]

Just now reading this one! WOW!!!! I am astonished! :tsk: I am glad they apologized but STILL!!!! That is SCARY! I am glad you are okay now, and have a plan for what to do when you go in and they have a plan too now. However, I am HORRIFIED that this happened at all!

I agree with the others...though you are an RN, you werent that day..you were a patient. And even as an RN, you hadnt worked that unit, and didnt know those possibilities, THEY DID! (This stuff should have been in your preadmission paperwork and surgical consent paperwork, so it wouldnt be missed! Not ONLY THAT, but the Pharmacist that gave you the Go-Lightly should have told you that it could do that too! (ESPECIALLY if he/she is your normal one who knows what you are on!!!!) So thats another person whose tree you need to go climb!

So very sorry this happened to you, but thank you so much for posting. At least now we all know this is possible and can warn others here who are about to have this done! THank you and God bless you!

Love and hugs,
Amy

[SandyRN]

da89165 that is a VERY scary story. It's really amazing how poorly treated we can be isn't it? I'm glad you've got your emergency meds now, but no matter what that shouldn't have happened to you! I'm really sorry!

Amy, thanks for your post, as always. I didn't take the go lightly this time, I took the pills, 32 of them. They worked pretty fast, quicker than the liquid I think and guess that is part of the reason they just flushed my meds out so fast. :( I guess I can get past the part that I didn't think of the consequences but I still feel stupid for it.

I DID talk to the drug company twice today and they're very concerned. They took my RX #, my pharmacy name and address, my gastro doc's name, address and phone number, and they called me back once to make sure I knew that prednisone withdrawl can be as bad as narcotic withdrawl. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Tom thinks they're afraid I'll sue because NONE of this is on their patient website and none of this was on the flyer I got from the drug store.

Guess we'll see, but I've been reporting it to everyone who will listen!!!

Thanks to all of you for the great support...I can't thank you enough!!