12 Hours Of Hell

[purple]

Yesterday afternoon I couldn't take this intense pain any longer. Since Gyn problems had been ruled out the day before, the Gyn doc told me she believe it was other medical issues.

At the Dayton VA ER...I was put in an open bay with all men, had to skillfully change into a gown with not a lot of privacy. Now, this bay (as one of the nurses told me) was only made for 3 beds...but they had 5 in there....that's how crowded it was. Plus it was one of their storage rooms. And it was the room with the only patient bathroom in the entire ER. So got to see everyone trot back and forth to the bathroom....and see the nurses with all of the urine samples, bedpans, oh yes, that was pleasant.

I got there about 1330...told them my pain was a 9/10. Didn't see a doc for about 2 hours.

Now at the Dayton VA ER....they only have 10 or 12 beds, if that many. They said the docs were "busy".

Then they bring a student nurse to start my IV. I warn her I have very bad veins. I tell this to anyone trying to start an IV on me. Well, now she is visibly terrified. An RN is with her (thank goodness!); but it takes her 20 minutes to get the IV going.

Getting X-rays was hilarious. They called for an escort to take me to x-ray...no one ever showed up, so one of the nurses ended up taking me. Same thing after I was done, the x-ray tech ended up taking me back--he was pissed.

Then comes the CT scan. They get me there....but when I'm done, the lady parks me in the hall (I'm on a gurney) and no one picks me up!!! I am freaking out!!! Alone, in a halfway dark hallway...can't go anywhere, no way to get ahold of anyone...I'm losing my mind. Finally a nurse walks by and asks me if I'm supposed to go back to the ER and offers to take me there.

At some point I was finally given some pain meds....they only helped a little.

And if you're hungry, they will nuke you a frozen dinner.

One guy, 2 curtains down from me had brought his portable DVD player and was watching movies while there!! And they were letting him!! It was ridiculous.

Zero privacy...I don't like giving my medical history, including mental health history when other pts are within 2 ft of you on either side of me.

I was there for just about 12 hours for the docs to tell me they have no idea what is wrong....but they think it's Gyn-related and I should go back to the fee-based Gyn doc! OMG. They said to see my PCP this coming week and sent me on my way with Vicodin.

I just want to cry.

[LarryJ]

.......yup, I feels yer pain (well, I don't REALLY feel YOUR pain, but I do know from whence you speak).

Kinda like when I went to the VAMC ER in Dallas on a Sat. evening. Couldn't pee. Hadn't been able to pee in TWO days. Tell ya, I'm dyin' here. I'm getting this yellow outlook on life. In pain, bad. I've got BPH (enlarged prostate) and I'd been having really bad attack of allergic rhinitis (nose stopped up completely) and I'd taken some over-the-counter allergy stuff that had REALLY stirred up my prostate problem.

So, anyway, I, like you, am laying in the ER. This little kid, gal, was doing her rotation thru the ER for her residency program from UT Southwest Med School. She's THE ONLY "doctor" available.

She's from, like, India or Pakistan or somewhere where good girls don't see big boy's wee-wees, okay. Now, the "cure", the "relief" from my "condition" is a good-sized catheter to drain the bladder (an unpleasant experience, even on a good day, okay!). And, these things work best with a semi-enlarged wee-wee (it takes a little judicious manuvering, so to speak...).

The experience went swiftly downhill from there.....................

My wife finally wound up doing the dirty deed! Right there, with a crowd that had gathered to cheer on everyone involved. The little girl doc had long since disappeared.

I feels fer ya, I really do.

[trailblazer]

And the va says its medical system is second to none, sure as hell don't sound like it. I wish you the best of luck.

[purple]

Ouch Larry.

I just sent a very detailed e-mail to the Prime Care Chief outlining things that went wrong during my ER visit. I asked him that if he wasn't the person in charge of the ER...to please forward it to whoever is. Either way, can't wait to see his response.

Last time I had to go to the ER had the same issue with lack of privacy...being put in an open bay...only woman with all male pts. I was told that would never happen again as they do have individual rooms and females should be put in those rooms. Well, that obviously didn't happen.

Also bet they aren't supposed to have all of the supplies...out in the open...plus dirty laundry and the trash about 3 feet from the foot of my bed. I could've had as many needles as I wanted if I was that type of person...they aren't locked up.

[Pete53]

Last time I was in er it was very crowded and there was no privacy. They lied on my medical records and made me stay overnight.

[halos2]

I wanted to cry too just reading about the way you were NOT TREATED! No excuse at all for this type of mistreatment! They probably wrote something like this in your chart: Vet here complaining of Gyn pain...etiology unknown...then charted your symptoms, objectively and subjectively. Says she was previously treated at facility(wherever) on(date) with no relief of pain. Then charted labs, xray, mri, iv orders...made notations as to preliminary results...possibly inferred something related to ?here for pain medication, vicodin, making it almost look like you only came in for controlled meds.

Get copies of your records from the medical records/information area when you can. Do you have endometrosis? Cysts on ovaries? Have they done ultrasounds on your female organs? Ever done a CA-125 lab test to rule out felmale cancer? The situation went from bad to worse all the way for you...

ER is not an area for DVD watching...phoney sounding for someone to arrive there with some intentions of "movie watching" while the objective of ER is emergency/urgent care...suddenly ill, in pain, received injuries, etc...bogus behavior noted here.

If people don't inform the "higher up's" of the situation/care or lack of/privacy issues/neglectfulness(leaving you wait hrs for tx/pain medication/leaving you in hallway/what if you suddenly had a heart attack???No one was there to render care...all the what if's are disturbing too. The facility needs to have measures in place to adapt to care of females, and to be accountable to the care and well being of all patient's! Where is JCAHO when you need them? (Joint Commission on Accrediation of Healthcare Organization)

Yesterday afternoon I couldn't take this intense pain any longer. Since Gyn problems had been ruled out the day before, the Gyn doc told me she believe it was other medical issues.

At the Dayton VA ER...I was put in an open bay with all men, had to skillfully change into a gown with not a lot of privacy. Now, this bay (as one of the nurses told me) was only made for 3 beds...but they had 5 in there....that's how crowded it was. Plus it was one of their storage rooms. And it was the room with the only patient bathroom in the entire ER. So got to see everyone trot back and forth to the bathroom....and see the nurses with all of the urine samples, bedpans, oh yes, that was pleasant.

I got there about 1330...told them my pain was a 9/10. Didn't see a doc for about 2 hours.

Now at the Dayton VA ER....they only have 10 or 12 beds, if that many. They said the docs were "busy".

Then they bring a student nurse to start my IV. I warn her I have very bad veins. I tell this to anyone trying to start an IV on me. Well, now she is visibly terrified. An RN is with her (thank goodness!); but it takes her 20 minutes to get the IV going.

Getting X-rays was hilarious. They called for an escort to take me to x-ray...no one ever showed up, so one of the nurses ended up taking me. Same thing after I was done, the x-ray tech ended up taking me back--he was pissed.

Then comes the CT scan. They get me there....but when I'm done, the lady parks me in the hall (I'm on a gurney) and no one picks me up!!! I am freaking out!!! Alone, in a halfway dark hallway...can't go anywhere, no way to get ahold of anyone...I'm losing my mind. Finally a nurse walks by and asks me if I'm supposed to go back to the ER and offers to take me there.

At some point I was finally given some pain meds....they only helped a little.

And if you're hungry, they will nuke you a frozen dinner.

One guy, 2 curtains down from me had brought his portable DVD player and was watching movies while there!! And they were letting him!! It was ridiculous.

Zero privacy...I don't like giving my medical history, including mental health history when other pts are within 2 ft of you on either side of me.

I was there for just about 12 hours for the docs to tell me they have no idea what is wrong....but they think it's Gyn-related and I should go back to the fee-based Gyn doc! OMG. They said to see my PCP this coming week and sent me on my way with Vicodin.

I just want to cry.