[Raglet]

trucked off into hospital today for my rituxan infusion. This time I went into the day ward which I had been told was 'a lovely ward'.

I beg to differ.

I was astonished, they didn't even have a patients toilet ! The ward was made up of single rooms (originally built as an isolation unit), plus a day room. Some bright spark came up with the idea of converting the day room into a day stay ward. The rest of the ward is being used for short term surgical admissions.

I was told if I want to go to the toilet, I had to trot along the corridor, go into a strangers single room and ask them if I could use their toilet in their ensuite bathroom.

WHAT ???????

Of course I told them it was outrageous etc etc, but the reality was that I was sitting there with the lure in my arm, rituxan ready to roll, and it was either can the whole thing and be admitted for the infusion another day, or put up with it. I complained to my doctor, who said he had no idea (and I believe that totally - this is the cheap ass hospital administration at work).

So I put up with it, but I plan on putting in a formal complaint tomorrow.
A friend told me I should just have peed on the floor, and i am inclined to agree !

this is just crazy. And it always happens this way, stuff at the hospital happens when I am sick (obviously, why else would I be there) which means I am least able to cope with it. Like that time I got a lecture from a nurse about the evils of homosexuality (I am a lesbian) when I was far too sick to do anything about it beyond complaining to another nurse who said she would talk to her about it.

Oh well, just another of the joys of our third world hospital system, it really is c`r`a`p.

They gave me another 1000 mg of methylpred and I slept all afternoon, sometimes steroids to that to me they just knock me out, which makes no sense really.

raglet

 

[cad]

Hi Raglet,
What an absolute nightmare for you!!!
You shuld absolutely make a complaint as soon are you are up to it.
I really canot believe either tht apreviously a nurse had started lecture you about being homosexual. That is absolutely none or her business and is actually discrimination and i would think a disiplinary offence- was this in the uk?
How disgusting!!! gggrrrrrr!

Hope things improve for you and good luck with the complaint.

Take Care

Cassie

 

[julsie]

Ragletthat is terrible,so demeaning for all the patients.I hope you feel up to putting in a complaint.You're right ,these things always happen when we're feeling bad already and not up to putting up a fightI think I would have been tempted to cop a squat at the bedside as for that nurse harping on about her views on homosexualityhow unprofessional!whatever she thought she should have kept it to herself...gosh!I don't know
Julsie

 

[LBH]

Hi Raglet

I live in a town that has a lousy hospital also and it never fails, but for some reason everytime end up having to go there I end up having a bad experience. I am in the US too and have seen Healthcare in my country go down. The quality care is just not there anymore like it was 20 years ago. So much has changed. Hate you had such a bad experience and hope you start getting well soon.

 

[Raglet]

just an fyi, I don't live in the States, or anywhere near. Honestly, if you want to think about a health care system, you have to go way down to match ours. Our waiting lists are so long that these days they just don't put people on waiting lists anymore - that was some clever idiots way of slashing the waiting list. So if you get referred for a test or procedure and the waiting list is too long, they just refer you back to the doctor for on going care. Which means they can say that no one waits over 6 months, but they don't count the people who never even make it on to the waiting list for the tests, MRI's and surgeries etc that they need.

oh the joys of our hospital system.

raglet

 

[karen.w.]

Hi raglet!

Good grief what an absolute disgrace I am glad you're going to put in a formal complaint,good luck with that!

I am absolutely gobsmacked regarding that atrocious nurse!! she should have been sacked!!! :hissy: how dare her be so prejudiced especially being a nurse too!sorry but that hit a raw nerve with me due to my friend's gay brother going through **** years ago because of small minded idiots!!

anyway rant over I hope you are feeling better after your meds raglet.
take care
love karen x

 

[Jirel]

What a B***h of a nurse. She had no more right to lecture you on your personal habbits as she would to lecture someone on their religion or race. Its just discrimination against minorites.

I hope you didn't let it get you too far down that someone else is rude and ignorant. The toilet things was pretty bad too. I'm so sorry you had to go through all that.

 

[cmfinnis]

Oh Raglet!

WHAT a state! Defo put in a complaint if you can.

The day ward I was last on was 'similar' - but it was built for about 6-7 people but had about 10-12 in it. People having transfusions etc all around me with just a normal hard chair with blankets put round them. Some of looked really sick as well. No loo either - you have to walk down the corridor. AND no individual cubicles which means you sit there being exposed to other people conditions and them to yours. I mean i'm not squeamish but I don't necessarily like watching blood transfusions all day whilst having mine . . .. .

I agree it's a 3rd world health care system (I am in UK) - I'm sure the docs and nurses feel bad about it too, I mean it doesn't benefit anyone, does it.

Let us know what you do next, I may take your lead!

love Cathy x

 

[LoopyLoo]

So this poor person in the side room is going to feel like they have absolutely no privacy at all and what about the risk of infection?!?

It never fails to shock me what people go through in hospitals. Raglet your story is third I've heard this week about shocking treatment and conditions.

One of them is a relative who has terminal cancer and has to travel quite a distance to the hospital - 3 times he turned up for treatment and was turned away. He was also told by an over keen doctor that misread his scan results that he had a couple of weeks to live which was completely incorrect. His immediate family are not coping with his diagnosis never mind all this on top.

I hope you are feeling better soon Raglet. :foryou:

Hugz, :hug:

Pam xxx

 

[Katharine]

Hi Raglet,

Both stories leave me speechless and yet, they are no real surprise! Isn't that sad?

I have to say that we are very very lucky here with health care. My GP keeps telling me that we'll go the way of everyone else in the long-run. I hope they take an awful long time "catching up".

Katharine

 

[LBH]

Sorry Raglet to hear about the Healthcare problems

I think the healthcare system in my country is failing due to many not having health insurance. And the medicals bills here have gotten out of range for many middle class and poverty type of people.
Buying health insurance here is costly and many can't afford it. It's hard getting in to see a specialist in my area. Normally getting in to see one can take 3 to 6 months depending on what kind of doctor he is. I see my primary more than anybody else and he handles my care most of the time. But it's tough having to wait so long for getting seen. I feel for you and hope things get better for you health wise. I think one of our biggest problems is not having enough doctors to go around in the entire world. We are really short handed of them. And finding a good one is hard too.

 

[cinderashes]

raglet I am just appalled... but it doesnt really surprise me, I agree healthcare standards are just a pile of ****. I spent 5 days on a postnatal ward after having my daughter and she had a little accident of the nappy variety on the sheet the first day - the nurse was very rude and told me 'I should really think about using a changing mat', to which i replied that i had just been through 3 days of labour and then had a c section and the oh so helpful nurse had left the mat on the other side of the ward, could she cut me a break? To which she just sniffed! Those sheets were not changed the whole time i was in, yes they made me sleep in my daughters poo for 4 nights while recovering from major abdominal surgery!

you MUST complain and keep pounding at the door saying you are not happy. I would even consider action against the nurse who spoke to you in such a disrespectful way about your sexuality, there is absolutely no need for such unprofessional and arrogant behaviour, it makes me so so mad when i hear about any kind of injustice like this I feel like punching her myself! it is actually a disiplinary offence, it against the Sex discrimination Law i think (used to hold workshops about this but brain gone to mush since baby arrived!). i can find out for you if you like.

Sorry you had such an awful time it cant have helped the reason why you were in hosp in the first place. take care raglet and we're all thinking of you.
Ash x

 

[LolaLola]

Dear Raglet, If only somebody had complained before you might not have had to endure this. I hope the Infusion helps.
x Lola

 

[confused1]

Raglet, what a horrible experience! And unfortunately I fear that more and more health care is going that way, all over the world. Our doctor owned clinic/small hospital here is having horrible problems with all sorts of issues, not the least of which is having to write off massive unpaid bills left by undocumented immigrants who use the hospital as first line health care. Of course, the rest of us actually pay for that "write off." But you can see the levels of care falling all the time.

I hope you do put in a formal complaint, not just with the hospital but with any elected official who might be in a position to do something about it. or at least to make some hospital administrator's life miserable. :wink2:

And yes, it would have served them right if you'd peed in the floor and made them clean up after you. Of course it would have been one more embarrassment for you, but might have made somebody stop and think about what they put patients through.

Sunny

 

[granny weatherwax]

Oh my God Raglet

How awful. I do hope that you put in a formal complaint.. don't hold back either give it to them both barrels! There treatment is diabolical crikey as a vet nurse I wouldn't even think to treat my patients like that never mind humans... how the **** do they get away with it! it's basic human rights good grief!!!

It's a shame that you were not firing on more cylinders to give that small minded excuse for a nurse the sharp end of your tongue. My cousin is gay bless him and one of my colleagues is a lesbian. She and her partner are two of the nicest people I know!! Grrrrr :wall: people are so STUPID!

Hope you are feeling better soon and that you get over your trauma!
Love
Claire

 

[Raglet]

I will definitely follow up a complaint about the toilets, or lack of, but have decided to put that off until next week when I am feeling better after all this treatment.

Tomorrow i go in for cytoxan and methylpred (solumedrol) - but tomorrow I will be at a much nicer place. They let the patients use the staff toilet so it works ok for us all.

feeling pretty rotten, plus disasters on the home front with a very distressed daughter who finds it really hard to cope with all the treatment I have - oh the joys of chronically ill mum and autistic daughter abound.

cheers

raglet

 

[Lily]

((((((((((Raglet)))))))))))))

Good luck with your infusion tomorrow, I will be thinking of you :hug: It's a lot to cope with and I'm sorry your daughter is so distressed. I can understand why of course, but it must be so very difficult to deal with and even moreso because you are feeling so rotten yourself.

That nurse you had who passed comment on your sexual preference should be nick named Nurse Ratched. Remember her from "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" ? :hehe: I haven't told DD yet (she's in her last year of Nursing) but no doubt she will flip when she hears what was said to you and also the toilet situation

sending hugs from across the Tasman,

love
Lily

 

[flutterbye]

That's an awfull situation, it beggars belief that they can think it's acceptable. I hope the cyclo/steroid infusion goes well, and also that the rituxan will be helpfull soon. Hope things at home settle down too, it must be very hard to manage things at time, but you and your daughter sound like a good team together, but when things are tough they must be really tough. I know that when I am at my most ill things between me and my teenagers are pretty hard going, and we don't have any added complications to manage, working with several autic students I can imagine some of the challenges.

Very best wishes for much better days xxx

 

[acard]

Raglet,:hug:
You do not deserve such treatment. You are ill and that is why you are in that h*** hole to begin with.
I cannot complain about the hospital I go to. It is very nice(overlooks Pacific Ocean) and is clean. There are also toilets everywhere:lol::lol:
I think every hosp. has their bad apples, but that nurse was just a very uneducated, narrowminded , and mean indivual.
I think you should lodge a complaint against the witch. She is obviously in the wrong career


Hugs,
Becca