Saturday, February 23, 2008

Frustrating

The neurosurgeon came in about 45 minutes ago. I had fallen asleep on the couch and woke when I heard him talking with Colby. He said that Colby looks good all in all. He would like to try to send Colby home after 1pm when he gets his last dose of antibiotics. But he needs to be eating regularly and to be less fussy. Colby ate at around 9pm last night and then again at 4:30 and 8:30 this morning. So not at all like his normal schedule and he's taking only about 40-70 cc's eat feeding. Maybe as the day goes on he'll fall back into his routine.
Last time Tracey and I were here, we weren't impressed with the staff here and I'm afraid to say that we're having the same experience. The doctor is GREAT, it's more the nursing staff. Colby got a dose of pain medication while he was in the recovery room. Then when he came up to his room about 45 minutes later, they were drawing up a needle to give him it AGAIN! Tracey was in the room and told them he already got it so they stopped. Then I had told them he needed Pregestimil 24 (the 24 is the amount of calories in each ounce I think). They said they'd put in an order for some. That was around 5pm. At around 8:30 last night I rang the nurse and said he was ready for his formula. She asked what kind!!!! I wasn't that nice to her. About 20 minutes later a DIFFERENT nurse comes in with pregestimil 20! The wrong one! I explained this to her and she seemed aggravated.
Then this morning after the nursing shift change, the new nurse took Colby's sheet and said "Ow, it looks like he took about 140 cc's last night around 7pm....and ...um....40 cc's this morning again at 7am?" Totally wrong! I'm an easy going guy...sometimes too easy going. But this is just ridiculous!
Then the doctor comes in and was checking over Colby. The nurse came in and had the scale to weigh him. As the doctor was checking out Colby, I could see that the nurse was getting impatient. Finally she stepped in and said she needed to get in to weigh him. A little thing but if the freaking doctor is checking over my son after surgery, you can wait to weigh him! She said "Ow, so he's going home today.". The doctor said " Well, if he's showing signs of discomfort or not eating right, we'll keep him." The nurse says "Ow, but he ate some last night" I piped in at this point and said that he's not himself at all and the doctor looked at the nurse and said we'd keep Colby until he was acting himself. She said "well does he still need the IV? maybe if we shut that off it'll make him hungry again." I don't know, but that pissed me off. He's been on IV's before and still eaten. The doctor and I were talking about how he was fussier than normal and the nurse was listening to all of this. After the doctor was gone she went to weigh him and he didn't fuss too much. As she was putting him back down on in his bed she commented that "I don't think he's in that much pain. I mean when a child is in a lot of pain, they'd usually get really upset when we move them."
I'm keeping track of all of this and after we get discharged today, I'm going to write the hospital. It's not just one thing but rather item after item. And if fairness, it's not ALL the nurses. And it's certainly not the doctors. We're very pleased with them. But there just seems to be a major lack of communication on the floor.

4 comments:

I'm Not Skippy said...

Good and bad nurses make all the difference in a hospital stay. Good luck. Hopefully you'll find a good one you can talk into sticking around with you.

Anonymous said...

You know him best. If you don't like the way things are going tell them. Especially when it comes to medicating!!! I wish I had spoke up more while Tyler was in the hospital. I think it's helpful to the nurse, too. Maybe she doesn't realize that she's being crappy. This too shall pass...hopefully, sooner than later :)

Anonymous said...

Scott,
You and Tracey are experts in Colby. No nurse, doctor, therapsit, or what have you ever will be, no matter how many classes they take. I'm sorry you had such a frustrating experience at the hospital, but way to go speaking up to the nurses, especially about the pain medicine and the formula. Dr.'s and nurses need to be reminded sometimes of how to act.

Jamie, Jordan, and Maleia said...

I can't believe that they are so unorganized. You would think since they are taking care of babies, they would pay attention more!!! I'm sorry you have had to deal with this, on top of the surgery. :( I would most definitely write to the hospital, this shouldn't happen more than once. I'm glad the doctor was there to kind of put her in her place.

Hope he feels better soon, and gets his appetite back!!!