Sharon, I am sorry that you are having problems in the hospital and hope you will be going home soon. I remember years ago when I was hospitalized with a MRSA infection that took out the use of my knees. I was put on a cocktail of 3 antibiotics that were administered by IV 3 times a day. My insurance had me transferred by ambulance to a rehab facility and left the IV port in for continued antibiotic administration. Upon arrival to the facility, I was put in a standard length 1930’s manually cranked hospital bed (I’m 6’ 4”) and was not formally “admitted” by the head nurse until 6 hours after I arrived. I was due for my antibiotic administration at that time and was in considerable pain. I showed my IV port to the nurse, but she refused to give the antibiotics or pain medication because the discharging doctor at the hospital had “forgotten” to list them on the discharge sheet. I felt like I was living an episode of MASH. I attempted to contact my doctor to get things straightened out, but was only able to leave a voice mail message with the return phone number the nurse gave me (which turned out to be incorrect). When nothing was done to correct the problem, I let my Type A personality out of the cage and did not let up until they gave me my antibiotics and pain meds sometime after midnight.
The following morning, the facility administrator came to my room and said that in his years of service, he had never had staff members come to him so shook up after what had happened the previous night. He apologized profusely for the bad care I received, had me promptly transferred to the proper unit where I provided a modern bed of sufficient length, Every day for the next two weeks I was there, he brought me his copy of the Wall Street Journal. After that, the care I received was very good and I was able to walk out of the facility unassisted. The lesson learned is to be assertive about the medical care you are given. Question everything you feel or know is incorrect. Hang in there, girl!
Bill
