quote:

Originally posted by lbj:

About the only humorous story I have is the second day when 3 young female physical therapists came in, helped me up and I went for a walk in the hallway with the aid of a walker. All went well until we got back to the room.

At that point, the young girls had me still standing with my back to the edge of the bed. They asked me to sit down first so they could place me onto the bed. Then, something happened to me that in all my life had never happened to me before.

As I bent my knees and kind of fell backwards towards the bed, I literally ended up falling onto my butt on the bed and literally sat on balls with great force. If your are a male, you know how that feels.

There I was, in my hospital gown, sitting on my balls, in great pain, surrounded by 3 attractive young women therapists smiling and being cheery while I attempted to hide my rather pained facial expression with my balls feeling like they were exploding.

That was an experience I won't forget.
It's funny now, but at the time I was completed embarrassed. It's possible that in real time, they knew what had happened, and if true, that would be even more than embarrassing.

But even in retrospect, it really was funny and part of life's rich full pageant, fantasy completed I suppose.

Geez lbj, did you have to tell us that?

It's proof positive that even in bad situations life throws at us, humor still exists.

Ouch!! I can relate to that, as something similar happened to me. I hope you recover quickly.

I'm glad to see you still have your classic sense of humor. The longest I've been hospitalized was 5 days, and that was uncomfortable enough without the added pain and issues of surgery and stiches.

quote:

Originally posted by lbj:

quote:

Originally posted by lbj:

About the only humorous story I have is the second day when 3 young female physical therapists came in, helped me up and I went for a walk in the hallway with the aid of a walker. All went well until we got back to the room.

At that point, the young girls had me still standing with my back to the edge of the bed. They asked me to sit down first so they could place me onto the bed. Then, something happened to me that in all my life had never happened to me before.

As I bent my knees and kind of fell backwards towards the bed, I literally ended up falling onto my butt on the bed and literally sat on balls with great force. If your are a male, you know how that feels.

There I was, in my hospital gown, sitting on my balls, in great pain, surrounded by 3 attractive young women therapists smiling and being cheery while I attempted to hide my rather pained facial expression with my balls feeling like they were exploding.

That was an experience I won't forget.
It's funny now, but at the time I was completed embarrassed. It's possible that in real time, they knew what had happened, and if true, that would be even more than embarrassing.

But even in retrospect, it really was funny and part of life's rich full pageant, fantasy completed I suppose.

Geez lbj, did you have to tell us that?

Ha! You should have told them immediately of the cause of your pain. Nurses, quick, grab my balls.

LBJ, I have been hearing great things about immuno therapy. I saw something on the local news last night where a guy in advanced stages of cancer signed for a clinical trial. He figured at this point, why not. He said it took about two months before he started feeling better. They did a scan and sure enough, his tumors were shrinking. Several weeks later...They were GONE! He is still going in for IV treatments because, one of the things about clinical trials, they don't know when it is best to stop the treatment. The guy looked like a normal, healthy adult. The progress in cancer treatments are amazing. Keep fighting brother!

Geez... Were they at least apologetic when they realized you really couldn't breathe?

Not really.
I think they think they did everything right because I lived to tell the tell.

Obviously there are 2 sides to every story, I have presented my side.
I tried before I even checked in to make the hospital, doctors and staff aware of breathing needs I have experienced in the past after previous surgeries, and in imo, to no avail.

One of the nurses that night even accused me of being psychosomatic.
I feel certain that once the x-ray showed fluid in my lungs, she felt differently.

Now, I did panic once everything went south, I will admit such, but sometimes in life it there can be a time for panic, and when I did, it was the right time for such because I was going into crisis.

I do understand hospitals do not want patients self medicating, doing this could cause complications.
However, breathing is so personal and necessary, I simply resent anyone controlling my breathing other than myself, and I will always fight that.

But hospitals are a business, and the protocols they have in place are all about risk management and predictability. But that screwed me up in a bad way.

There was no good reason at all for me to have had to cough a hundred times and go through the pain I did. That's how I see it.

As a Respiratory Therapist I find it unbelievable that post-op breathing treatments were not ordered considering your history. It should have been a red flag that you were using meds to control your asthma. Couple that with the respiratory depressing effects of narcos and you have the recipe for exactly what happened. The mucus can't move because your airways are not dilated, and your breathing is shallow. Coughing fits which eventually can lead to pnuemonia. And the Nurse should have called for an RRT eval immediately. Did she listen to your lungs for wheezing or ronchi? At the very least you should have been using the Incentive Spirometer to keep your lungs inflated.

When this is all said and done, get copies of your medical records, at least pertaining to this. You'll be surprised what will be in them. You were probably drug seeking and whining constantly. 30 years in the business and I no longer 100% trust the medical community.

Nice to see you posting, lbj. Continuing to send good thoughts your way.

I think nurses have become very calloused due to drug seeking and hypochondriac patients.

Sometimes you have to be proactive about your healthcare. My port-a-cath moved out of my vein, it took my neck bulging out before they believed me that something was wrong. Thankfully it was an saline test, not chemo drugs that they were about to start.

quote:

Those of you who have been hospitalized in the surgery unit know that you get almost no sleep while there because every 2 hours, someone is coming in to your room and doing something with you. While necessary, it still bites moose.

In the ICU (whatever the hospital calls it) they have their procedures and they follow it to the letter.

If they move you to a more normal wing, you will be surprised what you can negotiate if you do it with a smile. I was able to convince the nurses to get everything moved to one or two contacts on the night shift, so I could at least 3-4 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Though I had one nurse that was so disorganized that she couldn't handle that. She would come in intending to do something(s), but she forgets something she needs to do it, and goes to get it, gets distracted and comes back an hour later. The entire night was like that, so I talked to the supervisor in the morning and convinced her not to assign that nurse to my section.

As a nurse, I know when some one is seeking pain meds, it's not difficult to tell.

Breathing is essential. The nurses should have been able to quickly evaluate respiratory difficulty - through pulse oximetry, lung sounds, and simple observation (accessory muscle use). I agree with Sigfest is correct. Breathing treatments should have been utilized and possibly Bi-Pap.

The nurse that accused you of being psychosomatic is either very inexperienced, lazy, or an idiot. I can't even think of an excuse for your mistreatment. No excuse at all.

Again as a nurse, I apologize for the substandard care you were given. No excuse at all.

Overall, after the 1st night, I never saw either of the 3 nurses I saw that night. One was the night floor nurse, she is the one who accused me of being psychosomatic.

At that time, I told her that I would concede the point 100% except that now I had physical symptoms and those needed to be treated.

As I say, I never saw those 3 again during my stay. My other nurses and nurse assistants for the remainder of my stay I had no problems with at all.

I will say this though, when all the asthma things went down and they were not on top of it right away, I was pretty upset and debated harshly with them all night.

Yeah, I could talk so I was not going to die at that time. However, it was the shortness of breath, the lung spasms, the wheezing, and the fluid build up which for me, is a tell tell sign control was needed quick. I mean, the 100 coughs with an 8-9 inch incision across my abdomen and the pain, I have never felt something so painful with each cough in my life.
Then rinse and repeat for another 99 times.

I can and have reached certain levels in my life where it can almost be too late. In fact, I was on a ventilator the last time I was at that hospital.

I had had nasal polyp surgery and my lungs filled with blood from the drainage of the nasal surgery.

It's in my record, I talked about it prior to surgery. I don't know what else I could have done so that correct breathing protocols were up and ready to go.

I went to great pains to tell them I simply have a direct type connection between my lungs and nasal passages. I have been this way since I was born.

Well, I think this is my first post in this thread although I've read it when it started.

Sorry to hear what you're going through and I wish you all the best. Nothing like getting an expiration date from a doctor.

My doctor recommended me to go see a lung doctor myself for a biopsy consultation after 2 xrays and a cat scan. It's set for next week.

I don't know what it's about. I've been telling people to prepare their eulogy for me because I want to review their outline at least. I also tell people that if this is lung cancer, then I'm going back to smoking.

Hopefully, all goes well for you.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
My doctor recommended me to go see a lung doctor myself for a biopsy consultation after 2 xrays and a cat scan. It's set for next week.

I also hope all goes well for you with this.

On my last hospital tour for some brain surgery they had me so doped up for several days I thought I was back at home but couldn't figure out when I painted my walls green in the house! My nurse used to say when she came in to give me the pain meds in my IV "Here's a special cocktail just for you!"

Still adding prayers for you healing lbj, and I'll add in some for Rey HRH too..

Adding HRH in my prayers

Rey HRH
Prayers sent
You have email

If you reply please give it some time I am not in that account often but will be checking in.

lbj

There is a lot to say about dates.

When I started my battle in 2009 all they said was stage three A-B Lung Cancer was a hard one to beat.

I had a port in my chest for Chemo infusion. I was cancer free and returned to work in May 2010. I was going every 6 weeks to get my port flushed to keep it open. I asked my Oncologist after about a year when I was going to get it removed and he said never. Well after I made it two years without it returning my Oncologist gave the orders to have it removed. Then, I figured out that when he originally said it would never be removed it was thought the Cancer would return and it would be needed to the end.

My Boss’s wife started her battle with stage four Lung Cancer and stage one breast cancer in 2010. She is still in active chemo and is said lung Cancer is shrunk to very small and has not changed in three years. Breast Cancer is gone. She is very active and at 57 just retired.

After my concurrent Chemo and Radiation treatments I was deemed Cancer free but put on a pill for two years to help prevent remission or recurrence.

There are many break troughs in target therapies every day. I found this free magazine very informative through my battle and I still read it.

http://www.curetoday.com/subscribe

Prayers Sent For God’s Grace and Healing Hands

lbj

I have some Old FORD Blue Oval racing decals that I have had for over thirty years.
I will send you some if you want.
They are about 5 inches long.
My email is in my profile.

Some assembly required.