In the morning I got out of bed and took my first stroll on the floor. Sarah, my day nurse, walked with me. It was great to be out of bed and moving. Sarah has been a great nurse. She actually decided to become a nurse after a boyfriend with UC had J-Pouch surgery. She was fascinated the procedure and how his life improved dramatically after his recovery. Sarah's favorite cases are GI surgery. She said her least favorite cases are respiratory illnesses. Sarah's quote: "I can deal with poop all day, but if one patient coughs or spits on me, I feel like I need to shower".
The other positive development was a change in diet. My diet went from "clear liquids" to "full liquids". That may not sound like such a big deal, but trust me, it is. I was able to add ice cream, puddings, yogurt, and soft cereals like oatmeal and cream of wheat.
Unfortunately, things went downhill, in a big way, in the afternoon. I had a visit from an ET nurse whose job is to help and educate patients who have an ostomy. Her visit was nothing short of catastrophic. I could probably write a short novel describing the sequence of events that occurred between 3PM and 6PM, but I am going to try to just share the highlights, or should I say "lowlights".
When she first saw my pouch she said that it was too full and that I should never let it get that full again. It was pulling away from the skin and starting to leak a bit. At that point I had not yet emptied it myself. The nurses were handling that. She scolded me like I was a child.... NOT A GOOD START.
As she was emptying she spilled the contents all over me, the bed, and the floor. Her comment was, " This should teach you a lesson. Never let the bag get that full". Are you kidding me? Could this get any worse?
Yes, it did get worse. In her attempt to clean up she used a white hospital towel. Thats right, she used the same soiled towel that she to clean the bed, floor, and my body. My main incision had been oozing a little blood all day. This is totally normal, but it means that it has a small opening. So basically, she was rubbing stool in my open wound. I was starting to lose it at this point and I asked her if she could use a clean towel. Her response was, "It's no big deal". She really said that.
I guess she was upset at this point because as she was cleaning up with a fresh towel she got very rough while wiping around my stoma. It started to bleed. It is normal to bleed a little, but this was a steady stream. I was two days post- op and it was the most blood I had seen.
After she was finished cleaning me up, which was a poor job at best, she started to put a new appliance on. At this point, I couldn't even look at her and I wasn't hearing a word she was saying. She was having a difficulty time sizing and positioning the appliance. She then tells me, " Your incision is incorrect. It is too close to your stoma. It should be a vertical mid-line cut. I have never seen one like this....well maybe, I've seen one other." That was just what I wanted to hear. That my surgeon had done my surgery incorrectly. Obviously, by now, I knew that she was an idiot. My surgery was done laproscopically and my horizontal is about 6 inches long and located a few inches below my navel.
Since she didn't get it right the first time, she took the first one off and tried with a second appliance. I just wanted her out of my room. I knew it was probably not done properly, but I didn't care.
After she left my room I called my regular nurse to come in and check everything. I knew that the amount of bleeding was not normal. She called my surgeon who was in another surgery at a different hospital. After speaking to him, a team of four nurses, including the director of nursing for the hospital, came to my room and redid everything that the idiot ET nurse had done. First they got the bleeding to stop, then cleaned everything and replaced the appliance. That was the third one in three hours.
My surgeon came in about an hour later. He had driven through rush hour traffic from another hospital to check on me. I really appreciate the extra effort. He assured me that everything was fine. He said that I would be checked very carefully for any signs of infection in the coming days.
It was difficult to understand how such an incompetent ET nurse made her way into this hospital. Up until that woman walked into my room, everything was nearly perfect. The care I was receiving exceeded all my expectations. I found out later that night that the ET nurse who usually sees patients at this hospital is on vacation. No one I talked to had ever seen her before. She was brought in from another hospital. My plan is to follow up with the appropriate " Quality of Care" person after I am home. My goal is to make sure that she doesn't get a chance to do this to someone else.
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