HOW THE MOOSE JAW HOSPITAL FAILED ME SO VERY BADLY

I’m writhing this as a blog post instead of doing a video. The reason is, I will start to cry if I try to talk about this and I really don’t want to post a video with tears running down my face. The event I am about to document has left me scared for life. I dream about the event and it will never leave me. What happened has changed me and not for the better.

I went a little more than a month ago to the Dr. F.H. Wigmore Regional Hospital in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada to get a hernia repair with mesh. I don’t have any idea what they first gave me for pain medication, but it did literally nothing for the pain.

I was wheeled into a room (in a bed) to get dressed to go home. At this point I was in pain, but I had no idea how much worse it was going to get when I tried to get out of bed and get dressed. I was left crying out in pain the entire time. When I started to get out of bed, I started to feel the worst pain of my entire life and I started to cry out in pain. At this point the nurse or aid that had put me in the room as just leaving the room and was closing the door. There is no possibility she did not notice my vocalization. At this point I started to sweat and shake from the undesirable pain I was in. I could not at all focus on anything but the task of getting my clothing on.

The correspondence I have had with the hospital just came out with basically saying “we did nothing wrong and you where given pain medication”. Well you must know I told them that the pain medication did nothing to help my pain. I literally said that to the woman I was dealing with. This does not seem to matter in their decision. They also seem to have ignored the fact that there is no way they should have let me out in the state I was in.

Let’s get back to the timeline shall we. I was finished dressing and sitting in a chair soaked in my own sweat and shaking when an aid came to put me in a wheelchair to get me out the door. It was at this point (moments before I left the building) when I said I need pain medication. At this point I was given an oral dose of two kinds of pain medication. It is of interest that the pain medication did not work for me at all. The pain medication could not possibly have started to work when I was sent out the door. It was seconds after I took the oral dose that I was placed in the wheelchair and handed over to the person who picked me up.

Now on a side note I am on a very limited income and do not have an extra $70 to spend on medication that is not covered by the drug plan. This is what happened – I was given a prescription for pain medication that was NOT covered. The pain medication did nothing to dull my pain. When I stopped taking it, there was no change in the level of pain I was in. No chance at all. The medication was useless to me.

I spent 3 days in level 10 pain at this point. I was shaken by this to the point that it was hard to function at all. I could hardly talk I was so drained by the pain. I was literally in shock the entire time.

The correspondence said I should have used the call bell to get help. The idea that someone was leaving the room as I was screaming did not seem to factor in on the matter. To be honest I was so overwhelmed with the pain, that I had no idea at that point there was a call bell. It was all I could to too get my clothing on. The task took every ounce of strength I had. I was close to passing out the entire time. The call bell was the last thing on my mind, and once again, when I started to cry out in agony – there was a person just leaving the room and she just closed the door and walked away from me.

There was also the problem of my bladder not being able to drain after the surgery. I had to go to the hospital ER that night to get it drained manually. This was at my expense to get there and back ($18 each way – remember I live on a very low income as I’m on disability). The pain was still very high and stayed that way for 3 days. It is I’m told a common thing for the bladder not to work well for the first 24 hours after surgery. I will remember to tell them about this the next time for sure – so they can give me a catheter to drain my bladder that I can come back and have removed in a day or two.

Then there is the matter of the pain medication causing me trouble and not actually working to dull the pain one bit. I got plugged up so bad I had to go back to the ER to get unplugged. I did in fact plan for this and started stool softeners the night before I went in and kept taking them the 3 days before I had to get help. It was of no use (I know they could not have prevented it – I’m just documenting the entire event).

I at this time (still in massive pain) had to roll on my left side. This caused me to cry out in pain the entire time I was on my side. The doctor then inserted a finger in there and exclaimed “yup, it’s hard as a rock”. Then I was given two things (inserted in my rectum) to loosen me up. I was told this takes 30 minutes and not to go before them. I have to say I never felt the urge to poop more than after he stuck them things in there and watched the clock until I was able to go poop. It worked thank God and a great deal of poop came out of me.

I’ve been having bowel pain almost ever day since then when I have to poop. It’s not terrible, but it’s there. As well I’ve been having random spikes of pain in the abdomen muscles the entire time after the surgery as well. I found out that this is common, and it is lessoning in frequency and pain level by the day – just in case you have this pain and don’t know why – it’s more than likely normal.

Let’s recap. I started to cry out in pain with a person just leaving the room and before she closed the door. I was left in uncontrolled pain for days that was indescribable. I had to spend a great deal of money on pain meds that did nothing and travel to and from the ER. I have been left having dreams about the event and I will never be able to forget what has happened to me. The hospital investigated it’s self and found they did nothing wrong (what a shock there). All in all, this was the single worst event of my life.

As a side note I also had to go to the ER for a massive pain in the lower belly. I was almost unable to walk with the pain I was in. They did a CT scan and found no valid reason for the pain to be that bad. There was however a fluid pocket left over from the surgery. I got no idea why the pain was so bad that time, but there it was. Also, this pain was back down to very little pain (still there at the time of this posting) and never will know. It did not last long, by the time I was home, it was almost back to the normal just annoying level.

So, I’m left with an empty apology and told I should have pressed the call bell that I had no idea was there because I was out of my mind in pain. Good to know it was there though – sigh. I have to say; how can I trust these people after this?

To go off topic this is the same medical system (local staff) that kept telling mom “it’s a lung infection, take these pills and go home”. The entire time it was lung cancer and she died a horrible death from it. Yet another thing that will be with me to the last moment of my life, it was horrible to witness, and she was failed completely.

There have been many times a friend has taken me in to the ER when I was in terrible pain and I was handed a Tylenol or two and told to go home. So yeah – I just have low respect for the system and just don’t think I can trust them. However, I’m stuck, as there is no place else for me to go and I am left with the need to rely on people I can’t trust.

Well I’ll end this very long post here. Peace to you and have a good one.

Comments

  1. I don't know why but it's not possible to do my normal thing of just moving on. I am stuck on this. I think they have damaged me for life.

    ReplyDelete

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