I Survived Dying!

Five MORE Rules for the Hospital

SO, it’s April they tell me? I wouldn’t know because I lost March, 2025. About once every decade the influenza virus tries to kill me. I get the vaccine because of this and underlying asthma/autoimmune issues. What happens is the flu virus mutates so rapidly, the actual makeup of the vaccine ends up being a “best guess” scenario.

And about every ten years, the best flu minds guess wrong.

Influenza and asthmatic bronchitis do not play well together. (OK, yeah, it might have already been a little pneumonia at the start. I’d been sick two weeks.) Once I caught the flu, I went downhill overnight and ended up in the hospital for many days. Then I got a blood clot in the lung, which was unexpected because I’ve never had one and was already up and moving.

I have PTSD from this experience, because modern medicine isn’t what it used to be. I had two very good RNs, good hospitalists, and everyone else was mediocre. The standard response from all aides was “I’ll tell your nurse.”

“Yes, but I asked for this pain pill an hour ago.”

“Well, they’re in report.”

It would’ve been good for the RN to look and see who had requested a pain pill or needed a crucial medication BEFORE she went to report?

Then there was IV access for all those medications. Oh, boy. Not fun!

FIVE MORE RULES!

1. YOU HAVE BODILY AUTONOMY

This means you can say NO to anything they want to do (other than CPR which you give permission for ahead of time anyway.) If you don’t want the medication, the IV, the procedure, JUST SAY NO. LOUD AND CLEAR.

If they don’t stop, or refuse to listen, ask to talk to the nursing floor manager or the hospital attorney or the doctor.

Through a series of bad decisions, they totally destroyed whatever peripheral IV access I still had left in my arms. I will now have to have a PICC line placed. I asked the one RN not to run potassium through the IV because it would destroy the vein, but she didn’t listen and did it anyway.

“If it stings, I’ll dilute it.”

“By then it will be too late,” I said. And it was. The IV access of course, infiltrated.

And if you don’t want the nurse who did a very bad job inserting the last IV and instead put it in the nerve, you can tell her to leave. You may have to. She doesn’t get the message very well.

2. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO GOOD CARE

If your stay doesn’t meet your standards, please fill out the survey and let them know. I’m still working on my answers. They aren’t going to be happy. I recognize a doctor married to another doctor is a unique patient, but EVERY patient should be treated the same.

I got some good care, then I got some lousy care.

3. NURSES AND AIDES SHOULD NOT TRY TO COAX YOU.

If you tell an aide/LPN/RN you don’t want them to use a particular blood pressure cuff, they should stop. Especially after you point out you have a painful autoimmune muscle condition.

For some reason, the cheap plastic cuffs were leaving bruises on my arms and also were excessively painful. The cuff refused to stop pumping. They argued I’ll just use your forearm instead, but it hurt there and also in my legs as well.

They’re supposed to problem-solve on your behalf. The joke was the very nice old standard brand manual BP cuff hung on the wall behind my bed. They only needed to find the manometer. The automatic cuff pumped up so high, it actually stopped the blood flow in my arms. They didn’t listen until I finally just said, NO.

DO NOT TAKE MY BP WITH THAT MACHINE.

4. COMPUTERS HAVE DESTROYED MEDICINE.

The first thing I noticed was they no longer LOOK at YOU the PATIENT. They head straight for the laptop in the room. An RN’s sole focus seemed to be getting me the right meds and typing it into the computer right. An admirable goal, for sure. But she didn’t come and talk to me first, just made assumptions, and focused on entering time and date and pill name.

TWICE they came to check my blood sugar. “I’m not a diabetic.”

“You aren’t?” They look dumbfounded at their paperwork.

“NO.”

“OH. I’ve got the wrong patient.”

Wasn’t computerized medicine supposed to solve this?

Her focus was the COMPUTER and not me. Not even a “hi, how are you feeling this morning?” Honestly, if AI does a better job of that, I’m all for it.

5. PHARMACIES SHOULD STOP SUBSTITUTING!

The last time I was in the hospital, a pharmacist came and went over my entire list of medications. I did follow my rule - I brought all my meds from home. But the pharmacist never came. Mass confusion reined.

They substituted a BP medicine I can’t tolerate for the one I brought with me that works.

They demanded to lock up my thyroid medication AND MY INHALER, so the RN had to open it every time I needed my inhaler. Which was a pain. Again, it added delays to my asthma care that were unnecessary.

They also tried to substitute my inhaler. I had to explain AGAIN why I can’t use that one. One, I’d never tried it and two, I have a milk allergy. “Does that inhaler have milk powder?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I will have to check.”

Yes, I rolled my eyes at her.

Then there was the little blood clot to the lung thing . . . oh yeah. I’m now on a blood thinner. I did quit taking the shots because they hurt so much, but the old rule was once you were out of bed and moving, you didn’t need them.

I was up moving around, going to the bathroom. Threw a clot anyway. Thankfully, we have all these new wonderful drugs! Should I have continued the shots? Yeah, maybe. They aren’t a guarantee though.

MY ACTUAL ARMS

No, that is not my middle finger, it’s my index finger.

For how I felt, it might as well have been.

Stay well, and avoid this Influenza A if you can. Majority of the patients there all had it. It is a beast this spring!

LAST RULE - #6 HOSPITALS NEED TO HIRE MORE HELP!!!