Labeled a Difficult Patient & a Bad Nurse | Wednesday Walk & Talk | Let's Talk IBD

I was in rehab with a broken left hip. Had to wait FIVE hours for pain medicine, then they couldnt understand why i was grumpy. Asked mulitiple times, to no avail. Grumpy was all i had left.

Sepsis can be hugely painful and definitely life-threatening. You are so right the meds/fluids are critical to deliver on time. I feel for the overburdened charge nurse but if she did not have bandwidth for you then needed to delegate to another she could trust. Your life was in her hands. Kudos that you could advocate for yourself. I’ve heard it said the most difficult patients ultimately have the best outcome. Be agreeable when you can, but not so agreeable your health is put at even greater risk.

I'm a retired flight nurse. When people are in pain , most, not all, are so very understandably "grumpy." Patients who are scared are also likely to have , what at any other time would be unacceptable behaviors and temperaments. It is VERY NORMAL. If you are a care giver in any part of the medical field you should be aware of this. You should expect and know how to handle or cope with it. Good medical personnel should automatically know what to do in order to decompress the situation. There are rare occasions that you should call on another person to relieve you. There is honestly no excuse for poor or rude treatment of any patient. I worked in a high stress area that doesn't suit most people. On the other hand, working on a pediatric floor would not be good for me OR the patient. You need to know and understand your strengths and weaknesses; then choose the appropriate field. Anything less in patient care is just wrong.

This was so great! And i love your antique phone in the background.

If a healthcare worker cannot or refuses to understand that the patient may be a bit “difficult” then they need to find another profession. There are certain professions where being an uncaring human being isnt acceptable. Nurses get from me the same attitude they approach me with. Respect is earned, not automatically given.

When my son was in Children's Hospital for his UC, he had gotten a PICC line. One time when we weren't in the room, the nurse came in and was doing something with it without the safety attire she was supposed to wear when dealing with it. We had always been really understanding and showed grace, but this was over the line. It was a safety issue for my son who was already sick and didn't need another sickness to deal with!

I had an awful nurse last time I was admitted. She didn’t give me my meds all night! And I heard her flirting with a coworker down the hall for quite a while. I pushed the nurse button for hours, yelled out the door for her, but she wouldn’t come to my room. I had to call the charge nurse and told them I wanted a different nurse.

A topic I’d be interested in is what you do when you feel like you are “drowning” or “treading water badly” medically. I’m in my early 20’s and only in the past year do I feel like I’m not constantly drowning medically in appointments, meds, home treatments, and therapy sessions. As someone who went from a little sick to incredibly sick overnight the balance is really hard.

I picked wild blackberries all my life. I didn't pick then roadside because a lot of times, those would be sprayed. Well, on secluded dirt roads I could pick them as the likelihood of those being sprayed is minimal. I am 52 and still go out into the field behind my house and pick gobs of wild blackberries and make cobblers, jam and jelly. I grew up putting a little sugar on the berries, add a little milk and eat blackberries like you would cereal. I still do that at least once per year and I visit a small part of my childhood that way.

I had sepsis after childbirth. I’m also a nurse and a light sleeper. I had NSS running, so I didn’t need a flush, but I had a fever of 102°-104° and the nurse hung the IV antibiotic straight out of the fridge. That ice cold fluid going into my hot veins lifted me right out of the bed. I jumped up, took the antibiotic down and laid it in my chest to warm it up. The nurse walked by and saw me, and came running in and yelling. I turned on her and yelled at her, asking how she could put a cold bag on a febrile patient!! She was so startled… she didn’t know that I was a nurse and knew what I was doing, and hadn’t really considered how that fresh, cold bag of fluid would fell on my poor, fevered body. I like to think she learned something that night.

In the UK brambles (blackberries) are planted as they form hedgerows that protect properties from pests and people. It's a common summer past time to go along in the countryside and pick them to make jam. Usually they are sweet, but tart, and no bigger than the top joint of your thumb

You are the kindest most real person. It's your health and you were sick. It was her not you.

The bug you showed looked like an assassin bug/beetle. Best to give them plenty of room. As someone who grew up in the PNW, we picked alllll the blackberries! The small ones were used for jams, jellies, and juice. The Olympic blackberries were used for desserts and mix ins for hot cereals. As for labels.. I would rather be labeled a difficult patient over a drug seeker. I've had dr's walk in to exams rooms, see that I'm a pain patient, and the first thing they tell me is that they don't prescribe opioids. My response is always the same; that's fine, because I'm not here asking for any. But they still treat me as I'm seeking.

I learnt to sneak my pain meds in or my husband would visit & give it to me because nurses never gave it on time & I never got on top of it meaning I suffered & stayed longer.

I’ve eaten all kinds of blackberries over the years from different states and I’m alive and kickin. Not sure why someone would say they are poisonous.

Another wonderful video, Maggie. I love hearing about your day to day life, and seeing you in your beautiful property. How sweet, to rescue the little Monarchs! What a star. Blackberries - I have eaten the seeds all my life and no problems, except for them getting stuck in my teeth! Here in the UK a traditional autumn dish is blackberry and apple pie (a gorgeous combination) and during my childhood many happy hours were spent blackberrying in the hedgerows. These days, I puree the blackberries once I've stewed them, to take out the seeds because I hate picking them out of my teeth. The flavour is just gorgeous. Regarding the main subject of your video, a lot of what you said rang a bell with me - as a stoma patient. I've had several hospitalisations subsequent to my first (colectomy/colon cancer) surgery in 2013, including being treated for sepsis. During the pre-assessment appointment with the anaesthetist prior to my first surgery, he was careful to write down in my notes my concerns about not being able to sit out of bed for the normal required periods, due to my ME (chronic fatigue). I need to spend a lot of time with my legs elevated, and I knew that the physical trauma of my surgery would affect my energy levels and the severity of my other symptoms. After my surgery there was one nurse who got really stroppy with me because I got back into bed too soon (in her opinion). At that point I was having to sit on a chair provided by the hospital which was too high and extremely uncomfortable, until my hubby had a brainwave and brought my wheelchair in for me to sit in, which is tailor-made to my measurements and very comfortable, after which things did become easier. Anyway, I fought against this nurse who wasn't listening to me, and eventually when one of the staff doctors was on the ward, I had a word with him and explained my situation, and that the information should be on my notes and should have been read by everyone having care of me. After this I had no further problems. I already had foot pumps to help with my lower leg circulation and an airflow mattress. At the time I was feeling pretty vulnerable and my emotions were quite labile and I really didn't have the energy to be fighting my corner over this issue when the nurse should have been made aware of my situation. The scene with her got quite nasty and upset me a lot. This is about the only complaint I have had with our hospital in the past 7 years. Mostly people have been brilliant. There was one other incidence after my surgery in 2018 (which later caused my sepsis) - a couple of days after I was discharged, my stoma started bleeding uncontrollably and my hubby was trying to help me to get another bag stuck on but the flow of blood was making the area wet and it wasn't sticking. I eventually stuffed my clothes with incontinence pads (I looked 9 months pregnant!) and we went to A&E. I had to sit on an extremely uncomfortable chair for 4 hours waiting to be seen, and I'd been without any post-operative pain meds all that time. My hubby kept asking them to see to me and they said, "We'll get to you as soon as possible" and nobody was dealing with it. By the time I eventually got examined and got a bed, I was in a pretty desperate state. I know the hospitals are very busy and nurses are rushed off their feet. I had an exploding bag after my first surgery - I kept calling for someone to come and empty it (very early days) and they kept saying "In a minute, in a minute" until it was too late and I was left swimming in output. This involved a huge amount more work than they would have had to do with a simple bag emptying, what with cleaning me up and completely remaking the bed, and all the time they were doing that, I was left sitting in that horrible uncomfortable chair!! This added to my distress as you can imagine. Generally speaking my experiences with all my health care workers has been excellent. Our hospital has been a recipient of the Hospital of the Year award and everyone has been super-kind, patient, friendly and efficient, and has smoothed the path to my recovery superbly in most cases, and also enjoying a good laugh at times too. I tend to dwell on all the positives rather than the negatives, but your video reminded me that these things do happen, and if any nurses are watching your videos or reading the comments, I think it's important that they hear about our experiences, good and bad, so that they know the areas they need to work on. Keep up the good work. You are in a unique position, being both a nurse and a stoma patient - you have inside knowledge of both perspectives! I love your videos - you are so genuine and human, compassionate and understanding. It's beyond me that anyone would "sack" you as a nurse!

We use to pick wild blackberries all the time on the farm and ate them all the time especially in pie and they are delicious. Never heard about the seeds being bad.

Also this is not a “bad patient” story, but it always makes me laugh. About a year ago I was transported to the hospital in the middle of the night for severe vomiting and really terrible (what I thought was) abdominal pain. (It turned out I actually had a pathological fracture in my pelvis causing the pain...but that’s another story.) Anyway, it was during one of the many COVID waves, so hospitals were packed, which meant my husband couldn’t come with me and they didn’t have a room for me so I was on a bed in the hallway. At one point this super young nurse comes by, and he notices that I’m crying. So he asks me if I’m okay, and I don’t have the words to say “I just vomited 13 times and I feel like I’m gagging again, I’m in the worst pain of my life, and I’m on a bed alone in this hospital hallway with no idea what’s wrong” so I just said “I’m really scared”. Poor guy was clearly still workshopping his bedside manner, because he paused for a long time and was like “oh...because of the uncertainty?” As though he couldn’t think of any other reason why a patient would be scared in the ER. 🤣 I think I said “something like that...” and then he moved on. It’s funny now, but back then it was tough to not feel understood the way I wanted to be, especially at a level of pain where verbal communication was difficult.

Asking me if I am ok will make me cry to this day. I quickly got tired of my iv machine beeping whenever I bent my arm. "Occluded patient side" ... so I just started hitting the reset button. I have 1 "good" vein for IVs. In the "Important Information" on my phone, I have stuff like blood type and what vein and where at (IV Site (best) = Left Arm. Intermediate antebrachial vein. Start 5-6 cm below the crook of the elbow for best results.) I also have my allergy and med lists and emergency contacts.

I have panic attacks for years. Trauma can cause this. Heart ♥ beating fast breathing is always hard. I have no problem most of the time now. But learning to calm is the best way to learn.xoxoxoxo