Had surgery yesterday at 9:30am to remove the primary tumour from my right tonsil, remove 8 molars and to check all the "silent" sites where tumours might be lurking undetected. From "lights out" to wake up was a little under 4 hours which was a bit of surprise, as was the level of pain in my throat!!! But a couple of pain shots soon helped and I was taken up on the ward.
The pain started rampling up again after 30 minutes or so and soon get intolerable, I got a small syringe of Oramorph and was told to flush it over my tonsil; MISTAKE this stuff really burns and did not do anything for the pain either.
On being told that was all I was getting I rolled around in quite severe pain for an hour or so before telling them that I definitely needed more relief; the staff nurse overheard the (by now slightly heated) conversation and informed her colleague that I had been operated on by a surgical robot and the Consultant had stressed that it caused a lot more pain than lazer or conventional techniques and that he wanted lots of pain relief for these patients. IV morpine helped, but not a lot, every time I swallowed it was sheer agony (not helped by the fact that I was aspirating into the windpipe slightly which meant loads of coughing and more repeated swallows to clear it.
Eventually I asked for a saline drip to keep hydration levels and stopped drinking / eating and swallowing altogether, not a wise move but I really had no other option, I was getting IV Morphine & Paracetmol & diclofenac at this time. This went on for about 12 hours (impossible to sleep) until it eased a little and I was able to drink some tepid milk drink.Time for the next morphine shot, I was told that the nurse was "reluctant" to give me anymore as there was only one more before I hit the limit for 24 hours; now starting to get severley pissed off I asked to see a Doctor, fat chance at 3 in the morning so I made them give me the last shot and fortunately the pain eased a little as the morphine wore off.
Lesson learned:
1) Despite the "patient care" mantra, there are still a minority of nurses out there who a) cannot be arsed to educate themselves as to what procedures the patients in their care have undergone and b) must think that the cost of pain relief comes out of their wages.
2) Make sure that you AND THE NURSING STAFF understand the levels of pain associated with a procedure and that a Doctor has prescribed appropriate measures. Get your request for a Doctor in early, these are the only people who can effectively manage your pain, Torbay hospital had 1 "generic Doctor" on call for the entire bloody hospital which is slightly less useful then tits on a bull!
3) Lastly, most of the nursing staff are simply fantastic, caring, dedicated angels; maintaining incredible standards of excellence throughout 12.5 hour shifts (Tories note!!!); against ver serious competition, JANET who was on duty in Torbay Hosptal Forrest Ward on the night on the 21st / 22nd February somehow managed to exceed this standard and helped me so much in various ways that I can never even begin to thank her enough!
CB
