Got angry after a bolshy nurse came Impatiently storming at me like I’m not trying hard enough to get up this morning even though I wanted out of bed myself – totally inappropriate attitude Expecting me to personally unplug and drag a heavy electrical stand and wiring carrying delicate drip feeds round after myself even to the bathroom without entangling myself, pulling wires out, or getting water near the electricity from the water in the sink as I wash myself – add to that a gown that has to be threaded through the drip feed bag by hand to be taken off clearly means someone has to chaperone me – wanting me more self sufficient is fine, I welcome that and in the brief glorious week without being attached to any such hardware I was able to walk, use the bathroom, wash and even shower unassisted (other than staff providing towels, soaps etc) – Also, with the additional weight of the nose threaded line to my stomach coming loose, the thread pulled several inches out of nose in the bathroom, needing someone to rethread and resecure it – with no one immediately to hand I was left twenty minutes before assistance arrived to help sort that one out too. The fact is, that while totally able bodied, I’m wired to so much hardware I’m utterly dependent on assistance but some of those expected to provide it are very resentful of that and somehow expect me to cope without them. I’m able bodied, reduced in mobility due to the tech I’m dragging and being treated like I’m faking being paraplegic at the same time. The panels for controlling feeds are for staff only but they expect patients to learn the button sequences - particularly fun after 10pm lights out when you can’t even see the buttons – tried briefly last night reading the panel by the flashlight on my mobile phone – told a staff nurse this morning who made it explicitly clear it is not my job to handle such sensitive equipment – period Staff tend to start preparing me for washing, but then wander off with vague promises to be back in a few minutes – this morning that was nearly two hours – the kind of crap that makes me want to dig escape tunnels
Hi Forester42,
It is not difficult for me to imagine how upsetting this was. When Janice was just out of intensive care she could not get out of bed unaided and so used the buzzer to call a nurse and heard one of the staff say "what does SHE want now" and later complain that she should not have been released from ITU until she was able to get out of bed.
It is easy to remind ourselves how over worked the nurses often are and of course mostly they are angels but when we are so needy it can be really challenging.
I know when I have been in hospital myself some of the nurses seemed rather angry with the doctors who they felt never seemed to find me a priority - but then I have been a breech on the time record in A+E before now.
<<hugs>>
Steve
