When I had to have the expensive and devastating surgery done over I chose a small hospital in a town of less than 4,000. While I was, quite naturally, not the same pleasant woman from my previous surgery, and they could not understand my anger and paranoia about being given Versed, they were very kind. I got to speak to the anesthesia provider, another CRNA, (from the same outfit as the horrid man who did the original) days ahead of the surgery! He assured me that Versed would NOT EVEN BE IN THE SAME ROOM AS ME!
I got my surgery with only Fentanyl 2 mils. for the tourniquet pain and some nausea medication. I got a Bier block which worked for the pain in my wrist, it was expertly done. Not only did the new CRNA go along with MY plan, he also kept releasing and re tightening the tourniquet to prevent the extreme pain that the previous operation had caused.
Tourniquet pain is nothing to laugh at folks. When my arm came back to life after the axillary block of the first operation the pain was excruciating! I had no idea what had caused it, had no idea that a tourniquet had been applied at hundreds of pounds and then just left there for the entire operation. I thought that that severe pain was a result of the axillary block that the original CRNA had botched. The dreaded NERVE DAMAGE that the original CRNA had used to try to coerce me into a general anesthetic. God I was scared. I couldn't function with that kind of pain forever! I didn't know how long it would last, nobody saw fit to tell me anything, either before or after. Shouldn't this be mentioned in an informed consent?
I wish I could say that having a good experience in the meantime helped me. Sadly, it was so hard to convince the medical providers NOT to give me this drug, and in corresponding with anesthesia providers on the phone and on-line, I am still very worried about getting Versed again.
I want to publicly thank my benefactors at a Community Hospital in Idaho. They were kind, concerned and didn't throw me out of the hospital for being so belligerent about Versed. I got the operation I wanted in the first place at this small hospital.
I also want to thank the Doctor from "Trying to make sense of it all." He is a great man, who understands how very important "informed" consent is. He has given me a bird's eye view of what happens, even in the most prestigious hospitals. Thanks Doctor!
I want to thank so many of the CRNA's from nurse-anesthesia.org. To all of you who showed concern for our plight in regards to informed consent and the sneaky application of Versed, thank you very much. Any one of you nurses would be just fine with me. You are a credit to your profession. Now if you could figure out how to weed out the bad guys from your midst. You know who I am talking about...
For my surgeon who cleaned up after my botched surgery, THANKS! My thumb never went numb, let alone my whole hand. I had none of the side effects from my first operation. Good job. You are the bomb. Lucky you, if I break anything else I will see you first. This is a great comfort. I have no intentions of allowing one surgery in one hospital to prevent me from enjoying that which makes my life worth living. Horses. I will never break another horse, or ride hunter/jumper horses because of the permanent damage to my hand caused by the original surgery, but at least it didn't get WORSE after the corrective surgery! Thanks again Dr., you saved my hand!
If any of you anesthesia providers want to put your name on a list of providers who don't arbitrarily use Versed, please contact me. We may be able to start a consumer list, even a secret one, where concerned patients can check and see if they are getting an anesthetist that doesn't use Versed.
Ditto anybody whose colonoscopy clinic allows the patient to have a colonoscopy, endoscopy, etc. without conscious sedation, that would be information that our readers might like to have. We are getting closer and closer to having customers be able to have some choice about their health care. Lets get a jump on it and have savvy patients pick their team!
No comments:
Post a Comment