To better understand this situation this will be a long post sorry in advance.
So I have had uti after uti this pregnancy and the dr is working on finding out why they continue to come back and why the antibiotics are not helping like they should.
Almost a week ago I called the on call nurse because I wanted to be sure it was okay to take tylenol (or whatever I could take) with the antibiotic I was on for the UtI.
Better safe than sorry, I was unsure so I called.
I was in so much pain this day I couldn't roll over in bed. I couldn't be touched, I couldn't move. My entire body head to toe was in pain. But my head and right below the center of my back had passed a level 10 pain. And even tho it was a small temp nothing drastic at all, in 20 min my temp went from 98.1 to 99.5 and only continued to increase And i had vomited twice that morning. This was not the first iv felt like this, a few days before then a few before that (so off and on) and I had finally had enough which I told the on call nurse.
I was not intending on going to the er. I just wanted to stop the pain and prevent a fever from coming on making things worse. The nurse said to skip the tylenol she was glad I called to ask what I could take but she was curious as to if the infection had moved into my kidneys and told me to go straight to the ER, so if they needed the dr they could call him.
When I arrived the nurses I had were very nice and got me set up in a room with no problems. Once the RN came in everything changed.
She didn't ask what was going on, she didn't introduce herself, her name was never spoken and her name ID was hidden under the bottom hem of her shirt.
All she said to me was "how far along are you" when she walked In the room and I told her 18 weeks 2 days.
It was silent for a moment so I went on to explain what was going on. She cut me off before I could get the first word out of my mouth and said; this was the LAST thing she said to me:
"We are not here to hand out free ultrasounds, in fact it would be a waste of my time to even get one done to make sure the baby is okay because if it were to be dead there is nothing we could do until 20 weeks. So I don't see why you are here, what the point in you coming in to be seen was to begin with."
Mind you my grandmother and 2 year old are in the room with me, I was curled up in the hospital bed with a blanket that had a decent sized wet spot from where I had been crying from the pain previously.
I sat straight up and told her: if it were my choice they would have told me what pains meds were okay to take with my antibiotic and I would be home in the dark in bed wrapped up in a blanket. I did not ask to be there, I did not want to be there, I was simply doing what the on call nurse had instructed me to do, no if you dont mind listening to why I'm here to begin with maybe we can stop wasting both of our time and get this taken care of.
I continued on telling her What I had told the on call nurse and 4 other nurses at the hospital, I also added on that whoever had the room previously had spilled something sticky on the floor and I had fallen on my ass bc of it once so unless they wanted more problems it needed to be cleaned.
She left the room and the nurse came back in hooked me up to an IV bag of fluids, which putting the needle in almost went through and back out of the skin as she put It in, gave me Tylenol and left for another 4 hours before coming back in to tell me the RN wanted a pelvic exam then I could leave once they were done. So we went to get that taken care of and I was sent back to the room for another hour. I was there a total of 7 hours. When the pelvic exam came back normal they told me I could leave. The nurse went to take out the iv needle, she peeled off a small portion of the tape placed over it then ripped it all off at once pulling not only part of the iv out with it but the top layer of my skin off with it leaving it sore and raw gave me my discharge papers and left (that puddle I told them about still on the floor 5 hours after I had told them about it being there and slipped on once.
I had a follow up with my OB and he said they had just hired on a new team of people to the ER staff and tho he didn't know her he knew she was one of the new members. He was as angry as I was if not more. He told me he would set up a meeting with the the ER director and hospital administration about the specific nurse and RN I had and he would hopefully let me know what would be done, he said she would be lucky to be working in the hospital when he was done with the situation.
I don't feel guilty for her possibly losing her job. I'm hopeful.
1. I never asked for an ultrasound. Never even brought up my pregnancy other than to inform them of how far along I was and what the OC nurse had told me to do bc of all the pain I was in.
2. No member of a hospital should treat a patient like that.
3.if it is such a waste of your time, give your job to someone who could use that time as a value not a waste.
ON A PLUS SIDE: it was not my kidneys, but I was severely dehydrated and the water I had been drinking through the day would basically go right through me.
Again so sorry this is so long.
How would you have reacted?
Re: Not guilty..just hopeful
On a lighter note, I hope you are feeling better!
Anyone who has ever worked in an ER, would recognize this for the BS it is.
Your story does not add up, and I am going to guess this "nurse" was actually a midlevel provider. Not to mention a specialist and a medical director are not going to take time out of their day to discuss a nurse. Do you realize how many complaints they get?
You don't have to feel guilty, no one is going to lose their job.
Never mind this story, I'm more concerned about your daughter. Is she still being harassed by your boyfriends family?
The nurse wasn't shitty until after the RN came in. I complained about the RN to my OB, HE was the one who said HE was going to the people at the hospital. But you know I just spend hours of my day making shit up for entertainment I hope you enjoyed my "story". I feel like I have lived in a bubble lately! And no I nipped that in the butt asap. We spend more time at my grandmother's than we do with them and they are starting to understand why now that we are gone more often. She has "grandma time" on my gmas days off so I stay with them for those couple days then she will come stay here for a day and I'll go back to my gmas with her after that one night.
Other than that, dr appointments, and food shopping I don't leave the yard much and avoid Internet for the most part just check in every now and then. Tends to avoid the excess drama, but the day I come back I get a sour apple. Go figure
Also, I'm pretty sure that a RN shouldn't be making those calls at a reputable place. Not anything against any RNs (you are all remarkable and I can't wait to be in nursing school!) reading this, I've just never heard of this in an ER. If anyone would speak to you in such a way it should have been a nurse practitioner, PA, or a doctor.
I don't see why she would be talking about an ultrasound if you were there for a kidney infection/pain which is what I would imagine you explained either when you arrived at the ER or in triage.
Yeah they might do an ultrasound of your kidneys but that wouldn't make any sense especially mentioning it being "free" and an RN did your pelvic exam? That's not right.
You slipped and your grandma didn't care to get one of the 4 nurses you'd seen?
Your OB has the kind of pull in the hospital she delivers in that she can have people fired on something that's here say? In a department she's most likely almost never had to work in?
Are you sure you went to an ER?
You do realize nurse and RN are synonyms right?
I'm not saying I don't believe your story because I have never had a bad experience, I don't believe it because I have enough Healthcare experience to know that is not how it works. Your story has very big holes.
ETA: I don't understand what your title has to do with your story..?
Married 9/28/13
DS born 11/12/15
EDD 8/13/18