Update on the E.R. visit gone wrong
Back on April 14, 2008, I went to the E.R. for extreme pain and bleeding due to the Endometriosis, and I was treated badly and left humiliated.
I wrote a big ‘ol complaint letter and sent it to the hospital within a week of the incident. The person I complained to called back and left a message within a couple of days, and said that while she’d be out of the office until mid-May, she’d have her minions look into this.
I finally heard back today.
Of course, they defend their doctor completely. The doctor who talked to me today even went so far as to say the doctor who treated me is the sweetest doctor evar, and that she’d never hurt anyone. I of course disputed this. He told me she said she’d never forced the pelvic exam, and she’d never stimulated me to loosen me up.
I told him she’s completely full of shit.
There is some good that came out of all of this, however. The doctor told me the name of the woman who saw me that night, and he told me he’ll call my GYN to work out a care plan, so the next time I have such severe pain, I can go to E.R. and get an immediate injection of pain meds and not go through the humiliating experience I went through again.
So I sent a letter to my old GYN, whose office had lectured me back in December to go to E.R. next time I had such horrifying pain. Here is what I wrote:
Enclosed you will find a copy of a bad experience that happened to me upon my visit to Alameda Hospital E.R. on April 14, 2008. I had gone to the hospital for relief of excruciating pain and blood loss associated with stage III Endometriosis.
I had gone to the hospital upon your and your staff’s insistence, after suffering a similar episode of sudden pain and bleeding in recent months.
I want this on record in my file because as of today, [name omitted] from Alameda hospital said he is going to set up a care plan for me, should I need to go to E.R. again. He may need to contact you. More likely though, he will be in touch with the new GYN I’ve started seeing closer to home, at [medical establishment omitted]. But I still want the incident with Alameda Hospital in my file with you, since it was your office who told me to go to E.R.
I feel that the humiliation I suffered at Alameda Hospital E.R. illustrates the problems the medical field still has in dealing with people with chronic medical issues. It had to first take a traumatising, humiliating experience to move forward in setting up a care plan, because neither your office, nor my new GYN’s office, chose to set up a care plan with a hospital local to me IN ADVANCE, when both offices know about the severity of my condition.
Please be proactive next time - if your patient has severe pain and you are privy to this fact, then take the following steps:
• Before you tell your patient to go to E.R. in the event of severe pain, instruct your patient on how to set up a care plan.
• Be sure to interact with your patient’s local hospital to set a care plan in motion BEFORE your patient needs to go to E.R..
That way, the hospital knows who the patient is and treats the patient accordingly, instead of acting from a triage/panic/unknown stance and thereby making things worse.In my case, my care plan will be that I need an immediate injectable form of pain relief if I enter E.R.. All that can be done for me is to make me comfortable and halt the pain. No pelvic exams, no long waits to figure out what’s going on. I’m on an expedited list for a chronic condition.
Thanks for listening.
George is due in two days. We’ll see how it goes. If I can just stay away from forbidden foods, maybe I won’t have these episodes. I wish I knew what I ate that day back in December when I collapsed from the pain. All I wrote the day after the episode was, “…I collapsed from the pain of my condition twice yesterday and that I’m not sure if it’s from acupuncture the previous day, if it’s from the Chinese herbs I’ve been taking, or if I’m just having a really bad cycle.”
You know what this means, Steph.
Yep, it’s another mandatory food diary. This time, add treatment and exercise to the log.
Ugh. I hate doing those diaries.