Fallout

So, I spent 6 days in the hospital and now I am home safe and sound end of story. I wish it was that simple I really do. Even though the crisis is over and the internal bleeding has stopped I still have a small mass of blood hanging out in my abdomen which is still a bit painful and after spending six days in a hospital bed my energy level is very low. 

Also, I just missed a week of work which really bothers me. I've only been working with this company for 5 months so it doesn't look good on my part to be out sick for such a long time. I can just picture the pile of work on my desk waiting for me when I get back.

In terms of medical follow up I am going to see my gynecologist in a few weeks. The suggestion has been made that I take a medication called Lupron. The idea behind it is will cause my body to think it's going through menopause. AGAIN. Yes I am 28 years old and have already been through menopause and I am not looking forward to going through it again. Hot flashes, mood swings not what I thought I'd be going through at 28. I should be picking out baby names and buying maternity clothes!

Anyways, hopefully the medication will shut everything down and stop my ovaries from producing cysts. I am worried about it however because it can cause problems with bone density and things like that, so we may look at adding hormones back in so that it will minimize the side effects.

Another thing that I can't get out of my head is the treatment I received at the hospital, it was awful. First of all, I registered to see the doctor at 7 p.m. I did not get my blood transfusion until 2 a.m. I sat in the emergency room for seven hours, crying and wiggling around in pain. I feel like if I would of got seen at the hospital quicker, I would not have bled internally as much and would not of needed as much plasma and have a quicker recovery time.

I am on so many committees and with the primary goal of making Hemophilia Care better and obviously this goal is not being met.

So now I am in emergency, my nurse comes in to give me some morphine for pain, she pulls out a syringe and inserts it into my IV before she pushes the morphine in, she notices that its the wrong one so she takes it out, leaves the room and returns with another one. She puts in into my IV and before she insert it I look and notice the name on it says "Tanya" so I say I'm not Tanya, she says oops, removes the syringe and returns with the third one which finally says Ryanne Radford. I get the medication and start feeling a bit of relief from the pain. I look up at Zane and he is just horrified when he questions the nurse she says "it's hard to keep everyone straight." Now I don't know what your feelings about our health care system is like, maybe you think it's great because it's Free or at least better than other countries but in my opinion it's not good enough.

A few days later I have another mishap. My nurse comes in and hangs a bag of what I thought and what was suppose to be Benedryl. I get benedryl before each blood transfusion because I have had serious life threatening reactions to plasma. I am beginning to feel very drowsy and and I feel different than I did all the other times so I pull my IV poll in closer and read the bag and it says GRAVOL not BENADRYL. My nurse comes in and says that an error was made and now shes gonna give me my benadryl so leaves. I am so upset so I stop my IV and page the nurse. I tell her that I am not proceeding until I talk to a doctor and the charge nurse. She starts the IV up again and leaves. I stop the IV and wait for her to come back she comes back and says to me you have to stop touching the IV machine you are not trained to use it and I'm thinking I'm not trained? you just gave me the wrong medication!

Anyways I politely say look I've been doing this a long time, I want a new nurse and I want to see a doctor. The worst part about this situation is not the fact that I got gravol because that part is not a huge deal but the bad part is that I was at risk for having a reaction because I didn't get my benedryl before hand.

Anyways my point is this, is this acceptable? As a Hemophiliac as a Canadian as a human being, I don't think that this is something we should put up with.

What I would like to know from my readers (I hope you are out there) What should I do? Should I file a formal complaint? Should I keep my mouth shut? Honestly, after everything I've been through I don't know how I can let this go.