To Kimmi from Lin

From: J&L VERMEY (J.VERMEY@xtra.co.nz)
Wed Nov 28 15:33:37 2001


Hi Kimmi!

Yeah, I know exactly what you mean!

I was forced into attending rehab for a while by my pain specialist, I had to go to the hospital 3 times a week, for the whole day, they worked me so hard that I ended up getting completely and utterly exhausted, I had to sleep the whole entire day just to keep sane, when I had a day off from hospital.

The end result was of no surprise to me really, I had a total break down (not emotionally - but physically) my body could simply not take it! The P.S. was very apologetic afterwards, and he now knows that I am trying to rehab myself at home - at my own pace, doing only as much as I can, and stopping when I get too much pain. I have learned the hard way that I need to listen to my body!

You know, if I were in your situation I would try to see if I could find another G.P.! Why don't you ask around, see if someone is prepared to write your long term scripts - you shouldn't have to feel threatened and end up with extra stress when dealing with an insensitive so and so who has no feel for pain management! You need to have confidence in your GP hon! Remember we have certain rights, and we definitely have the right to decide that you need a more understanding doctor!

I was in hospital last Christmas, and one of the registrars was a real louse. Someone had prescribed that I was to get a shot of 50 mg's of pethidine every 3 hours, so I requested that I be allowed to have a shot of 100 mg's of pethidine every 6 hours instead (as my legs were getting pretty sore from all those unneccessary injections!) He totally flew off the handle - accused me of being addicted to pain medication, and accused me of trying to bribe him into giving me more pain relief! (All I had requested was that I get one injection, instead of two!) And began to yell at me! He was so rude and arrogant, treated me like a child! He also had not consulted me at all regarding my pain relief, and acted as if I had no rights at all. He did not care one iota that I was in such a severe amount of pain! And claimed that I had never before complained that I was in so much pain, when I had being doing nothing BUT complain about the pain. (The lier.) As he continued to yell at me, I quickly went from being upset to being completely histerical. At that point my surgeon, Mr Schroeder walked into the room, he'd been hearing his regristrar yelling at me from down the hall! He demanded to know what was going on. As I started to explain to him what I had requested of his registrar, he sat down on the side of my bed, and took hold of my hand. He demanded to know from the registrar who had changed his script of 100 mg's of pethidine to 50 mg's. The registrar then claimed he knew nothing of that - except his signature was on my medication chart! Mr Schroeder than grabbed my chart and changed it back to 100 mg of pethidine every 6 hours. My room mate, Prue (who is now one of my best friends) witnessed the whole sad business, and had been about to walk out of the room to fetch the charge nurse, as she was very worried! I later told the nurse who was looking after me what had happened, and that I did not want to see that unsympathetic creep of a doctor ever again, as he intimidated me, that he had really frightened me, making me cry. She advised me to tell the charge nurse, and to request that another doctor deal with me from that moment on.

I later wrote a letter of complaint to the hospital.

Two weeks after I was released from hospital I had to attend a check up at the hospital, and was met by a lovely lady registrar, obviously my callous friend had been given the boot!

Now I'm much more aware of what my rights are.

Hope this helps?

Love,

Lin


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