Surg

Yesterday James had back surgery. Everything turned out well and he seems to be recovering nicely. He was even able to play some Call of Duty this morning. I think he'll be juuuuust fine.

There were, however, a few bumps along the road.

I had been to this particular hospital before when I had to drop a friend off there. And by friend, I mean the guy on a bike who I hit with my car. But to clarify, he was already on his way to the hospital when I hit him, so I wasn't taking him there because I had injured him. Aaaanyway, having been to the hospital before, I never imagined that it could be so...ridiculous.

First sign of trouble was when the nurse couldn't get the IV into James' left hand...not sure what happened there but apparently the blood started pooling in the top of James' hand so she had to remove the IV which then caused his vein to collapse. I'm not sure if that's common or not but it seems to me that putting an IV in should be a pretty basic thing for a nurse. But what do I know I guess. Please note that his left arm is wrapped with a heating pad and a robe.



Next issue was the anesthesiologist who looked like he hadn't slept in about a week. I'm all about the scruffy face look on a guy...but not when its on someone who is about to inject my husband with a potentially lethal substance. Then he made the comforting statement about how you're more likely to get hit by a car on your way to the hospital than to die due to the anesthesia. The surgeon then came in and proceeded to make a joke about how he'd rather die in a car than from anesthesia. Maybe it's just me, but talking about dying, regardless of the method, right before your loved one goes under the knife is just NOT COOL, man. Then another nurse wheeled James away from me and we said a passionate goodbye in the hallway which James doesn't remember at all. Thanks a lot, anesthesiologist. Ugh.

Then Mama Smith and I waited, ate muffins, waited, drank coffee, waited, nodded off, waited, drooled a little, waited, made a friend, waited. And fiiinally the surgery was over, James woke up and we were able to go up to his room. Then the incompetence of the hospital staff began.

They put James in a three person room. One guy was already on the far side by the window. For some reason, his nurse thought it would be a good idea to put James' bed in the slot right in front of the door so that the spot in the middle of the room was left open. This was fine as there were only two people in the room at the time, but soon a third needed to be in there. The genius staff decided to try to squeeze the new guy's bed past James' bed into the middle of the room space, but there wasn't enough room between the end of James' bed and the wall (this was obvious simply by looking but they decided to try it anyway). Then, one lady decided that it would be a good idea to raise the head of James' bed up in order to make more room for the other bed to squeeze by. Does lifting up the top half of someone who has just had back surgery sound like a good idea to ANYONE?? No. It doesn't. She asked James if he could handle it and he said a little bit was fine. She then proceeded to crank that thing up and didn't even act a little worried, sorry, anything when James cried out in pain because she had raised it so stinking high so stinking fast. The other bed still wouldn't fit through. It was obvious that they were going to continue trying fit the bed through even though it was not possible so I suggested that they just scoot James' bed over to the middle space and put the new guy in the spot by the door. Then they all bowed down and worshiped me for my brilliance beyond measure.

Okay, so in theory, my idea was a good one. I mean, the beds are on wheels so how hard could it be? Apparently, very hard. When they moved James' bed, they bumped him against walls, shook him all around, and showed no concern for him at all. Then, after all that, they forgot to plug his IV thingy back in. His mom and I wondered how many patients on life support they had forgotten to plug in. Then the quarters were so tight that someone on the other side of the curtain stepped on James' IV cord and almost ripped it out of his hand. Poor James. And to top it all off, the guy who had been in the room first was an old hard of hearing guy who was talking (yelling) almost constantly the whole time we were in the room. Granted, that's not the hospital's fault, but it added to the whole horrific ambiance of the room. After a bit of complaining about their incompetence and lack of care for their patient who had just gotten out of back surgery for goodness sake, the staff finally started to move things along and got us out of there pretty quickly.

I guess I should just be grateful that the surgery went well and that James is fine,and I am, but it's hard not to expect a little bit more out of the people who were supposed to be taking care of him after the procedure. Is this just how all hospitals are?? Because that's sure not what it looks like on Grey's Anatomy...