Trauma and PTSD

Hospitalization is emotionally traumatic for many and the longer the hospitalization the more trauma patients experience. I was lucky, my mother rarely left my side. During the first surgery my aunt, a nurse, traveled to be with us. The doctors had prescribed a pain pump. Well, my aunt and mom notice, I’m not waking up, so my aunt starts looking over everything and found the nurse had put the wrong medicine in my pump. My aunt saved my life by catching that mistake before I was dead.

There are so many stories of traumatizing experiences I’m not sure were to start. During the early years my mom needed a break so my sister was staying with me. I was afraid to be alone at night so someone always stayed with me.

Early that day, my blood sugar spiked. I felt like I was stuck in a dream. I was trying to communicate to my mother that something was wrong but I couldn’t wake up and communicate. Luckily, my mother noticed something was wrong and she paged the nurse, who paged the doctor. It turns out the IV feeding they called TPN has a lot of dextrose in it; so, this is a common problem.

That night, my sister and I are talking and I could feel the sugar high coming on. I paged the nurse. She came in and I explained this happened earlier in the day and would she please call the doctor. She informed me that my sugar was 285 not over 300 so she didn’t need to call the doctor it was her call. As I’m confused and questioning her she informs me “I’ve got five patients and you’re number six” as she walked out of my room. Fully intending to not treat me.

My sister called my mom who made a called to the hospital and then came up to the hospital. I don’t remember much because I was freaking out while my sugar was spiking.

When the doctor finally arrived in the room about an hour later; after my mother who drove 30 minutes at least. I was freaking out telling him “the nurse is trying to kill me!” And I fully believed she would have let me die had it not been for my family’s intervention and insistence. To make things worse, when my mom went to find the head nurse to log a complaint, it was the head nurse who had done this to me.

After several surgeries I was sent to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Luckily, I was sent to a world famous doctor who is now retired and the department is named after him. He provided me many miracles. Knowing my fears and that my family would stay with me he arranged for me to stay on a private floor. It is the only hospital floor I’ve ever been on where the nurses treat patients the way patients should be treated. Patients should be treated like customers, nurses and doctors get paid therefore they should provide information and options kindly, letting patients choose.