Starz - I'm so sorry to hear about your surgery as well as the treatment you received. I hope you start to mend soon.

I have to say, after reading these posts, I feel so fortunate that when I had my emergency surgery last December, I received excellent care. Not only did they stick to my medication list/schedule, the surgery put me in a flare and they said I could take my lorazepam every 6 hours to help with the spasms I was having and brought it in with any other meds I was taking just in case. I stuck with my once a day dose and only once did I ask for it at a time other than my regular time. (Side note: lorazepam works well for me. Valium and baclofen are both too strong.) My medications were written on a white board with the times I could take it (i.e. every 4 hours XX mg, last dose at whatever time my last dose was). In addition, they regularly checked to see if I needed more pain meds and were surprised when I would refuse them or asked for something light, like Tylenol 3, which worked fine for me being the light weight that I am. If I needed anything, more often then not it was the nurse who came in not an aide. I was in the hospital for almost the month of December and really was lucky with the care I received. The only times that I really have no clue what went on was the first few days after the surgery. It's my understanding I had one on one nursing because the ICU was full and they put me on one of the surgical floors that didn't have many, if any, patients. The nurse gave me meds via the IV. I have always had good luck at this hospital as they are very conscientious of patient's other medical issues, in my case, MS. They were very aware that between the severe infection and the surgery, I was at a greater risk of an MS flare and checked me regularly for neurological symptoms as well.

I am so sorry to hear that so many of you have had issues with the care you received while in the hospital(s). It saddens me that the health care industry has slacked off with their care. I can't say that it's all the nurses fault because it is not. Aides, techs, doctors, etc. all have a role to play in a patient's care. They all have standards of care to maintain and it's sad when a hospital doesn't ensure that their medical staff is upholding those standards of care.

Hi Trish. How are ya?

Hi Sally! I'll post over in the insights thread so we don't hijack Starz thread!

I had a mixed bag of experiences when I had open brain surgery in 2004 - I was on Betaferon at the time - and I remember a nurse (who was trying to do the right thing) jamming the huge saline mixer needle deep, deep, deep into my thigh, and me later realising that the drug hadn't been mixed at all - it was just a huge saline injection.

They were determined to give me heparin/warfarin so I didn't get a blood clot - and my husband and I had to argue with that too - my platelet count was about 30k (normal is 150-500k) and I had been on mega-steroids to try and increase it in the two-weeks prior.

Still, I guess you can't expect them to know everything, every time - they work so hard and have so many constraints. Still, it could have been catastrophic.

Same thing happened to me about two months ago. Dr said my meds would interfere with my antibiotics. My gallbladder was extremely infected as well and I was put on an almost continual antibiotic drip till surgery. They wouldn't let me start my normal meds until I'd been home for two days. Yea, like I was gonna listen to that!!! The hug had its grip on me something fierce and it was right where the surgery was. Norco, baclofen, clonazapam here I come! Not to mention neuro has me on gabapentin for my sz and something else so I was playing catch up with that too!! I was a mess. I feel for ya! I completely get where your coming from. I pray for a speedy recovery for you!

Well just a quick update. Despite all attempts by the doctors and nurses, I am recovering quite well irish tenacity I suppose. My meds are all back on track and this afternoon I was even able to fold up and put away a bit of laundry! Granted it was with multiple trips and didn't finish the load, but hey a small success on the road of recovery.

The hospital did contact me today as well to ask about my 'experience' so I told them about it. But couldn't complain too much since as soon as I started to explain, ms, missed meds... Oh the poor girl on the other side started having kittens!!! I think if I had stuttered even for a second she would have called for an ambulance for me. So in calming her down, I calmed down, and she assured me it would be passed along and they'll do their best in the future to avoid similar situations.

Which I'll be doing my best as well. I do understand that it's a rather small hospital though they're supported by their sister hospital from the city, it makes for a clean and generally well-run hospital, but they aren't as many available specialists and dealing with somewhat oddball diseases must be difficult. So I'm now left crossing my fingers that 1) I'll never need another emergency surgery and naturally 2) that should I need anything cut on in the future they'll follow my schedule.