[hospital_pharmacist]

Hi everyone,
I will tel you what hapened to me recently because it's a shame
My name is Cristina, I'm 39, I'm an Italian clinical pharmacist and I live in Italy.

I chose to join this group because i think to suffer of myasthenia but i need help by

those who really suffers of this illness to understand if really I have it or no.

I should need an opinion of a doctor too if possible online so that i can print it

and make it see to the neurlogist who followed me in the last hospitalization.

I ask your help because I got frustated by the doctor's here in Italy; they are all

arrogant and they don't listen to patients' symptom.

I tell you what happened to me so the judge about hospitals here in Italy will be up

to you. This fact regards hospitalization.

On March 28th I went to workplace as usually; in the morning of that day and in the

morning of the previous day I took high doses of cortisone as prescribed by my doctor

because a very great low back pain.

About 11:30 am about I began to feel great weakness in my legs and i felt them yeld

like falling to the ground more and more times.

So I had to phone to central work place to ask for someone to come and replace me at

work.

In the meanwhile the weakness began so much great I couldnt stay on my foot, my face

began very pale. When the colleague came he decided to call ambulance and they took

me to emergency room. There the weakness along the hours spreaded to my arms, hands

so it was dfficult to raise them and eyes where so heavy and burning it was difficult

for me to stay with open eyes.

The doctors decided to admit me to neurological unit and i stayed there until April

30th when neurologist decided to bring me to another hospital in another unit to

follow rehabilitation.

During my staying in neurological unit, all the three neurologists who followed me,

after seeing diagnostic test were negative, didn't try to understand what was wrong

in me (you know there are seronegative illness like myasthenia that doctors have to

diagnose through symptoms because the tests are often negative) but they followed the

simplest way discharging me from their responsabilities and leaving in the hands of

psichiatrists.

Really during my hospitalization i suffered of 4 attacks when, after strenous

exsercise, I falled like in a paralysis; during these episodes I couldn't open my

eyes or my mouth and I couldn't move because of extreme fatigue and weakness even if

I was perfectly awake and could hear what happened around of me.

The neurologist soon after the first episode happened early after the admission, made

the opinion I had a psychiatric disorder without thinking to other possibilities like

a hypokalemic periodic paralysis which can be correlated with myasthenia.

So along my hospitalization, even if I went on telling doctors my symptoms, they went

on telling me I didn't have any organic illness and that probably my symptoms were

due to somatization of psychological problems so i needed to get to psychiatric unit

to be tretated with appropiate therapy.

Incredibly only after 30 minutes of talk, the psychiatrist called by the

neurologists, diagnosed me the "Munchausen syndrome"; for the ones who don't know it,

this is a psychiatric syndrome when the affected patient simulates and thinks up to

symptoms in order to get the attention of other people. This was the most offensive

thing the doctors could tell me.

Clearly the doctors didn't believe me since the beginning of my hospitalization and

instead believed along with nurses that i was lying on my symptoms.

What about nurses? They followed entirely the behaviour of doctors. I went through

insults, teasing and disrespectful behaviours by them. When I reported my symptoms to

nurses as i was my duty they didn't often report them to doctors and often they

teased me; once I had a fasciculation on my neck and when I reported this to the

nurse I heard clearly she laught in the hallway with other nurses telling "what kind

of imagination this girl has!". Think you all how I felt by hearing this words!.

Then there were two serious epoisodes could hurt me physically too and that should

make know to public because these are facts shouldn't happen in hospital never;

another reason these facts should publicized is that the neurologica unit where I was

admitted received a prize and a national journal proclamed it as the best

neurological unit in Italy, clearly without worthiness.

The first episode regards an administration of a wrong medicine to me; at that hour

of the day I had to take a tablet but that specific day the nurse took me two tablet.

I state that I took the other medicine even if I didn't take it previously because I

was just recovered by one of the attacks i described above and I thought doctor

prescribed me a new drug because of it. After taken soon I suffer of burning of my

throat that lasted for the entire day and after about 30 minutes I began to suffer

of severe headache, palpitations, sweating and when a nurse measure my temperature it

drops to 35.5 degrees celsius, low enough to cause me health problems.

I asked several times to nurses and then to neurologist what kind of drug they gave

me without an answer; really nurse (another nurse because the one gave me the med was

yet out of hospital) told me that i got only the proper med when clearly nurse took

me two tablets not one.

The neurologist told me the same and assured me he would have phone to the nurse

taking me the meds. Then when he went back to me, after phone call, he replied that

the nurse at home told him clearly he gave me only the proper med and that there was

no reason he souldn't believe to the nurse.

This is the first episode i should report.

The second one is even more serious: after a great physical effort in bath at 10 pm I

had to call the nurses to hel pe to go back on a weelchair because i felt bad. I felt

like fainting with great weakness, nausea, feeling of stmach hole, sweating and

tachicardia.

The nurses tried to make me stayng on foot and m ake me sit on the wheelchair that

was in front of WC.

Suddenly my legs yielded and i falled with body between WC and wheelchair kneeled.

There were 3 nurses two female and one male that night; one of the female told me by

teasing me "When you finished to pray tell us" (I state I falled with my head on the

sit of the wheelchair, the arms along the wheelchair because of the extreme

weakness).

Then all three went out bath for a while. Then they came back and the decided to put

me on a sheet put on the floor and the leave me supine on it. The same nurse told me

again"If you like sleep in the bath so sleep!".

So after calling the doctor and after putting a vescical catheter (harmful choise

because usefullness in that situation and because i'm very sensitive to infections),

they left me with pants lowered so half-naked on a cold floor (this also an harmful

choise since i yet had a bad pneumonia during the last 2 years) for at least 4 or 5

hours.

I heard the male saying to others two "we can call another person and with a sheet in

4 person we are able to take her to bed" but they didn't do anything.

When I had enough strenghts to turn on my belly I tried to crawl to the wheelchair

put by them near my bed; while I was crawling my neighbour in the room saw my head on

the floor and called the nurses. When they saw me they tried to put me on a chair but

the efforts of crawling left me with energies and so i couldn't help them to make me

sit on the chair.So they left me with my back against the back of the chair but i was

so weak i slide backwards and so the chair beating my head on the floor; I stat the

nurses were in front of me but no one prevented me by beating my head.

Then they decided to leave me again on the floor for about an hour agreeing with

doctor they called again.

Then after having some strenght I did the same above understanding that i had to do

all by myself if i wanted to go to bed.

A nurse saw my efforts and tried to help me to sit down on the chair, really she

didnt help me if not a little.

Finally i reached the bed at 6 am since 10 pm. When i was lying in the bed the

previous great efforts provoked me breathing difficulties and cough because tears

went through throath and nurse called doctor who shouting me more times to stop like

i was agitated, then told the nurse to give me a sedative. The med caused me to be in

a paralysis status until 12 pm of the same day.

Moreover the nurses weren't professional at all because i had to ask them more times to give me my meds clearly they forgot to give them......
to be continued.........