So it took 35 years but in early December 2020 I had my first experience being admitted to hospital. It was eye opening to say the least and my experience highlighted for me certain things that I NEVER considered when working for the same hospital system. These are my reflections on my hospital experience.

Look after yourself, look after others and always keep Occupied

Brock
@brockcookOT
brock.cook@me.com
www.occupiedpodcast.com

Automatic Transcription

104 My Hospital Stay Reflection

00:00:01 – 00:05:02

So early december. I had my first ever stay in hospital and during that time. And since all of the follow-up excetera i have really been trying to focus on using it as a learning opportunity to see what it’s like on the other side of the health service. I would like to have a conversation today about my experience. And hopefully there’s some tidbits in there that you can learn from and reflect on your own service delivery or your own experience on the other side of the fence So here’s my reflections on my hospital. Stay get a named brock. Cook and welcome to occupied in this podcast. Where aiming to put the occupation in occupational therapy we explore the people topics theories and underpinnings the make this profession sewing credible. If you knew here you can find all that. Previous episodes and resources at occupied podcasts dot com. But for now let’s roll the episode in early october. Twenty twenty is started getting a sore throat. I had assumed that shoe to the weather becoming extremely hot and the fact that we started using air conditioning. More i was coming down with a cold. I tend to get sick very often. But when i do tends to be around those times where during my day i change from hot to call hot to cold environments sort of more regularly. That sort of shift in temperature is really often during the day. Tend to mess me up a bit. So i just assumed i was getting a cold. It started out. Felt like a bit of a nice strip thrive. That kind of thing took some throat. Lozenges etc fell my glands role a little bit swollen etc. Didn’t think too much of it. The next day that would have been like a wednesday the next day so thursday it was slightly was nothing to be concerned about. I’ve definitely had worse. Flus and sort of gradually very very slowly got worse throughout that thursday so went to bed about ten o’clock on thursday. Not not thinking anything open. I think had a throat lozenges or something just before oh into bed just to try and ease it enough that i could get to sleep. I woke up at three o’clock in the morning. Friday morning and my throat was so swollen. I could feel it impeding on my airway. I could still breathe fine. I was struggling to talk. It fell on. My tongue was swollen. And i thought this isn’t really good. This no longer feels like it might be a cold. I should probably go and get checked out now for a bit of context. I had the day before. Already made an appointment with my gp for that friday afternoon to go and get my throat checked anyway. Just in case at three in the morning it was at a stage. Where i was like. I can’t really white another just over twelve hours for my gp appointment. I’m gonna go into a med and see and get checked out. So i took myself into emergency department at the local hospital here. Which is where my story begins side. I’m rocking up. And i will preface this that i am not out to slag off any particular service any staf any department anything like that. I am simply conveying my experience with going through this system i system that have never been on this side of before of never had a hospital. Stay that our member. Apparently i had a short one went ahead. Add noise that. When i was a kid. I have no recollection of that But this is my first time that i’ve ever had access emergency services. First time i’ve ever stayed any extended time in a hospital or dealt with a lot of the professions that i dealt with during this i. I’ll preface it with that just in case it comes across because as positives and there’s definitely negatives To my experience the very first i would say probably negative was trying to actually sort of check in emergency. I rocked up the Obviously my iron ambulatory wanted myself in and trying to speak when i could. I was having some trouble breathing to a lady on the other side of a perspex screen. Who is asking me all kinds of details.

00:05:03 – 00:10:00

And i can’t speak. She’s struggling to understand me but rather than come up with some other way for me to be able to get her the information that she needed. We just continued this for a rather long on what felt like often al until she got enough details that she could actually admit me to or me on the computer. Anyway to the emergency department. I then waited at the front or in the waiting area at the front of the emergency department for not too long before nurse came out and took me and another lady who had been waiting there monitoring are how long she was there when i arrive. Says she’d been that long than me through the serve stores out into the actual emergency ward where she essentially showed us to a bed bed in an emergency. If you’re not sure is pretty much. Just a little curtained-off area. They’re very taught very small. They’re not very comfortable and it wasn’t too long. I i came pretty much all the same questions. The lady beforehand had asked me through the perspex gave her all of that information. It was stuff about what i’d been doing. You know what. I’d noticed how long the simpsons have been there all the usual questions you would think of a background as to the presenting issue. That was all fun straight. After that i had a junior doctor come and see me again all the same questions that the nurse had literally asked me probably ten minutes beforehand. This junior doctors However did a physical examination of my throat and my tongue and surrounding areas etc tribeca. What was going on which is fine. There was a slight bit a pain. She was quite gentle so it wasn’t too bad when that was sort of parking around my mouth in my my tongue etc. She had no idea what was going was a very unique presentation. I’ve found out since that even the when she went and got sort of her boss which i believe was the registrar on that shift. He came to the very similar examination. He wasn’t quite as gentle. Buddy was still. He was still really good. Those doctors in the emergency department. Wh- excellent keeping me in the loop about what they were thinking. What thou doing. What was going on. What was the next step. Excellent the emergency department at that hospital. It was as good an experience. As i could have hoped on the circumstances i guess they originally thought that it was some rare condition. Based on the fact that one side of my tongue was swollen and raised and my tongue. Wiscon- to slow ping and apparently that was some super rare condition that this Doctor had only ever seen before in his studies years ago. But that kind of made me somewhat of an anomaly for a short period. And i got more attention than i think i needed during that time. He did ask if students could come and have a look and examine because it was at the time he thought was going to be the super rare condition. Truck honey remember what. It was called some big medical name. The educator in me went. Yeah sure that’s fine mcafee lifelock. I got nowhere to be him sitting here waiting for you guys to work out what it is and how to fix it so i was more than happy for them to come and have a look. I eventually hurricane. I probably saw twenty doctors In that first couple hours Would come poss and purely ask if they could have a look do a little examination. Some of them were there for a minute I was poked and prodded more than i was expecting to. When i said that i was happy for that to happen. But in the end again the the educator in me or the want to assist in people’s landing Didn’t blink an eye when i that’s one. I got to a point where people were coming up to me and going. Oh your that such and such or you’re the person it wasn’t even my name. It was your the person with such and such condition by that stage. I was starting to think. Wow this is gonna make an interesting reflection at the end of it because that being labeled as a condition was definitely a new experience for me. It wasn’t some something that i was super pleasant or soup Comfortable with Up i never said anything at the time that we’re doing their job and again i was there for assistance. I had no idea what was going on.

00:10:00 – 00:15:00

I wouldn’t say. I was stress too worried because i like. I said i was still able to breathe. I started getting a lot of pain paint swallowing pain drinking pain anytime. I can talk anytime. I move my tongue. It would hurt so even though i could breathe. It hurt to do pretty much anything else i. I was trying to limit that which sending thirty five million doctors around to talk to me. Probably wasn’t assisting in it. I was sent for a c t where they discovered that it wasn’t actually this super a condition that they originally thought it might be all in reflection. I think they were kind of hoping that it would just to liven up their day or something. But in fact it was a massive soap starring in my saliva gland on the left hand side onto my tongue that had then become so infected and saw a swollen that it was actually pushing up on my tongue and then when it had nowhere else to go there was pushing in towards my airway side. The odd thing was often. I had that answer. I don’t think are sore now. The doctor until i got moved to award It was very it was an interesting experience. Where one it was on my slack. I i can understand why people play the victim. Because i had more attention than i wanted. When it was essentially sounding what could be super super severe and rare. And i was in there trying to google. What was what the treatment plan was for that particular condition etc and it didn’t sound very good But as soon as they found out it was something that sort of mundane that was it now was interested in talking after that the other issue was i was in the originally. They kept me onto by mouth. Because up until i found out what the actual issue was. They weren’t shortfalls. Gonna need surgery or anything like that. So i was kept nobody mouth. I got in there at three thirty. Am and by the time. I’d got back from the c. T. i had the answer. They realize that there was gonna be nice surgery i. It was probably about three o’clock in the afternoon. Saw lordy been there for twelve hours and eighty bed just sitting on it. He’s not the most comfortable thing. I was starving. I hadn’t had any water Either and it was difficult to get a plan What was going to happen with regards to the next step by that stage once once i had that sort of an saw so i i ended up having to go up to the n. T. and i had a skype. They checked out my throat to make sure my throat wasn’t being impeded from the inside or anything like that And there was purely this Swollen tissue around this this stein. Why before i left n. T. oft the skype that was oh that oh came back on before i left because i was admitted under the anti tame. I asked them if it was okay to eat. Now that they knew that the plan was gonna be that. I was going to have to stay in hospital and going some. Iv antibiotics for a few days. There was going to be no surgery. Okay sweet. that’s awesome to have some food have some more. Yep sweet niwa race. I had to go back down to d because that would chaka’s and almost waiting for a bed on the surgical ward. So i’m back down to ed just as the nursing shift handover was happening I heard during the hand iva that i was apparently still nil by mouth by which a doth protest because i obviously the anti hadn’t put that into the notes from my appointment in the department so the nursing staff in a d was still under the impression that was nobody math by that stage. I was getting hungry but that will really good once. I pointed out. Mike dude i just got back from ent. They said this is the plan which was written in the knights but the nobody mouth ending actually wasn’t conveyed cy. Shanna bringing in t- it took about forty five minutes but they found out she got permission to yes you can have some food etc and i got like hafa sandwich and a bottle of water which was by that stage. Because i hadn’t eaten the day before. I think it was about twenty eight hours. Since had anything fluid food or fluid. That was the best tasting.

00:15:00 – 00:20:03

Sam tell you what was on it now. But that was the best tasting sandwich i’d have had at the on because i was fading away to a baby elephant. Apparently eventually i got moved to the war now. This is in my experience where i think most people would guy your health. Professional health professionals make terrible patients. And i can agree with that for the most part because one of the things that annoyed me and i know it was hospital policy but it was really really frustrating. Was the fact that no one would allow me to walk anywhere. And that’s annoying. I feel like an easy situation where i can’t go any way. I can’t do anything being able to go to the appointment or move to the war etc on my own. Steam was one of the only things that i actually had control over in that situation. And that was being taken away de. I was in there for a starring in my mouth. I wasn’t on any medication at that point. In time i walked in a drove. The hospital. And i walked in on my pal. There was nothing impeding me from mobilizing. I’d been often wandering and garner the toilet etc in the in the idi ward the whole thirteen fourteen hours that i was in there and multiple nests. Had seen me do this but for some reason. Walking to the next ward was pooh-poohed. Anyway i got stubbing at some points and at one point i gave often just sat in the chair and push me around which was to me. I felt at the time really demoralizing. I found it really embarrassing. And i know there’s no reason for it but to me if i’ve got the power to do something myself and you’re taking that away that’s really disenfranchising and the everything else that have been going on. It has been a really emotional die. I was so tired up. Since three o’clock i was hungry house thirsty. I was not knowing what was going to happen. I’d be on the final tried to be on the phone to work to say. I’m not coming in which was an interesting phone. Call when you can barely speak but it was just sort of this one and it seems like such a little thing when you take it out of context but within the context of everything that had happened up until that point it was almost like. This is too much like i caught. I don’t want to deal with this. Just let me walk. It was the walking was the especially being confined to this tiny little bed so long. I’ve wanted to wanted to stretch my legs. I couldn’t go out of the the ward because the is locked. And i guess it’s locked for a reason like if you generally most people if you’re any there’s a reason you’re in there. I was in for the long period just purely writing for bed. Psi it was a very draining experience and it really got to me that the whole like you know. You can’t walk anyway to me and it got to a point where i think halfway to the wall. Actually the nurse. That was pushing me to this other ward. She was getting directions off another nurse. As to which room it wasn’t it was like back the other way like we’d we’d overshot the hallway and she was gonna turn the wheel and i just went and just stood up and walked because by that stage i was like i don’t care what you policy says. There’s no and this is the bad health bad patient. Because i’m a healthcare professional in me coming out but i was I feel like that choice was made for my own. Mental health was just getting a bit too much. So that assad once. I sort of settled into the surgical ward. Which is where i would stay for the next five days. I was on an iv antibiotics so i would have a bag of iv antibiotics every six hours eight hours to three times a day. Which meant. I was getting six o’clock in the morning and i was getting the lost. Wanna like ten or eleven o’clock at night that was okay. His mind being woken up on you. It was only gonna be for a short period. I’m not a person that generally cubs very well with lack of sleep. Which is the biggest issue. That i had was staying in hospital and again i know while of this happens and i can’t imagine why what someone would think. Well how would react. If they didn’t know the reasons for this but one of the biggest issues. I had a staying on award was being waking up every two hours throughout the night to have my blood pressure taken again. Not a big thing. But i’m not a person not a morning person for sure. I don’t deal well with being woken up for many reasons. Fanny reason really but being waking up every two hours is was just barely slept.

00:20:03 – 00:25:01

Because i knew it was coming again in two more alex i i struggled to get back to sleep. Sleep my sleep hygiene tanked during the week that was in the was horrendous kabul that with the fact that i couldn’t really do anything i couldn’t go anyway because i had to be around like i couldn’t just disappear for the day because i had to be around so they could take my blood pressure and etcetera etcetera all of that stuff fairly regularly plus obviously needed the avi antibiotics. But the one freedom i did get back is obviously. The surgical wasn’t a locked ward. So i could actually go for walks clear my head whenever i needed to this cafes and newsagents and all that sorta stuff onslaught on the hospital campus. I was able to go and get a real coffee and sit outside if i wanted to. I went to the news agents and got some photography magazines. And i was reading those while i was in hospital. My wife brought in pretty much all of my tech. So i have my laptop and charges and all of that kind of stuff so i have my laptop Luckily i could access the wallace in the and i watched a ton of net flicks find hospital. Tv the tiny little speaker thing that sits next to your head and probably annoys everyone else in the room highly inconvenient. And it’s tv. I can get much much better shows on youtube or on netflix. Cy i kind of myself. I was lucky. The room was in being a general surgical ward british such a myriad of different people and those a few people that were sort of in and out of the jury mice die but every single person that was in there. I found myself thinking. Like i’d i need to be here like i am not sick enough to be here compared to everyone else in this room doa people with broken backs. People that are just had like almost full facial reconstructions full-body burns joss compared to my pussy little star muscle a gland and a bit of a swollen fright. I was doing much better. I was wanting my rim than i can actually get up gonna show go to the toilet whenever they wanted which was It got to a point where i felt guilty because my my bed. There’s four of us in this room. Obviously this curtains and everything in between but quite often the curtains are open. And you can see how the paper and because my bed. My cubicle thing was at the very back. Like i had to walk past everyone to go to the bathroom and it got to a point where i was like how much feel guilty. Just go to the bathroom going to have a. Shell like being able to do that. Almost feel like i’m rubbing my mobility in their faces. Not that anyone said anything but it was just a thought that the cross my mind after being there for a while. I’m like oh hi. I feel bad and was a couple of times where i would use the bathroom always out and about. Nfo’s out in a bed just went to get a coffee like i would stay out for until i finished it like. I didn’t wanna walk back in with my coffee from the coffee shop in case someone else in that room has it triggered them in some way. Didn’t wanna rub my my other nine my wellness in their face and like i said i know that no one said anything and i know that that’s probably ridiculous but it was A concern from the time and it definitely had an impact on behaviors during the during my style and it got to the point where i would essentially close off the curtain fully around my bed so no one could see that. I was fond sitting in there. Just want to netflix. On my computer or chatting to people sending emails listening to podcasts. And that kind of thing. And i pretty much left. I have my headphones in oregon. Almost twenty four seven just trying to i guess almost create a little bubble around myself. Because i want didn’t wanna feel guilty about being me. And being there for the reason that i was there and not trying to minimize or not minimize but i guess trying to rob in the fact that i was relatively healthy compared to everyone also soaring that whole board. Not just my room so that was an interesting reflection something. I need really sort of realized that. I was doing or even considering or thinking about until after like a diastolic had already been doing it i went. Oh wait a minute. Why am i doing this. Why am i thinking this sigh. My nursing handovers were always super quick. It was always. This is brock. He’s fun that’s it pretty much he gets. Iv antibiotics three times a day. And that’s about it. Yeah anyway. Eventually i was. I was kept in over the weekend. I thought i’d be going on monday. That kept me in another couple of ice. And then i got sin heim think on the choose out of the wednesday the following. Choose another wednesday with another weeks worth of oral antibiotics. But i was feeling much better.

00:25:01 – 00:30:11

The ent consultants or the anti consultant. There i saw. I saw from the registrar’s and everything that i so regularly saw him a couple of times. He was rough. I i saw him. He was obviously in east full suit and tie and puts them rubber gloves on. He was going to have a program. I may off. And i just about bit his finger off because he joss jabbed me in the soft tissue where it was really inflamed and really saw buddy. I think a normal person would have like seen the reaction on my face or realize that the nearly lost a finger and apologized all gone. Ooh guy so. That’s a bit tender. Not not him. He just kept going and want one time he did. Bring it to you tomorrow. I was that saw He was the least gentle merson and in follow up appointments with him since continues to be the least gentle person i’ve ever had to deal with an all spital i. That was my inpatient experience. Overall i all of the nurses ahead on the surgical ward amazing. really attentive. Really caring even though they were while. You’re helping the middle of the often with apologize. And you know i spoke to a few of them about it afterwards and they’ll look outside the bit that i hate about doing that. Job is like waking people up for no reason other than their blood pressure etc. It’s gonna happen. I know i understood that it had to happen. It just wasn’t pleasant But i’ve all that impassioned experience for the vast majority of it pretty pretty good. I couldn’t really fault it. The the biggest issue like a senate. The stop was that sort of communication breakdown at the stock between ed and other departments. And i would come to land that. That’s that’s where the biggest breakdowns happen with my further experience. Anyway so it’s just awesome on those antibiotics with the plan being to give it a few weeks and then i had to come in for an outpatient appointment. Where he’s he thought that they might be able to remove the stein just under a a local anesthetic in that outpatient appointment. He’s pretty quick. They just sort of poverty out. It’s tally overnight on okay. Couple weeks i had. I had my patient appointment. These starting itself is apparently to fall back in my mouth. He wasn’t confident in being able to do it. Just while i was awake. Sing in a chair So he recommended that we do it via surgery under general aesthetic online. I can dot remember ever having surgery so this was going to be another new experience for me. He was the very rough consultant. That i saw that hap- patient appointment so again. Ouch but overall he was really good at explaining sort of the anatomy of it and where it was and how it worked and how the surgery was gonna fix it. Etcetera cannot fault. His his explanations he’s bedside is blunt. But that’s okay. I understand you know when you see that many people in a day that these things it happens floss award to not long into the new year and i have my surgery. Surgery was a completely different base. I have no recollection of having like. I said at the start. I apparently had had a a small surgery when i was a child. Dr remember it at all. This was a very new experience for me. And i’ve never waited in so many waiting rooms in my life. We had to rock up at six. Am just inside. The hospital doors is a a check in area. We had white in that waiting room. We got checked in. We got sent to the surgical waiting room We waited in that room for what felt like an ala. I then gots moved from that room while f. with me with me up until that point we got checked in again in that waiting room with Again i took all the same details that the first checking and waiting room taken there. I was asked to change into a hospital gown and ted stockings and all of that stuff. That’s that’s standard surgical stuff. I was told that it would be best. If i didn’t bring my fire in or anything like that with me. Any personal belongings. I didn’t even take my shoes. Because she told me. Scheme to your wife you pretty much going into surgery now. Reality was however. I was moved into a waiting room. That was full of people in the same hospital gowns. All of which you were wearing their shoes all of which had their fines. And i waited there. Four another hour with freezing fate and nothing to stare at but o’clock or the terrible news. I can remember. It was the day that they were doing the vote to impeach trump for a second time so that was the early on the news for the hour that i was stuck in this waiting room with my feet just freezing because for whatever reason in that waiting the echo was is called.

00:30:12 – 00:35:11

I remember that from that waiting room. I got moved into another waiting room. This waiting room had the very creative name called the holding bay. So i knew it was another waiting room where i was actually put on a hospital bed and i just got to wait by lying down so the best thing about that was a heated blanket which was lovely because my feet were frozen by that stage from that waiting room. I got moved into what was called theta six which i was like sweet going into theater. This is where. It’s going to happen when i went in there or got wheeled in the house like this is a very small room for to be doing surgery in and i spoke with the anesthesiology team. They inserted the needles for all of my ass theater. And all that sorta stuff hung out. There watched the registrar for that team how to insert one of those needles using a piece of paper blah and the machine. Listen to our member the register. i looked Sorry the student looked extremely like lebron james but that could have been my delusional. I’ve been waiting for so many hours in various waiting rooms talking by that stage. Eventually the emt surgical team shared up again all the same doctors that i’d seen before so i was quite familiar with them. They’ll familiar with me. Which is nice by that stage. Because it meant i did nothing the introductions. The very rough consultant had gone mole. Prod in my mouth with these finger just to for good measure and to bring it to the. I think you is what he was doing. I’m assuming checking which side because he’d andrew and arrow on my neck to make sure operated on the correct side. Which was up bit weird. But i can understand why they would wanna do that because i would hate to have woken up and it still be in there but the other side of my mouth have been kind of open from there i got moved into the actual operating theater and from there it was pretty much a boa. They spent some time setting up. I remember there being a thousand people in that room cords and pipes and also stuff flying everywhere and the next minute. I wake up and it was a battle. Our and a bit lighter in a recovery room surgical recovery room which i can only assume is right next to the final operating theater that i ended up in. I’d been intimated the anesthesiologist was there. When i wake up. I can only assume he woke me up. He pulled the chew out. The tube had been through my knives because operated my mouth. That was slightly uncomfortable and that was the loss of sort of him. That was the last doctor. I saw until a bit. Later in this story Nursing staff up until that point had been excellent really good bedside manners had explained things really well overall up until that point it had been a really relatively uneventful but goes fireside a pleasant experience but it had been as best as i could have expected under the circumstances from that recovery room. I got moved to another. Were covering room. Which would be my final recovery room. Luckily up until that point. I will say up until that point through all of my outpatients from optima inpatient stay from through my outpatient appointments and right up until i was put out for the surgery. The plan was this was going to be a day. Surgery always going in. It was getting steiner’s getting taken out. And i was going to be high in the often when i go back to the recovery ward. I was like all right. Suite my logical brian. Was you sit here. I wake up my get checked out. The doctor’s tom the doer review. I get that high. It probably took me. It wasn’t long. At all oregon. It was half hour before. I was feeling like when i first got my felt a little bit groggy. Probably half an hour later. I was feeling fine at forty five minutes later aric and maybe an hour was feeling well enough that i could go and get changed. I changed animal hospital gam but my clothes back on but my shoes back on all again under my own power Wasn’t being wheeled around or anything like that. A wife was We were talking. I would have been about twelve thirty ish that i got to this ward and the nursing. Hanover just happened. And i had overheard because they went speaking directly to me. But i overheard that i was being transferred to the surgical ward again whenever a bed was available and that was a bit confusing for me because up until that point i had no knowledge of this plan i to that nursing hand ever.

00:35:11 – 00:40:03

I know they’ve got a lot of g.’s. Go do for start of the shift etcetera but when she got around to me doing my blood pressure and stuff know. What’s the plan here like. How does this wecht like does the doctor common seamy now like i’m getting ready to pretty candy harm but i just sitting around all day And she said on you’re staying and walked away and that was the start of when things didn’t go as i would have hoped from a health professional view especially one that teaches communication. That’s when things kind of started to go it skew. If and yeah so i was a bit perplexed by that sort of reaction and over the next couple of times that i would see this person one being when everybody else in the woods. Lunch started to arrive in. I wasn’t given any. And i ost on like my able to get some food because you know been fasting Not before it’s again now. I eighty hours later or something. And i’m a little bit hungry and response was you didn’t arrive on the ward until after the launch orders had been placed. So there’s no lunch order for you and again walked away now. I i’ve been on the ward now a couple of times by this stage for the same process that we talked about earlier and i know that if there’s no lunch order there’s always extra meals etc that come on the trolley. Four circumstances like mine where food is still needed. But that wasn’t offered it wasn’t suggested it wasn’t anything. I wasn’t allowed to leave because i was still under monitoring post-surgery etc so i couldn’t even get my own food but more than the food. I wasn’t like superstar. Having like i was when i was in emergency but more than that the the bedside manner and the communication really just blew me out of the water because up until up until this point. I’d had excellent. Nurses excellent doctors mostly excellent. Communication with me was manly just the interdepartmental communication that i thought had lacked a little bit but up until this point communication with me had been unreal. Could not fault it. I eventually got to the point where i asked. Can i please have the doctor common or can you please ask. The doctor actually originally asked if they could ask the doctor about my plan to go high because up until that point the plan as far as i know had been to go home and she replied again with no. You’re staying by that stage. I was getting slightly frustrated with her. Lack of communication or the nurses lack of communication and the bluntness of a bedside manner and complete dismissive of my requests. Which i was under the impression seemed to be quite reasonable like. Can i have some food and i argued with her politely. I was polite about it. But i explained to her that up until this point right up until the point where i woke up the plan was for me to hire all of a sudden the plans change and no one can tell me why all i wanted to know wife. There was a reason that they can happen during the surgery or whatever it was if there was a reason why i needed to stay. I was okay with that but no one could tell me why in the space of one ala the plan changes. And i wasn’t aware of it. I use the launch as an example. I’m like even the fact that there was no lunch or placed for me indicated that there was no intention of me originally staying there longer than the day like i wasn’t meant to be no one had been planning for me to be their cy. Eventually she rang in tea and anti-saddam going to send a doctor down. I understand they’re busy. Took an hour and a half or so for that doctor. To come down jury period. Though was the final straw that i had with that nursing staff where i was sitting on the side of my bed listening to music. I’ll actually have one head finding. That was my left handed so she wouldn’t even seen it. My wife is sitting in the chair beside the bed. I was obviously very much awake and very much a look. ’cause i was sitting there looking around the room observing pretty much.

00:40:03 – 00:45:06

Everything that happened around me When that nurse who had been assigned to my brew my cubicle. Why have you wanna call my curtain. Surrounded bed came into my cutting surrounded room and spoke directly to my wife and said i’m going on launch that nurse over there pointing at the nurses station. We’ll be looking after him and then walked away and i may have called out off to her saying i’m sitting right here because not talking to the person that you’ll working with talking about them while they’re in the room and not acknowledging their existence is one. Oh one something that. I teach my first year students as one of the biggest no knows in any clinical situation. And i can’t get my head around. Why a seemingly experienced registered nurse would do such a thing but i by that stage i was beyond livid with the lack of communication the communication that i did have was so poor that when the doctor came he gave me the option of discharging or staying overnight. He said that the overnight plan was just a precaution thing that there was no indication of any swelling or anything like that that might indicate my surgery at the point in time which was now about four hours afterwards. And i chose to discharge. I one was already solo angry at everything that had happened up like after i’d woken up from surgery the lack of communication again. I was still hungry. Because i still hadn’t had any food. This was three hours after the. It’d been pointed to the that. I didn’t get any and i had spoken to the doctor and said like what are the likelihood of the swelling coming up excessively fast. It didn’t last time. It was like a two day thing. He agreed that it would probably be fairly similar. If it did happen and i came to the conclusion that well staying overnight isn’t going to do anything other than disrupts. My sleep again didn’t want to be there already was exceedingly uncomfortable. Those beds on the best show. Anyone piece into ospel will now. I said to the duck. I’ll get high end if anything stotts swelling. If i get excessive pain if anything out of the ordinary he gave me a list of things to look out for all come back and he was happy with that. I didn’t have to sign a discharge against medical advice. Why of all. But i was more than comfortable in that and again i know a lot of people have gone on. You’re just the health professionals terrible patients and that may be the case but it was an experience that i just wanted. I was done with it anyway. I had no issues following that. My surgery went. Well everything healed up fawn and everything has been erique since on reflection. i. I’ve taken some lessons as i’ve just described you guys. I’ve taken some lessons Around communication that. I think a really valuable And it’s reinforced. Some of the things that we’re taught and that we teach to our future professionals around communication like don’t talk about the person like they’re not in the room when they’re right there and that was number one i think being able to try and empower the person to take control to be able to enable them as much as possible to be in. Control is another one within raisins again. I understand hospital policy and stuff. But i think a lot of the time we see reactions that we might interpret as aggressive or frustrated annoyed. Angry when really. It’s being caused by the system that we’re working in and i think a little bit of understanding around that for the people that we work with will massively long way overall. I would say the majority of my hospital. Experience was as positive as could be expected under the circumstances. But there’s definitely some things that i believe that we as health professionals can assist in improving. Actually one story that. I forgot to tell that. Do want to add because when i was waiting in the fifth or sixth whatever waiting room before my surgery i was sitting in a chair in this waiting room staring at the tv watching the trump vote impeachment. Come in there was a guy. I’d never lou. I never actually turned around. Look does listening. Here’s behind me was in bed. He’d already had his surgery the day before i was about ten o’clock in the morning i found out he’d apparently had his surgery at about three o’clock the the apple previous and the nurse was trying to explain to him that there was a rule that you couldn’t get on public transport for twenty four hours after after surgery after waking up from general anaesthetic the quite an accent.

00:45:06 – 00:48:18

I’m not sure what country was from. It sounded sort of germany. But it could’ve could’ve been many of those. I’m not sure he lived on a small island off the coast of where i i live. He lived there so you have to catch a ferry which is technically classed as public transport. So she was trying to explain to him. I believe she might have been a social worker. Nurse i’m not sure but she was trying to explain to him that he couldn’t get on the ferry until three o’clock which would have been you know when the twenty four hours was up but she said that she was explaining that we could arrange so that you could get there at three o’clock so that when three o’clock rolls around you know you can get on the ferry and get hired as quickly as possible and she kept saying to him like we can put you on the bus so that you at the ferry at three o’clock so when that twenty four hours is up you can jump on the ferry and get high and this poor guy. I went around in circles for about twenty minutes because this pull couldn’t understand why he couldn’t catch public transport i e the ferry but he was going to catch the bus to the ferry before the three o’clock deadline or before the three o’clock sort of caught off and they went around and he was like. But you gonna put me on the bus so walk on. I just cast the boss now. Why kind of if you put me on the boss. Now walk on. Just get on the ferry now and they went around like i said for twenty minutes before even i clicked onto what she was trying to say. Was that that we’re going to get the hospital transport bus to take him to the ferry so that he was at the ferry at three o’clock but at no point did she say the hospital transport. It was just the boss and they just was. It was almost benny hill. Skit sketch it was just they went around in circles. it was almost comical. But it got to the point. Where i was like. Do i just go over and explain that these two people are talking about the same thing and just confusing each other and making i guess bad experience for this poor guy. I didn’t because i got moved onto another wedding room soon after that but it just was another example of when communication is so massively important for creating positive experiences for the people that we work with. I’ll leave it at that for now. Thank you very much. If you still listening by this stage thank you very much. I hope that my reflection of my experience has given you something that you might be able to take away into your own professional practice again once again. If you have any questions shoot me a a message at dm an email however you want to communicate best. Let me know what you think. Let me know your experiences and have an awesome awesome occupied day if you liked this episode and want to check out more head over to occupied podcasts. Dot com or search occupied podcasting favorite podcasts. If you have thoughts or reflections on the tops discuss today please you get contact. Lawsuit lost some that.