Re: Falling Asleep....

[Guest guest]

OK - I have ascertained that there are over 100 pages of my " entire chart " that

were not sent to me. These include the nurses notes (now called " patient

records " ,) anesthesia notes, blood tranfusion notes, physician orders, etc.

I found this out by calling medical records and telling them what I had and

asking what other things made up my medical record. Turns out that when you

request a record from this hospital (and I suspect at many others) they send an

" abstract " which includes some things but not others.

I got what NY state requires them to send for free. The other info is .75 per

page. (Most states have a statute capping the amnt a hosp can charge per page

then they all charge the max). So I had the lady go thru the chart category by

category and tell me how many pages there were in each so I could decide what to

" order " of " my " medical records.

They initially wanted to charge me $217 for EVERYTHING they did not send me at

first, but after we went over exactly what pages were included I decided that

$67 worth of pages were really necessary for me.

I am glad to share more info on this for anyone who needs to get medical info.

>

> From: <tripandashley@...>

> Date: 2004/04/09 Fri AM 11:33:56 EDT

> < >

> Subject: Re: Re: Falling Asleep....

>

>

> > I'm going to insist on getting them. You are correct - they are not

transcribed but I have gotten very good at deciphering them.

> I routinely defend medical malpractice cases and we always get a copy of the

entire chart. Often a case turns on a " little " detail, like what time the D5W

was hung, or which nurse last charted vitals. So I know they have to be there -

they just aren't sending them until I bug them. Which I am going to do.

Otherwise, how can I id the nurse from hell? Thanks =

> > From: " Racine " <linda@...>

> > Date: 2004/04/09 Fri AM 12:05:11 EDT

> >

> > Subject: Re: Falling Asleep....

> >

> > ...

> >

> > I could be wrong, but I think that nurses notes usually aren't

> > transcribed or included in records copied to be sent out. Mostly,

> > nursing notes consist of charts that aren't transcribed, and are too

> > wide to routinely copy. I've received copies of all my records from

> > several hospitalizations, and none ever included nursing notes.

> >

> > Regards,

> >

> >

> >

> > > I wasn't going to report her while I was still there in case ... I

> > have requested a copy of my entire chart and the nurses' notes are

> > omitted. Once I get them I have a novel to write the hospital on the

> > survery they sent me.

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> > Support for scoliosis-surgery veterans with Harrington Rod Malalignment

Syndrome. Not medical advice. Group does not control ads or endorse any

advertised products.

> >

[Guest guest]

Hey ,

That's pretty interesting.

You touched upon all of the colorful nationalities within my family.

My husband is Chinese...his Uncle married a Japanese woman. She is the neatest

little lady. And yes indeedy, one must leave shoes at the front door, no

further. Although she prefers to eat meals in a chair...at a table. You can

imagine what our visits are like to my husband's hometown. Chinese, Japanese,

and of course English. I must tell ya'...there is nothing like the Chinese food

in Seattle's Chinatown, with a predominately Chinese family no less.

My step mother is German. When her mother visits my dad and her (Colorado)

every other summer, dad gets left out of many conversations. He refers to

himself as " German speaking by marriage. "

My daughter got the OREO cookie after her tonsillectomy which is what made the

doctor freak out. She wasn't to have any food post op due to this 'new

technique' being done on her and at such a young age. The cookie wasn't noted on

her chart. So had I disappeared for a restroom break and she started to choke

due to throat swelling etc... nobody would have known why, etc... until I

reappeared. Needless to say her doc was a very cautious individual, as they all

should be. It just made me think of all the things we just don't think about and

just how much we rely on our doctors, no matter how big or small the issue is.

In turn, the nurses are our liason.

Which is why I find this group so pertinent for me and my decision for

revision. It uncovers things I never would have dreamed up on my own. Be it

questions or scenarios.

I was approached by a gal in my guild informing me her PT discovered her

flatback. She told me I ought to give him a try. After conversing a bit more I

learned even straight-spined people can get flatback. I then went in to details

about my scenario. She was floored. The next time I saw her she told me her PT

hadn't a clue what to do with people " like me. " Fused spines and scoliosis

aren't his specialty.

I think what I might do is ask the nurses how many revisions or similar

surgeries they've tended to post op. It's just good info to know.

xoxo's

[Guest guest]

MAN OH MAN!

I just found out during my hospital stay 5 months ago (birth of my 4th) some

nurse put in my chart I had a couple of herniated upper discs. (I didn't have

any herniated discs anywhere.) That explains why during the pushing the

" helping " nurse tried to grab my leg making my knee bend and then push it up to

my shoulder. NOT GOOD FOR THE SI JOINT!!! I yelled at her then my good ol' hubby

told her " Uh-oh, hands off my wife, she has deteriorating SI Joints and I think

you just hurt her bad. " (I'm not a yelling person.) I kept trying to tell her she

was making me " rip " , that's the pain I feel when giving birth and the SI JOINT

starts that burning hurt feeling. YOWZA! It has been said the mind cannot

remember pain. I feel like I do. Golly, I'll never forget it. The OBGYN's also

say the SI JOINTS don't hurt during labor and delivery. I have another theory

for them all...it does hurt! Especially when a nurse is trying to make you do a

YOGA move to push that baby out. hahahaaaaaa

OK...so hospital records are important. I think next time, I'm going to read my

chart as my stay progresses. Or if I'm too out of it, I'll have the hubby read.

[Guest guest]

, I've read the stuff about vit. D from sun being important, and am a

tad less leary of tanning in the summer, though I don't lie in the sun or get

large amounts when the sun is high. I also think there's something to be said

for just getting bright light in one's eyes, as seasonal affective disorder

seems to be caused by insufficient light in winter. We tend to get our sleep

cycles messed up by staying up late (with artificial light, which our ancestors

didn't have to the extent that we do), then sleeping late with windows darkened.

I have observed for myself that melatonin doesn't work for me if a light is on,

then later read that our bodies naturally produce it in response to darkness.

I did take the lemon balm orally. Perhaps I was too ignorant to be frightened.

Maybe I also remember having it in tea, back in my herbal tea days. I had the

courage after reading a book that has MD input, about the best herbal remedies

and what they are good for. (This was during a period when we were in tough

financial straights and I had stopped seeing a doctor who was treating me for

the hand pain. I was willing to try just about anything then.) In this book,

it was recommended that lemon balm be taken with valerian, as it improves the

valerian's effectiveness as a sleep aid. I took a brand that has both herbs in

one tablet. (Man, does valerian stink! I sure wouldn't want to take it as a

tea!) I've never put much stock in aromatherapy, though I suppose if it's put

on your skin some of the stuff gets absorbed into the body. It's a pleasant

diversion, if nothing else.

I've been meaning to respond to your vivid telling of your recent surgical

experience. King should have material like that! I am VERY sorry you

went through it, relieved for you that it's over, in awe of your strength in

weathering it, and praying like crazy it never happens to me!

Sharon

Falling Asleep....

Hi Friends...

Does anybody else have a tough time falling asleep? I have a

heating pad, a featherbed, muscle relaxers, oxycodone, (percocets

5/325 strength) nice down pillows, nice down comforter but I cannot

seem to fall asleep EVER!

I don't take the pain meds all too often because I have the cute

li'l baby dude to tend to. Plus it doesn't work all that great

anyway. Goodness knows I get loads of exercise day in and day out

due to running after my family. Exercise during the day helps one

sleep well at night, maybe I should do more. HAHAAAAA!!! RIIIIIGHT!

It just seems the pain from flatback prevents me from either

staying asleep or maintaining a comfy position so I might fall

asleep.

The baby pretty much sleeps a good 8 hours straight, wakes for a

bottle then sleeps another 3 or 4 hour stretch. I'm just really

frustrated. But the baby is sooooo cute! My frustration doesn't last

long. When I see him my heart melts. His name is Evan, BTW. He's a

very easy going baby. Rarely cries.

What does anybody else do? I seem to have all the right sleeping

essentials...maybe I should ask my Internal Med Doc about some

AMBIEN. How does that work for anybody who has ever tried it. I see

it advertised all the time.

I guess for now I can make another quilt. LOL Maybe I should do one

by hand...like them pilgrims used to do. Maybe that will help me

sleep.

xoxo's

Support for scoliosis-surgery veterans with Harrington Rod Malalignment

Syndrome. Not medical advice. Group does not control ads or endorse any

advertised products.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Guest guest]

,

I just read your letter regarding all that you and your family went through in

the hospital (below). I hope the following reply may be of some help.

I can understand why you were frustrated at the language barrier and the fact

that your daughter received food before a tonsillectomy.

I have so often wished I were better at languages myself. I took Spanish for a

number of years, and saved up to travel to Spain and Ecuador -- where, thank

heavens, no one tried to hire me for any kind of responsible position in which I

would have had to communicate in Spanish.

I have been even more frustrated at my incapacity with some other languages that

have fascinated me, such as Swahili, which I signed up for my freshman year of

college. Later on, I nearly accepted an editorial position with the Radiation

Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima, which would have employed me jointly

with the National Academy of Sciences (in an arrangement that would have made up

my full salary in extra yen, given that I was to be employed on a " female " pay

scale!) In the end, I decided I preferred an American byline and more exposure

as a writer than as an editor. I went to JAMA instead and have never regretted

it, except for an occasional wistful thought about what those two years in Japan

might have added to my cultural and geographical knowledge, and so much else.

But I was very intimidated by what litle I could glean of the Japanese language,

both oral and written.

I wish I had had the opportunity to get to know more African people. In my

youth, I enjoyed meeting many international students and shared some happy and

spicey lunches with several African graduate students and their families who

hailed from places like Camaroon, along with several of their Korean neighbors

-- in fact, I think maybe the spice I remember was mainly from the kimchee. I

also made some great friends who were here from Ghana and Nigeria to study

various types of engineering and who taught me how to dance The High Life at the

Tuxedo Lounge -- I think that was the name of the place -- on the outskirts of

our university town. I'll especially remember, always, the beauty of a

Presbyterian wedding I attended -- the American wife was to be flying off to

Ghana immediately with her new husband, and I am not sure I have ever seen quite

so many weeping parents and friends of every skin color imaginable.

Years later, I was pleased to start meeting some African female professionals

in America as well. The first of these was a young RN who cared for me in the

hospital. I was in for pain/anesthesia evaluations to see what I could do to

get through daily life until I had my first revision procedure. I found I could

think of very little to converse about that did not sound pretty stoopid and

culturally ignorant. I blurted out that I had once gone out with a very

confident fellow from her very own home town, Nairobi, in my youth -- who

stunned me, on our third or fourth date, by casually asking me to marry him. He

assured me that we would be very happy together in his country after I became

one of his wives!

Fortunately my impetuous rendition of this little story was not as embarrassing

as it might have been, since the young RN shared my own helpless hilarity. I

had not yet received my first test dose of intrathecal morphine or I might have

rolled right off my bed! Meanwhile, she was likewise laughing so hard that tears

were coursing down her cheeks. Finally she got hold of herself and

expostulated, " Oh, my goodness, my old grandfather had three wives, can you

imagine?

We never let him hear the end of it. That's the OLD way, of course -- to my

generation, it is simply ludicrous and hysterical! "

It's very encouraging to me that we Americans are finally beginning to realize

how much we need to learn about people from other countries and cultures. We are

pretty " famous, " if that is the right word, for failing to try and communicate

with anyone in any language except English. Given my own troubles with

languages, I have always had a special sympathy in my heart for people who

struggle so hard to speak my own language. I will not soon forget the irate

woman on a railway platform in Germany who yelled the same complex sentence at

me repeatedly, each time in wholly incomprehensible German, raising the decibel

level each time. Apparently her theory was that I must be nearly devoid of

hearing or else developmentally disabled --either way, if she just yelled loud

enough, the dummkopf would eventually understand. That same summer, in

Amsterdam, I thanked someone profusely for explaining to me in English --

English! -- what I would be getting if I ordered one of those famous Dutch-style

submarines that are a specialty of sandwich shops at lunchtime. She said, " But

of course we speak English or French!-- how could we expect people to come to

our little country and speak Dutch?!! " Such graciousness, I thought.

I had worse trouble, admittedly, communicating with an English-speaking Canadian

with whom I had the misfortune to share a train compartment for untold hours

while he downed some brew from a psychedelically decorated flask and ranted on

about Vietnam until sunrise. He did not want to know what I thought about

Vietnam or my country's involvement in that heartbreaking war. He had all the

information he needed: I was an American, ergo a criminal, and someone to be

castigated unmercifully. In contrast, I later enjoyed a pleasant and entirely

civilized train ride with a German man of the same general age. Unlike my

screaming German acquaintance on the train platform, this fellow understood

immediately that I spoke no more German than he spoke English. We ended up

chatting for many hours in broken and undoubtedly fairly hilarious Spanish.

You certainly have the right to request a new nurse, although not technically to

" fire " her if she is an employee of the hospital. I have certainly had a few

run-ins with a few hospital employees in my day -- and I have given some very

clear directives when it came to how someone was treating my CHILD in the

hospital.

Which brings on another old memory. " The child " is 22 now, which means it was

22 years ago that a chipper young intern -- clearly a native speaker of English,

I might add -- popped into the labor room, checked out the relevant parameters,

and informed me, " Oh, you've got plenty of time, you're only 3 cm -- why don't

you and your husband take a break, go to the cafeteria and get some breakfast? "

Harrington rod? Concerns arising from previous scoliosis surgery? For

information, group support, ongoing discussion with others:

/

> From: USNAWIFE@...

> Date: 2004/04/07 Wed AM 08:06:24 EDT

>

>

Our 5 year old suffered from sleep apnea and at the age of 3 she had to be

operated on...Yale Hospital. A tonsillectomy and the doc wanted to remove her

adenoids. We feared 'over' correction and opted for just removing the tonsils.

The procedure is done differently whereas a portion of the tonsils are left in

tact. This drastically reduces the recovery time. She was eating OREO's that

same night.

> A nurse had given her the cookie. She was a nurse from Africa. Ever hear on

the news shows how the shortage of nurses in America is making recruiters

" dangle the carrot " over in Africa? Or is it " dangle the bunny? " Either way, now

Africa is having a shortage coming on as a great number of nurses are moving to

the states in response to the US nurse recruiting tactics. This gal was very

comical. I could barely understand her. So when she asked if it was OK for my

little one to have a cookie, I just did the ol' smile and nod response. You

know...that general response given when one cannot understand a heavily accented

individual. LOL So a cookie my li'l one was eating. I couldn't believe it.

(Neither could the doc for that matter...he was severely ticked off about that

one.)

> Having said all that...I'd demand to be able to understand my nurses during

my hospital stay for revision. It would freak me out if I couldn't communicate

with my nurse.

> Incidentally, can we fire our nurses while in the hospital? Does anybody

know? Talk about not sleeping...I'd never sleep in the hospital if I couldn't

understand my nurse. Spooky.

>

>

>

>

>

> Support for scoliosis-surgery veterans with Harrington Rod Malalignment

Syndrome. Not medical advice. Group does not control ads or endorse any

advertised products.

>

[Guest guest]

Very interesting letter, Sharon. The sun advice reminded me of a blurb I

recently came across in one of the WebMD newsletters--something to the effect

that pain in general responds well to additional vitamin D exposure from

sunshine.

How did you work up the courage to take lemon balm? I assume you take it orally.

I have used essential oils for all kinds of things over the years but have aways

been timid about swallowing them (vs. external application). I think the U.S.

warnings about this tend to be scarier than information available from

experienced aromatherapists elsewhere, especially England. Of course when I was

packaging my own home-brewed " beauty balms " and the like, I plastered everything

with prominent warnings about pregnancy and other conditions that could mean

trouble in combination with certain oils.

Rasche , J.D.

Medicolegal Writing & Editorial Services

6541 N. Francisco, #2

Chicago, IL 60645

(773) 508-1507

Harrington rod? Concerns arising from previous scoliosis surgery? For

information, group support, ongoing discussion with others:

/

Falling Asleep....

Hi Friends...

Does anybody else have a tough time falling asleep? I have a

heating pad, a featherbed, muscle relaxers, oxycodone, (percocets

5/325 strength) nice down pillows, nice down comforter but I cannot

seem to fall asleep EVER!

I don't take the pain meds all too often because I have the cute

li'l baby dude to tend to. Plus it doesn't work all that great

anyway. Goodness knows I get loads of exercise day in and day out

due to running after my family. Exercise during the day helps one

sleep well at night, maybe I should do more. HAHAAAAA!!! RIIIIIGHT!

It just seems the pain from flatback prevents me from either

staying asleep or maintaining a comfy position so I might fall

asleep.

The baby pretty much sleeps a good 8 hours straight, wakes for a

bottle then sleeps another 3 or 4 hour stretch. I'm just really

frustrated. But the baby is sooooo cute! My frustration doesn't last

long. When I see him my heart melts. His name is Evan, BTW. He's a

very easy going baby. Rarely cries.

What does anybody else do? I seem to have all the right sleeping

essentials...maybe I should ask my Internal Med Doc about some

AMBIEN. How does that work for anybody who has ever tried it. I see

it advertised all the time.

I guess for now I can make another quilt. LOL Maybe I should do one

by hand...like them pilgrims used to do. Maybe that will help me

sleep.

xoxo's

Support for scoliosis-surgery veterans with Harrington Rod Malalignment

Syndrome. Not medical advice. Group does not control ads or endorse any

advertised products.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------