18 Days Post Op: Bad Advice

I've had a rant in the past about being your own advocate.  I was on that warpath again this morning after a 2:00am argument with a nurse, who told me to do something that clearly violates the 'Bilateral Hip Precautions' sign that sits on top of my bed.  I could have done what she instructed me to do which some people would I guess but I didn't.  It was bad advice and I wasn't going to take any risks with my new hips.

Basically she wasn't fit enough to assist me to get my feet in and out of bed and was trying to get me to put the stronger right foot under the left to move it off the bed. (I really don't require a great deal of assistance, it's down to gentle guiding as I am holding most of my weight now - at best guess from my best helper, when I'm tired it would be lucky to be a kilo and a half of weight).  What she wanted me to do was in clear violation of the hip precautions as I am not to cross either foot past the mid-line.  I have been given at least a dozen worksheets with pictures with large crosses through them that have people with crossed legs just in case I don't quite understand the concept.  This shouldn't be anything new to this woman as this ward is for rehab and there are always hips being done here.  Maybe there is only one bilateral a year, but even so, it's pretty clear as to what I shouldn't be doing. I said I wasn't allowed to do that and was given a bit of a sigh and at three am, I was silently screaming profanities in my head.  If it hadn't of been the middle of the night and had my brain been in gear I might have been a little more eloquent about the issue than 'I'm not allowed' to at least explain, but in the middle of the night when you've just woken up and you need to pee, reason and alertness usually isn't present.

There is a reason for the precautions - it's to reduce the risk of dislocation.  It's not just because I don't want to do it.  I just don't want to end up back in surgery and starting this whole process again.  I don't think my mental health could handle that.

Getting back into bed I had a minor panic and a 'you've pushed them too close together (my feet)' before we'd even got halfway there.  I received a rather stern lecture about how I should do it so that she didn't have to so so much to assist with my feet in future.  The way I have been doing it is fine with other nurses, wards-men and exactly as I was instructed by the physios but apparently that was too freaking difficult for her and I got told how her way was better because I'm too hard on the nurses. (almost a direct quote - it's better for nurses health if I can do it properly - though I have to wonder why the wardies prefer the physios way if it was physically harder - so I'm not sure what the go is other than she was a cranky ass who was physically unfit for the physical requirements of assisting patients)   Not good for my mental health at the moment to be spoken to like that.  I know that I am unreasonably fragile, but come on, she was unreasonably stupid and mean.  I think that I would have been in better condition than her pre-op which really does make me question how she manages to do the job when there are people in this ward that require more assistance than I do.  I guess she doesn't normally get the hard cases and probably wouldn't have answered the buzzer for me last night if my regular nurse hadn't been on her break.  I didn't realise this though and when I awoke again at 5:45am and needed to get up to go again, I tried to fall back asleep until shift change so I could get someone else to help me out.  When you start to think about needing to go though, it really makes it difficult to get back to sleep.  I lasted about ten minutes, by which stage I thought my bladder might explode and I couldn't possibly wait another half hour, I buzzed again.  It wasn't even as though I could even attempt to do it myself as the rails on the side of the bed were up and you can't put those down when you are actually in the bed.   The nice nurse arrived and I nearly cried in relief.  She assisted me out and commented on how much better I was getting and that I was almost doing it all on my own now.  After getting back in bed, I passed out with relief, feeling a bit better about myself and my  progress again.  I had prided myself on becoming low maintenance to the nurses, it was something that showed how much I had progressed.  I don't need that much assistance anymore, just in and out of bed, teds and meds and these things don't really take too long in comparison to higher dependency patients.   Somedays it seems that the better you get at looking after yourself the more you get shafted (it's not just the gym, its now the grumbles at requiring one assist - even though my chart still says two assist).


The whole situation highlights once again how you need to understand what is happening to you and what treatment you require to ensure that the right processes are followed.  Speak up if you think that something is wrong.  People do make mistakes, it isn't always ignorance, stupidity or laziness where errors occur.  If you know what should be going on around you there is an extra person there to pick up an error before it can occur.  Disaster can easily be averted if you know yourself and your treatment and stick up for yourself.

I should note that on the whole, the nursing staff are excellent.  There have been a couple of moments like this with one or two that really change the whole experience.  It's a shame that poor organisation and a few people really unsuited to the job taint a group of truly extraordinary people.