Reply #24: Now, I've been in the hospital for five days. It sucks. Still . . .

[knitter4democracy]

I was in for surgery, and I know how terrifying and dehumanizing it can feel. Still, he's whining about a bad reaction to pain meds. Everything he mentioned is fairly standard--ER nurses can be amazingly overworked and understaffed, and sometimes nurses get jaded and tired of whiny patients, and sometimes meds work wrong on a particular person, and sometimes infections and bad reactions happen. Nothing he talks about is new or crazy or even unusual.

Let's compare scars, Glenn. Mine's ten inches long, and I lost my right kidney, my right adrenal gland, a slice off my liver, and three inches of rib. How big is your scar? What did you lose? You actually got pain meds that worked for you--I woke up from my surgery with zero pain control. Yeah. Narcotics don't block my pain pathways, so I just get the nausea, puking, and other fun side effects with no help, no relief. Thank goodness I'd had appendicitis for ten years that had been misdiagnosed so I knew what I had to do to deal with the pain, though guided imagery and meditation don't work as well as morphine, from what I hear.

You want to talk mean nurses? Yeah, I've had some. They kept me alive, though, so I'm good. They got me coughing (which hurt like I can't even describe) so I wouldn't get pneumonia. They got me walking when all I wanted to do was curl up and moan and cry so I wouldn't lose muscle mass or get sicker. Wow, what horrible people. :eyes:

Cry me a river, Glenn. :nopity: