"My hospital stay"

On my last day at the hospital, I had left early morning to do an MRI for my brain and got back mid afternoon. When I got back, I met a nurse who was looking after me till late in the night. I was so exhausted and wanted to sleep for a couple of hours before my family arrived to visit me. The nurse approached me and says they are going to give me the steroids now. I said ok but usually I have it later in the evening. The nurse then replied, yeah but it’s better to have it earlier. I then asked if it is ok for me to have it earlier as I’m having a high dose and I remember the doctor saying one dose every 24 hours.

I believe the nurse then wasn’t happy and in my opinion, got really angry and cranky and said they'll go and ask the doctor. I didn’t see the nurse for an hour. I went up to the nurses desk to ask for my nurse, to which they said the nurse is with another patient. The nurse then came to my bed and said they'd asked the doctor and they said it’s fine to have it. I said ok, so I’ll have it now and I’ll get my family to come once I’m done. The nurse left and said they'll be back, they then came back an hour later, set it up, didn’t start the medication, said they needed another nurse to verify everything and then left.

45 minutes later, I went up to the desk where 2 nurses were sitting and I asked about my nurse, they didn’t know where they were. The nurse came to my bed after that and said they won’t be long, the nurse that they need to be here, I believe got called to emergency and they left again. After a while, I went up to the desk and said I don’t understand why it’s taking so long, there are 2 of you here, can’t my nurse get one of you to help them so I can get my medication started, I’ve been waiting nearly 3 hours. The response was, they'll be with me in a minute. 

My nurse eventually came back with another nurse, did what they needed to do, then inserted a needle to flush my IV catheter. As my nurse was doing that, blood started to come out. The nurse then said it’s going to be an hour and a half. I asked, but every other time it’s not more than an hour? To which they said well, that’s how long it takes. After half an hour, blood started to run down my arm, my arm was hurting me and it started to swell up. I pressed the buzzer and my nurse came. I let them know my arm is hurting and then they noticed the blood. They said, that wasn’t there... I said, once you inserted the needle blood started to run down my arm. I then let them know that I was in a lot of pain and showed them my arm and how swollen it was. They then said they'll lower the dose and it should be fine. For the next hour, my arm kept bleeding and it was really painful and swelling up. My nurse came back a bit later and said I was finished with the medication.

That’s when my family arrived, so I had to leave the hospital and go downstairs as visiting hours were coming to an end. I came back up stairs and saw a different nurse, as my nurse was handing over to them. I waited and asked the new nurse to remove it as I did not feel comfortable for my original nurse to remove it. They then said they'll remove it right away, which they did and then got me an ice pack; which I felt really helped with the pain and swelling. My arm was swollen for the next week, in my opinion, due to my nurse's unfair treatment and rough and careless care. I feel it should have been removed immediately, as I believe that is protocol, which my nurse did not follow. 

I was so happy that this was my last night, as I did not want to experience more care like what my original nurse provided me with. I really wanted you to know so that this nurse does not ruin it for all the lovely nurses I believe you have there and all the hard work they do. I really would like for this nurse to be spoken to about this and to treat their patients with kindness and to be caring, and if they don't know how to administer medication, not to do it, as I believe they could have caused me an injury due to their carelessness.