Pre-Op Annoyances: Thank You For Not Listening
Today, I went to UCSF for my pre-op appointment for my surgical biopsy on Thursday. Now they call them "prepare" appointments. Whatever.
Last year's pre-op was a bigger deal, because they had me meet with the surgeon's nurse to understand surgery and recovery, as well as get tests done at the hospital. This time, they just sent a packet of information on the surgery in the mail and made an appointment for me to get the tests done.
I didn't actually read the information sheets until last night because I'd had surgical breast biopsies before. When I did review them, I started laughing out loud. After explaining about the surgery and symptoms to call them about, it says also to please call them if I have any emotional needs.
Ha! Yeah, this is still UCSF, right? The place where someone gives me their phone number, says call me if you have questions, then goes on vacation for an entire month? The place that tells me three times over that they've handled an important request and yet they still have not? The place that doesn't even offer to find answers to questions that patients ask? I would call them for emotional needs?
Okay, anyway...so I went to the hospital where they took my blood and vital signs, verified the nature of the surgery, and then turned me over to a nurse practitioner from anesthesia. This was the moment of truth, when I would find out if they finally changed my anesthesia from MAC to general as they said they would.
Oh, you know what happened. Of course they hadn't done it. The last three phone calls were just a tease. Now, the N.P. wanted to know why I even wanted it changed. I explained that when I had MAC 12 years ago (for which I assume I was given Versed) I had problems after surgery. I was anxious and agitated and had short term memory problems for about a day and a half. I didn't want to go through this again.
She said, "I don't think that had anything to do with the Versed. I think it was the stress of surgery."
I suppressed the urge to smack her head off her neck. "No, I don't think it was the stress of surgery." I answered, trying to look thoughtful instead of annoyed. "I already knew the results were good. I know my own stress response. That wasn't it."
"Well, I have never heard of Versed doing that," she said, effectively dismissing me.
"I have," I said, pressing the point. "There are actually a number of people who have had responses like this to Versed. A small percentage, but they are out there." Her face had that please-don't-say-you-read-this-on-the-Internet look.
I noticed she wasn't taking any notes, whihc made me think, no wonder no one ever heard of this. They don't write it down when someone mentions it and they tell the patient they are mistaken!
Assuming the look of a person trying to be patient with a child, she said, "I would hate for you to go through life avoiding MAC when it could make surgical experiences better for you. The anesthesiologist will talk with you before surgery and he can explain things more."
Uh-huh. So I get to find out what they are going to do to me an hour before surgery. Oh, that's comforting. Am I to assume that means he will tell me I am wrong? This is not reassuring. A surgical biopsy should be no big deal (compared with what I've done so far) but waiting weeks to get it scheduled and then having my anesthesia requests ignored is just making me crazy.
I'm willing to say that maybe MAC would be fine. Maybe I wasn't given Versed last time, or I was given too much, or it conflicted with something else. But why isn't anyone taking my concerns seriously? How do they know it will be fine? Grrrrr.
I guess we will find out on Thursday.
For the curious: Patient experiences on Versed and Versed Busters (remember, this information is anecdotal and the bad experiences probably reflect a small percentage of patient experiences in the population.)
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I had to respond to the comment "the bad experiences probably reflect a small percentage of patient experiences in the population".
One problem I have with an amnesia drug is how would most people know if they suffered in any way if there is no recall? It would be very interesting to restore all those memories to see what has been really going on.
Tim, you have a good point. Some of the experiences people shared with Versed (on Versed Busters and Askapatient) were terribly disturbing, especially regarding pain during surgery and restraint. We don't know how many people experience that and never remember. And, obviously, I don't know what happened in my previous surgery -- what I remember is the distress and anxiety I felt afterward.
I think I might have sounded like I was downplaying things by saying the experiences were anecdotal and I'm sorry for that. This is definitely a topic that needs more attention than it is being given by the medical community. Patients need to be respected for their experiences, even when they can't provide the medical reasoning behind them, and drugs should serve not just the surgeon's interests, but the patient's, as well.
Thanks for visiting!
Hi there, I am one of the more aggressive posters on Tim's site! I have to say that having the medical people patronize me and poo poo the very idea that Versed could cause ANY side effects at all when OBVIOUSLY they had heard it all before is one of the most egregious things that they did to me. I didn't know if the extreme agitation would last for the rest of my life, or what to do about it if it did. I absolutely could not function like that. If the medical folks had had the decency to tell me that this is a rather common reaction and would abate, or indicated the slightest amount of caring, maybe it wouldn't have made me sooo angry. Also the fact that I had declined this drug (implicitly because I didn't know about it, but said "don't give me any drug that will incapacitate me) and the GA, both of which I got, and the fact that they omitted to have me sign an informed consent because they knew darn good and well I would NEVER have allowed them to do these things to me are also factors which have impacted me in a very negative way. I'm happy to see your website and good luck with your medical "care."
The good news for me was that the anesthesiologist (whom I saw just before surgery, two days after this post) listened to my concerns. He agreed that Versed has been known to cause agitation and memory issues in some patients (beyond surgery amnesia). We chose a different MAC (monitored anesthesia care) combo. I bet that some people probably might react to what I ended up getting this time around, but for me, it was night-and-day compared to my previous experience, which I'm pretty sure was with Versed.
This anesthesiologist restored my faith in the idea that there are some people in his field who care about the patient experience and listen to what they say. I was lucky.
Thanks for posting -- and I am truly sorry your experience was so horrible, demoralizing, and long-lasting. That's deeply unfair.
OMG, I can't believe somebody in the medical field actually admitted that Versed can cause problems!! A miracle at last! Do you mind telling us what they gave you instead of the much lauded Versed?
We decided on Fentanyl and Propofol without Versed. I think some people still have problems with one of those drugs, but I didn't. It was a much better experience and I woke up at the end of surgery feeling wide awake and relaxed. I describe it in my entry, "It's 'Be Nice to People With Big Needles' Day." People who've had bad experiences with Versed will understand why I wanted to hug my anesthesiologist.
Hi Alix, hope this finds you well. A bunch of us are writing Oprah to see if we can get on her show to talk about what Versed did to us. If you are interested in joining us, please e-mail me. Right now Oprah is doing a show on PTSD which coincides with what many of us were stricken with after Versed.
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