"Let down by the care after surgery"

I was admitted for bowel surgery and resection for a stage 3 tumour. At the time it was a real shock and I was dreading the surgery as previous experiences in a different hospital made me a very wary patient. I was admitted through a central ward and taken to the theatre. I was put to sleep very quickly (at my request). When I woke up 9 hours had gone by which surprised me. I was looked after well by a nurse in recovery who made a real effort to contact my husband as no-one had told him what was happening to me or where I was. He was frantic by this time as he was told different things by different people.

Whilst in recovery a child was running around shouting for his mother who was an employee and everyone seemed to think this was funny. I didn't as a recovery room full of post-op patients is not the best environment for a child to wait for his mum to finish her shift. I was transferred to a ward soon after and settled into my space. I overheard the nurse talking about my operation and how something had gone wrong. This was news to me as I had spoken to a surgeon that day who was not involved in my operation but was doing the post-op ward round. He never mentioned anything about problems. I went to sleep and was very comfortable until about 4am when I was woken by a sharp pain which seemed not to be associated with my wound. I rang the bell and a young nurse came to assist and then proceeded to give me a 5 minute lecture on pushing my PCA, I told them it was nothing to do with my operation and moments before I had been asleep and comfortable. They were dismissive and left to get a Dr. They came in and started to lecture me again, I told them to go away as they were not listening to me.

By this time I was feeling pretty miserable, in pain and totally ignored. A few hours later I started to vomit and it turned out I had an ileus, I knew something was wrong but not sure what. By this time I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and ignored by the staff. There was little or no evidence of caring. At last a really nice nurse came over to speak to me, they asked if I was ok and when I burst into tears they put her arm around me and asked 'what can I do to help?'. This was great and they genuinely seemed inclined to listen and act on my concerns. They arranged for a surgeon to come and speak to me again and actually made me feel better.

Once the surgeon had been they left my notes on my table, I decided to have a look and the nurse I had had a run in during the night had written a whole page about what had happened, which seemed biased and written to cover themselves. It implied I was being awkward and rude to the staff with little or no mention of the fact I was in pain, they did not listen or act on my concerns. I discussed this with the ward manager as I was incensed by the fact they were trying to blame me for the issue. They did say they would use it for reflection for the nurse and I really hope they did.

The ward seemed in chaos most of the time, no-one really taking any notice of the patients and it seems their answer to everything was to keep pushing the button on the PCA! I observed this in my bay with 5 patients, all of who were told to keep pushing their buttons. I think the food was appalling, how am I supposed to recover when I can't eat the food amazes me. The best thing I had to eat was 2 crackers. When I asked for an extra piece of toast I was given a condescending look, I would not have minded but the housekeeper was just about to throw away the equivalent of a whole loaf of bread which had been toasted. I ended up getting additional toast, butter and marmalade for the rest of the girls I shared a bay with and the sugar which had been forgotten. Not all the staff showed poor skills and the lady who gave me a hug deserves a medal.