Bad Emergency Room Experience

I have noticed a pattern lately with Arley within the past month. Whenever she goes in for her hospital stay her appetite decreases significantly and she doesn't want to eat or drink for days. This morning when she woke up she was extremely pale and she threw up almost immediately. We tried giving her the dissolvable nausea tablet, but she immediately spat it out (as I figured she would) and that was the end of it.

She spent the entire day gagging on and off and still refused to eat or drink anything even when offering her favorite foods. I put a phone call into the clinic around 4:45pm and asked them what we should do. ER visit or wait it out and go to clinic in the morning. They said to bring her to the ER as the clinic would be closed in 15 minutes and then see what happens.

We have never been to the Emergency room with Arley at CCMC as a regular patient, we were only there when she was rushed from UConn back in April and it was a completely different experience. So this was our first time there and the experience did not sit very well with me at all.

Upon arriving we explained why we were there and since shes an Oncology patient she has priority above non-emergencies and we were seen right away. I explained to the person taking her vitals why we were there, then explained again to someone else. The whole time never suspected that they either didn't fully hear me or somehow had miscommunication going on.

The head chief doctor came in to talk to us briefly and again explained why we were there. Dehydration more than likely, no fever, vomited once in the morning, severe nausea all day yadda yadda.

It wasn't until the nurse came in did the domino effect start. She tried to access Arleys port and had an epic fail. I legit don't even know HOW she did it, but she put the needle in sideways! Sideways? YES! Freaking sideways! Not only that but she was under the impression that she would try to access Arley again and for whatever reason the second needle didn't prepare itself correctly. Uh, hold up, wait a minute! Back away from my kid!

I asked her very kindly to find someone else to do the access because I have a rule 'Get it right the first time or get someone else'. After she left to call for someone else, she came back in and said the doctor wanted Arley to have a catheter and was prepping fever medicine into the machine to be administered into her port. Um? (head tilt) what? Fever medicine? For what fever? I told like five people she didn't have a fever so who the hell gave the authorization that she needed fever medicine?

Oh dear... I can feel mama bear rolling around ferociously inside my body ready to let out the biggest roar anyone has ever heard in their life. I take a deep breath and ask for the head chief doctor. While I wait for him to arrive, Arley is asking for me to take her home. "I promise to take you home baby, but you have to drink your sippy cup first before I can do that." I say. "Okay mama." "You want your sippy?" "Yes!" and let me tell you that kid drank so quick that I think the trauma scared her to drink.

Upon the chief doctors arrival I explained everything that was happening and said that they had met my three strikes and we're out rule and that I was unhappy with the care we were supposedly receiving. He apologized profusely and said that he was unaware of the mistakes but he would get to the bottom of it immediately. He then said he would call in the nurse manager to come speak to me as well to lodge a complaint. 

The nurse manager was super nice and I liked him a lot. He listened to everything that happened, apologized for it and said he would rectify it immediately and have a discussion with the nurse about it too. He also said that they had been previously discussing (as a whole department) doing more training on port accessing because they are starting to see an increase in Hemoc patients. I said thats a very good idea because I only allow one try before I ask for someone else who is more experienced.

While the whole experience left me apprehensive of ever bringing Arley back to their emergency room, I was pleased with the head staffs quick response. I am also pleased to say that upon arriving back at home Arley decided she was ready to eat a little tiny dinner and drink some more juice. She also got her energy level back up and is feeling pretty good right now. I'm hoping that she remains good during the night and wakes up feeling much better too.

Anyways, I'm really exhausted right now so I'm going to go snuggle with my little lady and go to sleep. I'll talk to you all soon. Until next time friends...