Hospital Stays: My Experience with the Bad

Much of my life has been spent in the hospital. From the age of 6, I had operations every few years. In 1986, 1992, and again in 2008 I was diagnosed with cancer. Because I have Cowden Syndrome, which causes many benign lumps, operations occurred to rule out cancer. The 1980's and 1990's were not privileged to have methods of taking good biopsies.

I spent a couple of holidays in the hospital. One was from a virus likely caught in my insistence to return to school With chemotherapy, blood counts can drop dramatically and though mine were on the lower side, I was allowed to attend school for 1 ½ days. I was elated-until December 31, 1992 when I was awakened at 4:00am by nausea and a 104 degree fever.

Another holiday I spent in the hospital was Valentine's Day 1993. My regular chemotherapy tests were scheduled that week.

I encountered my share of mean people. In 2001, I had surgery to remove the remaining half of my thyroid gland. The nurses taking care of me kept saying they did not know where I had surgery at because I had so many scars. They asked, "Did you have surgery on your breasts today, Andrea?" "What about your abdomen?" The questions continued for some time until one nurse figured out the bandage around my neck was from the surgery just performed. I was treated poorly regarding the scars and it was a nightmare to see people trained not be heartless do it and not care.

None of these surgeries can compare to the nightmare hospital experience my family went through recently.

My mom went into the hospital because was having issues breathing. Because she had stage IV colon cancer it did not look good. She was given an injection of a medication to control nausea that should not have caused the reaction it did. My aunt called me three hours after I left the hospital to say, "Your mom is unresponsive." The phone call was the one most family members dread when they know a loved one is sick.

When we arrived at the hospital, my mom's only response was the startle reflex. Over the course of several hours she seemed to rally back from the scare. The next morning another nurse gave her a shot of the same medication and it brought on the same effects. Soon mom began to hallucinate and that was a nightmare. I found myself beating my head against the wall in frustration.

My sister was power of attorney and ordered mom to a larger Jonesboro hospital. The blood clots were found as the cause of mom's problems breathing and three hours later-my mom was gone when one hit her lung, brain, or heart.