After surgery

  Yesterday after surgery was unfortunately a very eventful day. Usually after surgeries, everyone is hoping for exactly the opposite. That wasn't to be for Willow it seems. It started out after the first dose of morphine at 10am. Her face flushed, and we were concerned it was an allergic reaction. Thankfully it didn't spread to the rest of her body, but the nurse had already paged the resident dr and he discontinued the morphine (I didn't find this out until MUCH later, I'll get to that in a minute) Then her temp started rising. Up to 99.4, then 99.6, 100, then finally 100.4. This was around 2 pm. Nurse finally gave her TYLENOL, no codeine, nothing else fancy for pain, plain old tylenol. Then the resident comes in, and I ask him why she was only given tylenol, he says that he got a call that *I* thought she was having an allergic reaction to the morphine. I said yes, that was how her reaction to the amoxicillan started, with a red face that moved onto her whole body, and that the redness from the morphine never spread. I asked him what he was going to do about managing her pain when she woke up, he said, well it seems to be managed fine because she is able to sleep. He said he would make sure she had something for the pain, then left.
    5pm, she wakes up, telling me she has to go to the bathroom. I knew if i tried to move her it would be much too painful for her as she hadn't had anything for 6 hours besides Tylenol. I asked about pain meds and that's when the nurse told me that the dr had discontinued the morphine and put TYLENOL in its place, NOTHING ELSE (hence only the Tylenol given at 2pm) Willow kept crying she had to go potty, so I tried to gently lift her and she screamed, begging me not to pick her up again. By the grace of God this is when her GI dr walks in the room. She asked what was going on, and I told her that she hadn't had any pain meds since 10am that morning. She demanded to know why, and said she should have constant meds for 24 hours following the surgery. She went out into the hallway demanding to know why the patient in room 44 was in pain and that it had not been addressed. Apparently when the nurse paged the idiot resident again asking about meds when the potty incident happened, he called in something else with TYLENOL in it, well she had just had Tylenol a few hours before and couldn't have it again so soon. Eventually after about 20 minutes of Willow crying, telling me how bad she had to go potty (she refused to go in her diaper or a bedpan, believe me I tried to get her to) and with the GI dr handling it, in comes the nurse with the morphine, hallelujah! Within 10 minutes she was smiling and we were finally able to take her to the bathroom. This girl is so stubborn, she held it in for so long, that she peed for probably 2 minutes straight. No lie. This isnt where the the events would end.
   The nurses come in, and say wow, she's like a different child! She is smiling, talking, pointing out funny commercials to me, and is pain free. Then at around 9pm she starts to tell me her belly is hurting again. I call the nurse, who tells me the (idiot) resident dr called her in Norco. It's hydrocodone and Tylenol combined (this is what he called in during the potty incident) While I'm wondering, again, what happened to the morphine. The nurse tells me this is a strong narcotic that will help her pain, so I say ok. She gives her the norco, and within about 15 minutes Willow starts crying about wanting to go home, wanting to not play in here, wanting me to move my head on the pillow a different way. Basically acting exactly how she does when she's had an allergen, crying about things that make no sense. I press the nurse call button. The assistant comes in, I ask her, is there any corn or soy in the Norco, as Willow is allergic to both. She says oh no, it's listed in her chart that she's allergic, and if the was any in there, dr would not have given it to her. I ask her to find me the ingredient list, she says absolutely and goes to try and find it. I log onto Facebook, and post in my corn allergy group, asking if in fact the norco has corn in it. Within 2 minutes someone posts the ingredients, and surprise surprise, 2 of the inactive ingredients are corn derivatives. Nurse comes back, I show her the list, she pages dr for Benadryl and to cancel the norco because she is ALLERGIC to it. Willow finally cries herself to sleep. I am waiting, and waiting, and waiting. I go into the hallway, the nurse says I paged him over and HOUR ago, no response. She pages him again and plainly says (she told me as she was typing) I need Benadryl and morphine. 5 minutes later she comes in with both. Willow sleeps peacefully all night.
   This morning, I call nurse and ask for her meds since I know she will need them when she wakes up, and she's in here within 5 minutes administering them to her. Idiot comes in and presses her tummy, ask how she's doing and I literally don't say a word to him. He says she shouldnt need narcotics much longer, asks if can she have nsaids, like ibuprofen, I say mm-hmmm. I already know that her GI dr will make sure she has morphine, and oral morphine to go home on, she promised me she would take care of that. It took a LOT for me to bite my tongue, because at this point I am going way over his head to the attending, and higher if I have to. This man should not be practicing medicine, period.
  She is still sleeping peacefully, and today I will learn all about how to use the pump and the feeding tube. I'll be praying today is a very uneventful day, as well as the next days to come.