I have had thirteen surgeries in my life, varying in degree of seriousness.  Recently, I had a laparoscopic procedure and while my doctor was in there he noted that my gallbladder was inflamed and would likely need to come out. That doctor was an OB-GYN, not a general surgeon.  I met with a general surgeon and scheduled the surgery.

The day of the surgery arrived and my daughter was there as my support person.  We got checked in and she was told I would be in recovery for less than an hour then I would be stepped down and then released. If, in the unlikely event, I was in the initial recovery for more than an hour, she would be allowed to come and see me for 10 minutes.  They took us both back to a room so I could be prepped where we sat until two hours past my surgery time without anyone coming in.  Finally, they came in with mumbled apologies and I was prepped. My daughter asked me if I was ok.  I told her yes but that she might have to really advocate for me later, I just had “a feeling”.  I was put under and the surgery was performed.  It went well and the doctor told my daughter that he was shocked I was not more symptomatic.  Apparently, what I had been attributing to other causes was actually a very diseased gallbladder that was full of stones.  

It should be noted that I informed every person that spoke to me prior to the surgery that I sometimes have issues coming out of anesthesia and that I, under no circumstances, wanted some very specific narcotic pain meds.  I was adamant.  I told them I will be ok with the pain, to get me out of the immediate recovery and to only give me anti-inflammatory meds to control the pain.  I stated I have severe nausea in addition to my blood pressure dropping and I just don’t react well with narcotics.  I knew my body, I had done this many times before. I also asked if they could please add Benadryl to my IV because it helped me when coming out of surgery.  

I was back in the initial recovery where I remember hearing a number of nurses panicking because my blood pressure kept bottoming out.  As I am waking up, asking them to please assist me – I notice someone pushing meds in to my IV.  I am barely able to ask what it is and I am told it is the exact medicine I had told them not to give me.  I became violently sick.  I asked them to please stop giving me pain meds and to please give me some Benadryl. They said there wasn’t an order for Benadryl because it wasn’t standard practice to give it.  

I was in that recovery for 3 hours; my daughter only came back once.  I had to ask them to go and get her the second time.  When they refused, I insisted.  I told her we were leaving.  They wanted to admit me because I wasn’t recovering well.  I wasn’t recovering well because they did everything I asked them not to do.  It was awful. I asked the nurse if she wanted me to take my own IV out.  She finally took it out so I could leave.  

My experience demonstrates a bunch of negatives.  First, because our biomedical system is so specialized, they symptoms that I had that were actually my gallbladder being diseased were blown off because they are also a side-effect of one of my other conditions.  Second, the original surgery that was performed where it was noted that I needed my gallbladder to be removed, should have been my only surgery.  Since my doctor couldn’t remove it himself, he should have been able to ask for a general surgeon to be called so I would only have to have one surgery not two.  Obviously, I understand he would have had to get consent from my husband. Finally, I was treated as if I did not know what I was talking about when I specifically asked that I not be given certain medications and also be given the Benadryl.  The single positive I have in this example is that the OB-GYN was kind enough to look and inform me that the gallbladder was in poor condition.  If he had not noted that, I would have likely gone on to have had additional problems.