Lessons to be Learned

So last week I had a heated conversation with my Dr of the week. My nurse was present. 

My hemoglobin level was 79. My care plan is the give me a blood transfusion when it drops below 80. I told my Dr the HGB was 80, I was extremely fatigued, too tired to even drink , short of breath in the AM and still bleeding rectally. She wanted to repeat my Hgb level just to be sure. I said “no I refuse to give you more blood until I get transfused.” She said why. I said because if it comes back at 80 you won’t transfuse me and I am symptomatic . She said I gave you a bag of iron. So proud as though she had given it to me directly from her own body!

I said thanks but I need blood. She said “ you know I have a patient in my clinic that I have been trying to arrange an iron transfusion for for 3 years and can’t do it.”  I was losing patience and stamina and said “you must be a shitty Dr if that is the case and I am thankful I only have you for 1 week. The patient, me, is supposed to be an integral part of the  care team and I don’t feel heard or respected by you“ She finally said ok I will give you blood. 

Midway through this conversation the nurse left the room. She returned when it was all over. I asked why she left, she said she thought maybe I wanted privacy. I said if I had wanted privacy I would have asked for it . But what I didn’t want was to be ‘abandoned’ by my nurse . I pointed out the her role was to be the patients advocate she should have said  ‘yes Susan was short of breath this am and she has had significant bleeding‘  but certainly not to leave in the middle of things . 

Lesson for the patient : be persistent know your own body and appreciate it when it tries to tell you something, speak up become your own advocate 

Lesson for Dr.: listen to your patients, be respectful, consider that your patient knows their own body signs, don’t hold up your failures as reason to fail again 

Lesson for Nurse : you are there to look after the patient, be your patients advocate ,the DR is not your boss 

That’s all my ranting for today