Wish I had seen this blog last week. I went in for a gallbladder surgery. I have type 2 diabetes that I control with diet and excerise. That means if I go low I treat it with food or juice or whatever. I explained this to the surgeon staff. They then booked my surgery for 2:30 in the afternoon. Which meant NO FOOD OR DRINK FOR THE DAY. I was worried sick I would go low, when I voiced this concern they just smiled and said I know it is hard to do. So on Tuesday I went with no food or drink my husband drove me to the hopital that afternoon where we were greeted with a very haggared lady explaining that no they gave me the wrong day my surgery was the next day. So day two I did the same thing. I really don't remember them ever checking my Bg once in the course of the day. It was like they didn't even care about the diabetes at all. For six years now I have tested measured weighted everything I ate tested more and more to keep a tight control and they just blew it off! I am now home and trying to gain the control I once worked so hard for and seem to have lost at the moment. I will get there again no thanks to the hospital!
Denise Myfallfromgrace.net
I have had the misfortune of having two open-heart surgeries.
The first one, the hospital WITH-HELD all insulin. After two days of 500 BG's and begging for insulin, I had a friend smuggle mine in. After leaving the hospital and at my 6 week check up with the Cardiologist, I asked "why was my insulin with-held?" his response " because you were not eating anything, so you did not need insulin." I was appauled. I also had to have family smuggle in real food.
The second open heart surgery, I was on an insulin pump.
I asked permission and was approved to leave the infusion set in place during the surgery, so that I could just "hook" back up after I became conscious.
Not only was my infusion set removed, but when my family gave me my pump back, the hospital had a fit and argued with me when I put it back on. All I got was grief from the floor doctors and especially the nurses and they actually fought with me.
They insisted on managing my basal & bolus set programs.
Two days after the surgery and after actual screaming matches, I won. However, I was considered a combative patient.
But in both cases I had to demand to see a dietician regarding my diet. My normal diet was only permitted for one day and then I was put back on the hospital's diabetic diet. The hospital staff was so archaic, that they would not allow me; orange juice.
I actually un-plugged from my monitors and took my poll of wires and tubes and walked down the hall to the snack area and stole orange juice, because all I was served was coffee or tea, which I drink neither. NO orange allowed because I was a diabetic.
I actually had to complain that the hospital was killing me and demanded discharge before such happened.
Unless one has a loved one constantly on the watch acting as an advocate for proper health care during a hospital stay, for a diabetic, you are in harms way.
This occurance happened at a very famous hospital in Cleveland Ohio.
Since I have Type 1 diabetes and coronary artery disease, it is NOT the diseases themselves that frighten me, but the ignorance of doctors, nurses and hospitals.
Last year I had a heart attack, while in the ER at a small local hospital, they wanted to transfer me back to the famous clinic whom preformed the surgery.
I refused truly believing " if I go back to the clinic, I most certainly will die; I will take my chances here."
And I am still here today.
Your story makes my stomach hurt again. My husband (and I) also had a most
significantly horrible time in the hospital. My husband slipped and his foot went
under the push mower Easter day at my mother's. He inflicted horrific damage to his foot. We went to the emergency room and they gave him morphine and put him on hold...would not touch him because of the damage incurred.
He enjoyed a 2 hour ambulance ride to a hospital near our home because of the extensive damage. We understood the trip to be because a bone surgeon would be in scrubs waiting for his arrival to try and repair/save the foot. No such luck... he only got an ER doctor who cleaned out his foot while on the phone with the bone surgeon. He was suffering horrible dehydration and they kept refusing to allow him water. He begged and begged. If there was to not be surgery in the next 24 hours then why not??? They stiched him up - without anesthetics of any kind (diabetic), bandaged his foot up and sent him home for a week.
We insisted that someone please see him and had a doctor look at him two days later - from four feet away. He would not touch him. We waited the week and then saw another surgeon who said he was going to put my husband in the hospital and clean out the wound again and do tests for the types of bacteria, etc. that might have been on the mower blades, his socks, shoes, the grass, the dirt, etc.. They held him in the hospital waiting for the results for days. The afternoon of the surgery a nurse came in and gave him his diabetes meds which he takes by mouth and then left and came back in with a syringe. My husband of course asked what it was.
When the nurse told him my husband said that was way too much insulin.
The nurse said no this was the amount the floor doctor required. My husband
again said NO...THAT IS TOO MUCH INSULIN. Well, he lost the battle and at
that point I did not fight back any because I was scared the hospital would
throw me out for being a problem. That night my husband woke up with a
bg of 33, sweating and shaking in the extreme. He managed to push the
nurse button. They started pumping him with sugar of every kind they could
think of and over did it. when his sugar got back up to 88 they should have
stopped with the sugars. The next morning his bg was @280 and so the roller coaster began while he was in the hospital. The doctor would give him too
much insulin and they would have to combat it at night with too much sugar.
A nurse admitted that that first night if my husband had not woken up, it
was a possibility that he would have died. That scared the bejeebers out
of me. I was scared to leave him. And, of course, in a hospital where you are
not supposed to bring in any food, medicine, etc. of any kind....a nurse looked
at me and said I should have had candy laying by his bed. All of a sudden it
was my fault and not the hospitals. OMG. He survived and threw away the
candy they gave him when he left.
My husband and I are still battling to save his foot...only time will tell. First
the foot, then the bones in the foot.
I ordered Dr. Bernstein's book when I got home from the hospital and saw
the form mentioned. (Thanks Dr. Mercola; Dr. Mendoza) You can bet your bottom dollar that it will go right next to the living will and power of attorney.
Wish all doctors cared as much for their patients. Thanks!! Hospitals need
diabetic training from Dr. Bernstein...after all, this is the 21st century.
Being both diabetic and heart patient, I have been in a hosptial setting more times than I can remember. The strongest advice I can give thru my own personal experience is to take your own supplies/snacks and be an advocate. Do what your conscious tells you to do to take care of your diabetes.
It is not a personality contest. I do not care if they think I am trouble.
I have been ignored and told to my face, "that because I have heart & diabetic issues "I AM TOO COMPLICATED." This at a famous clinic in Cleveland Ohio, who was rated #3 in the nation?
I am paying a great deal of money for their expert services...or so we think.
If it becomes an emergency situation and I cannot prepare ahead of time, I have my husband bring in my diabetic supplies, including my meter and snacks for low blood sugar and just snacks to keep my BG stable. Mr. Mendosa is so right on with doctors and hosptials.
I do now know that if your hospital has them, seek counsel from an "OMBUDSMAN." They are liasons between the doctors and you. They can be very powerful and the doctors are most intimidated by their intervention as it goes on the doctors or nurses permanent record. I have used them a few times. They work wonders.
I too plan on wriitng up the document for my own care during a hospital stay as suggested. Usually I argue with them and TELL THEM how it is going to go....which is I care for my own diabetes. But this letter makes it legal and I like that. I have no idea why so many in the medical practice are so ignorant in something that is at epidemic levels....DIABETES!
I am a type 2, normally running high, never low since being taken off prandin last year. I currently take Byetta, actos and metformin. I was hospitalized last year for suspected gastroenteritis. I was in the ER from Sunday at 9PM until Monday 8AM, before being admitted to a room. Never was my blood sugar checked. I was in the hospital until Wednesday or Thursday morning, I'm not sure which. My blood sugar was not monitored at all until I think Wednesday I questioned it and it was then checked once before being released. Luckily as I said, I run high or else I probably would have had a major problem!!!
No, I did not...although they did not give me it while in the hospital, as it was one of those many drugs on my drug list that they seem to have a problem obtaining. I had bouts in the past with gastroenteritis before being diagnosed with diabetes in 2001 and then a few bouts before going on byetta about 4 -5 years ago. I was also banded in August 2005.
Is the byetta contraindicated only when having gastroenteritis symptoms or not recommended for a patient who has a history?
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BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO! David, Roses at your feet!
This is the best article I believe you have ever written. I recently was hospitalized in two different hospitals all within 3 days. I was appalled at the ignorance and right down stupidity of the doctors and the nurses when it came to treating Diabetes. I must say I was really frightened when I realized they didn't know much about my treatment, and then when they hung 5% dextrose in an IV over me, and spiked my blood, I was even afraid to sleep at night for fear of what they might do to me next!!! When I called them on it, they said, "Don't worry we'll just give you some insulin! I have never had insulin in my whole diabetic life. I wouldn't have known how much to take, and neither would they! When I said, "Don't give me insulin!" They said, "Are you refusing treatment?" How do you answer a question like that? If I fall into a diabetic coma, will they just let me die because I've said I don't want their insulin? I will never go to any hospital again without taking a copy of the letter that David has printed for me!
Going into a hospital now-a-days, is just like going to War. You have to get in and out as fast as you can, before they kill you. I might add, especially if you have Diabetes!
Beware!!!
A Surviving Diabetic Patient
Thank you. But truly we owe our thanks to Dr. Bernstein for this letter. I will certainly use it the next time. And I hope that everyone else here does too.
Best regards,
David
I second this sentiment.