My Other Scary Moment

Around midnight I woke up with some really severe chest pains. I started hitting the nurses call button and layed there for about an hour just hitting the button over and over again, and no one came.I was not able to take a deep breath because of the pain and so I couldn't yell out, they would not have heard me anyway, the woman in the next room was pucking and yelling. At this point I could not have gotten myself out of bed, there was no way for me to maneuver without ripping my catheter or IV out. So I disconnected my heart monitor and pulse ox. Finally after twenty minutes someone came. The nurse checked my vitals and Dr. Porteneir's intern came, after about twenty minutes they determined that I was ok and the pain was the gas bubbles settling under my ribs. It was scary. My surgery was at Durham Regional Hospital and while the nurses overall were great and everyone that came into the room (except for one) was kind and respected my dignity, there were many times when I asked for something simple and no one came. For example, it took them six hours to get the compression boots for my feet to prevent clots, I asked for a heating pad and got it the next day, it took three hours to get a bottle of water and then the incident with the call button. Dr. Porteneir's intern was upset about that and said she was going to say something to the administration, I hope she does cause I could have saved myself a whole lot of fear. The surgeon, anesthesia and all the doctor's I saw after the surgery were great and so far I have not had any complications, but if I could have chosen a more attentive hospital I would have.