Infusion IVIG

[Sunshine]

Oh,you meant ask the receptionist.

If my suspicions are right, and she personalized my RNs request to let me go back, and then spread stories about me to the unfriendly RN, I suspect if I ask her the question, She will deny it, and then she will tell stories to the staff...

If my suspicions are correct, nothing I say will change her. And could make it worse.

I am hoping that now that the manager knows about my feelings, he will make an effort to place me with a different RN.

For all I know the hostile RN has cut corners with other patients as well, and has been abrupt with others as well.

[stillstANNding]

I meant the RN.

I do hope things are better next time.
ANN

[agate]

I don't understand, I guess, and I'm not sure anyone could understand the inner workings of a medical center staff, with their interrelationships that may have been built up over years. One nurse may resent another nurse for some real or imagined slight.The receptionist or the RN might have had plans that BBS was interfering with when she wanted a slower infusion.

All kinds of little things and old feuds might be involved here--things that have nothing to do with you, BBS.

I agree that you can hardly ask about the situation. If you said, "Why are you hostile to me? What have I done?" the person being asked would of course say, "Who, me? I'm not hostile to you!"

To admit hostility might be to let herself in for a scolding by some supervisor. She's not supposed to be hostile to patients, I'm sure.

It could be something irrational. Maybe you remind her of a relative she particularly hated. You may be look and act a lot like that person.

There's no accounting for people's hostile attitude in situations like that, I've found. Maybe you'll get some clues as time goes on but more likely you won't. The situation might be quite different if there's another encounter with the same people.

It's easiest to give people the benefit of the doubt instead of fretting about what might be going on in their heads--which you probably won't ever know anyway.

Maybe you could say something like, "This doesn't seem to be a good day for you--am I right?" Be prepared for something surprising, like a flood of tears. She may have just had some very bad news.

Just my opinion though. If someone is behaving angrily toward me and I see no reason for it, I try to shrug it off and tell myself that that person might have been in considerable pain or just not be in the mood for being pleasant. Whatever it is, I know it's not my fault. If it is, the person should let me know directly, and if that doesn't happen, I'm not going to open up the subject.

Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.

[Howie]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....don't make me get up!

[agate]

Howie's putting on the dog again.

[Sunshine]

Agree. She was so warm and giving to her other patients, that's the weird part. Some of her statements were so patently false, that I cannot trust her to be my nurse (e.g." We don't have working thermometers here, so I cannot take your temperature. Well it's actually the sleeves, we have no sleeves. You don't need your temperature taken. Fever is a known side effect of the drug")...of course they have thermometers and sleeves, the head nurse told me.

You gotta be able to trust your nurse. So, I think it's best not to be with her. I just hope whoever I get instead, isn't going to prejudge me.

[jendie]

I wish you the best of luck in this situation. I know how frustrating this can be, they are supposed to be there to help you, not cause you concern about the level of help you are actually getting. Medical professionals are not supposed to behave in this type of manner.

[Sunshine]

Agree. And most are good people. It's that 5% that cause these issues. They catch us in our most vulnerable moments.

It creates paranoia. I found myself even wondering if I got the full 20G. Probably did.

[agate]

Agree. She was so warm and giving to her other patients, that's the weird part. Some of her statements were so patently false, that I cannot trust her to be my nurse (e.g." We don't have working thermometers here, so I cannot take your temperature. Well it's actually the sleeves, we have no sleeves. You don't need your temperature taken. Fever is a known side effect of the drug")...of course they have thermometers and sleeves, the head nurse told me.

You gotta be able to trust your nurse. So, I think it's best not to be with her. I just hope whoever I get instead, isn't going to prejudge me.

I understood from your earlier post that she'd said they had no thermometers but it seems that it was the sleeves they were out of. There's probably a supply room where she could have got more sleeves but she was feeling lazy and didn't want to bother.

Also, she may have a prejudice against people with MS, not you personally. She may have recently had one or two demanding MS patients who wanted lots of special treatment even though she couldn't see that there was anything especially needy about their situation.

You just never know. But she shouldn't have been taking out her problems on you.

[Sunshine]

First she said they had no working thermometers. Then she said they had no sleeves. Perhaps she meant the latter. The manager debunked both. I don't think she wanted to monitor my temperature. She argued with me and said, "But fever and aches are a side effect of the drug"...all the more reason to monitor fever in my opinion.

Oh well. On a good note, I plan to get salted tomorrow morning.

[Howie]

They carry thermometers and maybe sleeves for a very low price at CVS or any similar place. Paying a little is better than dealing with that nurse.

[Sunshine]

Yep. I am bringing my own thermometer in case I hear this nonsense again.

[Howie]

And just to AGAIN show my ignorance, what is a sleeve?

[agate]

Little plastic covers that fit over thermometers. They're disposable and so the thermometer probably won't need to be washed off if the sleeve is used. Most thermometers are digital now, and my guess is that the sleeve is a convenient way of staying hygienic.

I had a huge stack of these sleeves when I had a cat thermometer. They were convenient for the rare times when I took a cat temperature. I believe I bought the sleeves separately--they weren't packaged with the thermometer.

Edited to add: Vicky has provided a great photo.

[Frog42]

Get smarter, Howie: