"Empowered " Patients?????

[ilearnedthetruth]

This refers to a Sentinel node biopsy I had 6 years ago.  The surgeon suggested it and I blindly trusted him to have it done.  First, no family was allowed in with me.  (If they had, they would have realized the trauma that I was going through).  With the first injection, I bolted upright, fully screaming.  It was the WORST  pain   I have ever been through.  He had his assistants push me back down on the table and kept going with me screaming nonstop.  I was so frightened.  I was in a daze.  In fact, I saw myself looking down on myself on the table.  (It was later explained to me by an excellent psychologist that this is a reaction to excessive pain)--I thought I was crazy.I was so afraid of the radiologist.  With no control over myself I "thanked him" for fitting me in.  This was purely because I thought he'd leave me alone if I became submissive.  This also was explained to me later by the psychologist.  I was so angry at myself for saying that and I didn't know why i did it.  Then when they wheeled me back to pre-op I'm hysterical and my surgeon thinks I'm upset about the mastectomy I guess because he totally misses the trauma I had gone through.  Later he hears that the radiologist said I "thanked him".  Then they're going the "oh she doesn't remember" crap.  Point one--if family was allowed in with the patient this never would have happened to me.  They would have verified what I had gone through.  I got ahold of the Nurses Notes on this later and it said I "tolerated the procedure well".    Where are patient rights?  When I see pink ribbons I think of how trusting women are of the system--that doctors are sympathetic and knowledgeable.  I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.by a psychologist I found when I went home.  I have found out so much information afterwards--how sentinel node biopsies were "a work in progress'-everybody does them differently.  Basically, so many women were treated like guinea pigs. I had wanted to be brave through this whole situation.  It was my right if that's what I chose.   I should have been given the option to stop.  It wasn't offered and I couldn't have gotten the breath to even say the word stop..I was suffering with the after-effects for months .  I will have a difficult time trusting a radiologist again.   I will never have that procedure again.  With all the "advancements and technology"  what has happened to compassion and even to basic common decency?     When people do fundraisers, why don't they stress issues like not allowing isolation for patients undergoing new and painful procedures?  Trusting that your doctor is "smart" enough isn't always enough.  

[Marylou_II]

I am so sorry you had to go through such a thing, I absolutely agree with Katrin, only those who have been through it can understand and that is my case.

The best advise I can give you is to never trust anyone specially regarding you body, inform yourself remember that knowledge is power, ask about everything and have then answer in writing, have second, third and tenth opinions if necessary but stop this from happening ever again.

I am doing my share to stop all this from happening to someone else.

Regards.

Marylou

[katarina777]

Hi, I don't really have much to say, as your account triggered my own memories about such an experience. (it was not about bc, or surgery but about agony and being left alone as well, and then not validated or believed) also had severe PTSD.

Thank you for sharing, and I am so sorry this happened to you. Katrin