Being your own patient advocate

My favorite blogger, Kevin Drum, is in the hospital for a new round of chemo for multiple myeloma. This is after several rounds of conventional chemotherapy and a clinical trial for CAR-T therapy. So although he’s not a doctor, this ain’t his first rodeo:

“Before I checked in, I had already decided to make a nuisance of myself over two things. The first is that I wanted to wear my street clothes instead of the dumb hospital gown. To my surprise, that was no problem. They didn't care.

 

“The second was bound to be more contentious: I also didn't want an IV line installed. They're magnets for infection—and a pain in the ass—and none of my meds were going to be administered via IV. Nor did my case require a constant saline drip.

 

“Needless to say, the nurse objected. The nurse's boss objected. The doctor objected. Procedure demanded a peripheral IV line. Beyond that, their case was simple: I was here under observation because the chemo meds can have severe side effects. If that happened, they wanted the IV line ready to go. My case was also simple: If anything goes wrong, you can install an IV in two minutes, which is faster than you can get drugs from the pharmacy. There was no danger in waiting.

 

To my surprise (again) I also won this argument—with a stipulation that if there were any problems I wouldn't object to the IV line. Naturally I agreed with that.”

SOPs exist because it streamlines decision-making for the hospital staff. They may or not benefit any particular patient in their particular circumstances, so asking questions about your procedure is reasonable. Just don’t forget to listen for answers.

In the comment thread, here’s a rebuttal to Kevin’s comments on the IV line:

“There's a "crash cart" with emergency medications in each hospital area, so it would actually take less than a minute to have emergency medications available. In a cardiac emergency, it's a lot harder to get a line into you.”

As long as the IV line was offered, the hospital is indemnified, I guess.

https://jabberwocking.com/aita-hospital-version/