The Patient... Yale... Podcast

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone listened to the first episode yet? If it so disturbing. How on earth did the doctors not stop and realize something was wrong. When I did my ERs, there was a anesthesiologist there- from the podcast it sounded like a nurse was giving the pain meds. Are there different pain protocols for ERs. I know ours was called twilight.. which sounds like what the podcast was describing.

OP here. This week's episode answered my question. Supposedly Yale was using a different/ older pain protocol that didnt require a dr anesthesiologist. Still... how was such a renowned org okay with patients saying they were in so much pain and not connecting the dots.

[Anonymous]

I came into this very sympathetic to the patients. I’ve gone through some medical trauma and understand how hard it is, especially when no one else can understand. That said, this week’s episode was the nail in the coffin. What they went through was horrifically negligent but A WAR?? No, you did not “literally survive a war.” I’ve thought the past few episodes were getting a bit dramatic but no honey this was not “going to battle.” We can have empathy without hearing you comparing yourself to amputee victims and people who have watched their friends die. You’ve lost me.

[Anonymous]

Until you have experienced a medical procedure like that without anesthesia, you cannot understand the horrific impact on your life. Medical trauma can easily cause PTSD and pain on a level you cannot begin to imagine if you have not experienced it yourself. In that way, yes, it can feel as bad as a war. The patients were abused and mistreated by an entire team of supposedly caring medical providers who they were paying 15K to to help them have a baby. These providers witnessed their suffering, screaming, and trauma and did nothing to alleviate that pain when their professional obligation is first and foremost, to do no harm. Don’t judge something when you have no use what it was like to experience it. It might sound overdramatized to someone who hasn’t felt that kind of pain, but believe me, it is not. These women were abused, gaslit, minimized, and then further victimized with their perpetrator basically getting off with a slap on the wrist. Instead of your judgement they deserve support and empathy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Until you have experienced a medical procedure like that without anesthesia, you cannot understand the horrific impact on your life. Medical trauma can easily cause PTSD and pain on a level you cannot begin to imagine if you have not experienced it yourself. In that way, yes, it can feel as bad as a war. The patients were abused and mistreated by an entire team of supposedly caring medical providers who they were paying 15K to to help them have a baby. These providers witnessed their suffering, screaming, and trauma and did nothing to alleviate that pain when their professional obligation is first and foremost, to do no harm. Don’t judge something when you have no use what it was like to experience it. It might sound overdramatized to someone who hasn’t felt that kind of pain, but believe me, it is not. These women were abused, gaslit, minimized, and then further victimized with their perpetrator basically getting off with a slap on the wrist. Instead of your judgement they deserve support and empathy.

LOL

[Anonymous]

NP here. Don't know why someone would write "LOL" in response to the previous message- you must really be an idiot.

The story is infuriating and fascinating- the ways that people dismiss other people suffering ( kind of like the previous poster who wrote LOL), and the power dynamics in medicine that can allow patient suffering to continue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Don't know why someone would write "LOL" in response to the previous message- you must really be an idiot.

The story is infuriating and fascinating- the ways that people dismiss other people suffering ( kind of like the previous poster who wrote LOL), and the power dynamics in medicine that can allow patient suffering to continue.

In a podcast that explores how women are stereotyped as hysterical, hormonal, and emotional and how their medical pain is minimized and dismissed and they are gaslit, it’s sadly ironic to see other people mocking them and laughing.

Please, friend, go strip naked, lay in strirrups in an OR, and let me plunge a long needle through your vaginal side wall and into your ovaries to suck out your eggs one by one, repeatedly, multiple times, while you scream and cry and are told to “hold still” and “calm down” and that “we can’t give you any more medicine,” and then we can talk about if these women are “overreacting.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I came into this very sympathetic to the patients. I’ve gone through some medical trauma and understand how hard it is, especially when no one else can understand. That said, this week’s episode was the nail in the coffin. What they went through was horrifically negligent but A WAR?? No, you did not “literally survive a war.” I’ve thought the past few episodes were getting a bit dramatic but no honey this was not “going to battle.” We can have empathy without hearing you comparing yourself to amputee victims and people who have watched their friends die. You’ve lost me.

Let’s hear from you again after your unmedicated retrieval.

[Anonymous]

I listened to the last episode this morning. I was gutted. Weeping as I was driving to work. What an incredible story. I’m glad there is a record of this.

[Anonymous]

Can someone with more recent experience please help me understand the extreme pain after the procedure? Fentanyl is short acting. That explains pain during the procedure, but not after. This was alluded to just once in episode 4.

I only did 1 retrieval at Shady Grove almost 10 years ago. I believe I had twilight sedation as a I don’t remember being awake. I had a lot of eggs and my hormones were crazy high. I remember thinking they pushed me dangerously close to OHSS. I felt sore the next few days - bloated, tender. But not pain. I also recall being given something for my pain - Vicodin or Percocet because I didn’t take them all and my husband used it when he threw his back out 6 mo later.

What they went through was awful during the retrieval- but why are they describing pain later? That doesn’t make sense to me. I feel like I am mid-remembering or misunderstanding. Can someone explain?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone with more recent experience please help me understand the extreme pain after the procedure? Fentanyl is short acting. That explains pain during the procedure, but not after. This was alluded to just once in episode 4.

I only did 1 retrieval at Shady Grove almost 10 years ago. I believe I had twilight sedation as a I don’t remember being awake. I had a lot of eggs and my hormones were crazy high. I remember thinking they pushed me dangerously close to OHSS. I felt sore the next few days - bloated, tender. But not pain. I also recall being given something for my pain - Vicodin or Percocet because I didn’t take them all and my husband used it when he threw his back out 6 mo later.

What they went through was awful during the retrieval- but why are they describing pain later? That doesn’t make sense to me. I feel like I am mid-remembering or misunderstanding. Can someone explain?

I wonder whether some of this is a psychological repercussion of feeling the pain of the retrieval at the time is was happening and reliving that trauma to some degree. My experience was similar to yours, but I might have perceived it lingering differently if I had been in extreme pain at some point before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone with more recent experience please help me understand the extreme pain after the procedure? Fentanyl is short acting. That explains pain during the procedure, but not after. This was alluded to just once in episode 4.

I only did 1 retrieval at Shady Grove almost 10 years ago. I believe I had twilight sedation as a I don’t remember being awake. I had a lot of eggs and my hormones were crazy high. I remember thinking they pushed me dangerously close to OHSS. I felt sore the next few days - bloated, tender. But not pain. I also recall being given something for my pain - Vicodin or Percocet because I didn’t take them all and my husband used it when he threw his back out 6 mo later.

What they went through was awful during the retrieval- but why are they describing pain later? That doesn’t make sense to me. I feel like I am mid-remembering or misunderstanding. Can someone explain?

I wonder whether some of this is a psychological repercussion of feeling the pain of the retrieval at the time is was happening and reliving that trauma to some degree. My experience was similar to yours, but I might have perceived it lingering differently if I had been in extreme pain at some point before.

Thank you. I was wondering if during all this focus on the nurse, if something else was being missed? Like were the doctors also doing something wrong and hurting or injuring the women?

Or were they being injured accidentally during the procedure because it was impossible to be still? I can’t even imagine the torture of that. Especially knowing all the money and time invested to get to the point and that you can’t take a break or try again later.