I am writing about my traumatic experience at Changi General Hospital. I was warded for pancreatitis. Their advice was to fast for 2 to 3 days and meanwhile they put me on a drip. I didn’t know that the drip was just sodium chloride and not a glucose drip or a drip with nutrients. After 3 days they changed my diet to a liquid only diet (soup and jelly). I was in a lot of pain so I didn’t really consumed much of the soup and jelly. This was conveyed to the doctor.
Despite receiving lots of strong painkillers, even opoids, I felt worse. Although the painkillers would numb the pain of the pancreatitis but I found myself getting weaker day by day. Dizzy, and even sitting up or going to the toilet would require lots of effort. I attributed this to the pancreatitis and/or the strong medication. My heart rate also went up increasingly from day 1 to day 5, even going as high as 170bpm at rest on day 5. Even as the pain was dulled by the meds I couldn’t sleep well as my heart was always racing. I would report my heart palpitations to the nurses but they all said I was anxious and overreacting. They ignored my cries for help and even turned off the help button for my bed.
Finally, the doctors ordered for a blood test and found out that my body was in starvation mode. I had high ketone levels in my blood, which means that my body was breaking down fat already. My blood sugar also was 4.6. A reading of less than 4 is fatal. When they finally changed my drip to a glucose drip, my heart rate became more normal and when I Googled it was then that I realised that my low blood sugar levels contributed to the heart palpitations. Still the nurses insisted that I was anxious and one of them even tried to tell the mri staff that I was being anxious when I insisted on bringing the glucose drip into the mri with me since I was just put on the glucose drip a few hours before. The doctors even wanted to diagnose me with anxiety, when they caused the high heart rate in the first place. Who wouldn’t be anxious when your heart rate hits 160 plus 170 *at rest*? I felt like I was going to have a heart attack the room was spinning and my vision was blurred. They even wanted to restrain me to my bed. Imagine they really did that and didn’t give me the glucose drip, I would have really died then.
On day 6 when my mri scan came back OK, the pancreas was just inflamed and there was no need for surgery, I insisted on being discharged. I had to sign a discharge against medical advice form, which I readily did because what healthcare were they giving me anyway, I came in with one condition but ended up with two. Their medical advice was to do one last blood test to make sure my ketone levels were decreasing. It’s a joke because I came in with pancreatitis but their basis for discharging me was whether my body has exited what they call the starvation mode. The on call doctor even told me, your health is more important than sleep, when I told her that I couldn’t sleep and recover well in hospital. But who caused my health to worsen in the first place?
I thought my condition was a straightforward one, so the nearest hospital would do. How wrong I was.
Edit: thank God I brought my own oximeter so I could check when I felt my heart racing. Wouldn’t have been able to rely on the nurses to check my heart rate. They would only gaslight me saying I have anxiety and refuse to check.
