Day 7: The Rabies Clock Expires With Guest Host Joy (Advocating in a Broken System)

(This Episode we had technical issues with the mics) It is Day 7 of my post-exposure rabies series, and the clock has officially run out. Today was the absolute final medical deadline to correct a critical error: the incorrect administration of my rabies immunoglobulin.
Despite having the state health department ,CDC, on my side, primary doctors agreeing there was a mistake, and bringing in a patient safety liaison to fight the case, the system failed. Everyone specialized in this states rabies series acknowledged the error needed fixed this date it is the last day it can be fixed but when it came down to actual execution, nothing happened. To make matters worse, the RN who never gave me my first series of shots or globulin swore up and down that it was fine, my chart  and other people she called like the pharmacist stated I was going to be fine insisting the medicine was already in my system and swearing that I would be okay—gaslighting me instead of fixing the negligence. 
In this episode, I share the exhausting reality of advocating for your own health against institutional inertia, the terrifying feeling of a missed medical window, and what happens when healthcare workers cover for their mistakes while the safety nets completely fall apart.

@TONGUENOTBITTENPODCAST

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

So this is episode four, and today we're gonna talk about day seven post-vaccine rabies series. Alright, so the last day was um last episode we talked about day three and what I went through with that, and feeling um like they they swearing that everything was fine and I was good and I still felt unconfident. So this is gonna be day seven, and I also have a guest host with us today, Joy. She was there, she was my witness for day seven. Um I was told to bring a witness with me when I went back, especially since how day three went and nothing was done properly again. So I was told to bring a witness, and I couldn't bring my husband because my husband, Casey, was not happy with this whole situation, he didn't understand what the problem was. We have insurance, we paid in full, our insurance was paying in full, and this is a thing that could have been corrected. It wasn't he was very upset, so I didn't want to take him because I figured we would all wind up in jail if I had. So I took my friend Joy, who also works in health insurance, and she's kind of familiar with some of this stuff, and also she's my calm, and she, you know, needed to be there with me. So I took Joy, and she's here today. Um, last episode we talked about how they swore I was fine, everything was okay, that she had spoken to people, everything was good, and it was in my system. Well, I did not believe that again because, like I said, I had already been speaking to the CDC and the State Department that's over the rabies, they're specializing this, and they're and my doctor, and they're all saying, No, it's still not right. This needs to be corrected. You have till day seven to get this corrected. It is negligence if it's not, it is detrimental if it's not it. You could die, you could get this rabies, you are unprotected. You have lupus, and this is not good, so it needs to be done, and on day seven, they can do it. It's not gonna be a big deal for them to do that, they need to correct it. Okay, so here's what day seven looked like. Me, I was sick as could be that day. Joy came, we left early in the morning so we could get there, so you know the emergency room wouldn't get full. All right, we go in the emergency room after driving 45 minutes, and there's only one other person there. So I signed into the kiosk like I'd always done for the series because that's what I was told to do, because all you're doing is getting the series. And there was one person, and we sit there, we sit there, and finally got called back. And we got called back to the nate the nurse's station again for a skin's track. She's ready to give me the shot like right then. She's not asking me, Do you have any symptoms? She's not asking me how I'm feeling, she's not taking blood pressure, she's not taking temperature, she's not looking at the wound, she's doing nothing but fixing to administer the shot. She's got it already ready. And I say, How do you know which arm to put it in? And she says, It says here they administered it to you in your left, and she's looking at the computer string. So then I question, well, um, what does my chart say? Because I was told if they administer the vaccine in the same shoulder that they did the last time, it can cancel out and I can still be unprotected. So I would like to make sure that it's being administered correctly. Plus, they didn't put the globalin in my leg, and I need that done today because it's the absolute last day to have that done. And she says, I can't do that. I'm only giving permission to give you your shot. Do you want your shot today? So, of course, I did, and then Joy speaks up and you say because I'm getting in love with her, she invites me.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

She lets me fall in love with her back there. And she's walking her shot everything. I'm like she's like, last time we did it. I've seen the record, it shows the last time we did it in this arm. I'm like When we're asking her for the record, she says that she doesn't see anything in the anything in the past what happened about what arm it was put in. Or what section anything. So I'm asking her, like, why how do you not know what you said you tell her that you're gonna put it in this arm? So I didn't really like that. I didn't really, I felt like that kind of contradicts her contradict everything about um saying that you don't have you can't look in a computer and see, but you know exactly which arm to put it in, saying that it was in the other one last time. So we're like, okay, um, how can we find out these records? How can we find out exactly? And that's when she tells us that we have to go to the main department.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Yeah, so I said, So I would like to see my records, and she's like, Well, we don't have those here, you'll have to get them. And I and she's like, It's HIPAA violation for me to tell you any of that. And I'm like, it HIPAA, I work in medical care. I am HIPAA. This is me. I if I want my records, I can get them. She goes, Well, you'll have to go to a whole other building. Um, and here's the number. You'll have to call them and let them know first you're coming, and then you'll have to go over there and get them. So, and then she asked again, do you want the shot or not? And of course, I want the shot. I just want to make sure it's administered correctly. So I'm like, Yeah. So she gives me the shot um this time in the right shoulder. I take the numbers for the medical records, and also I ask for a patient safety liaison at this point because I'm feeling very vulnerable. I'm feeling like nothing's being done correctly. I feel like this is negligence, this is basically malice malpractice. I I'm I'm not feeling good about this at all, and I'm not feeling good anyway. I'm sick, I'm nervous, this is terrible. So, anyway, me and Joey take the number, get back in the car, and I call them to let them know that we're on our way to pick up our medical records. Okay, so we have to drive. As we're driving, the patient safety liaison calls Sandy, and she's apologizing. When I tell her what happened, she's apologizing for everything that happened, and I tell her I'm on my way to get my medical records, that this is just a mess and nothing's been done right. And I need her, I need to speak to her and this in the patient administration because at this point, this is I'm not getting anywhere. This is ridiculous. So she apologized and she said she had a meeting and that we could go back to where we were at the freestanding ER and meet her there after we picked up the record. So we agreed to do that. Then also the patient administration called and she said the same thing. She apologized for all this going on that we were gonna talk to Sandy and try to fix this. Okay. So me and Joy go into the patient medical records place, and on that paper it says, Do you want your x-rays, your chart notes, all the stuff, right? I click, I sign every box there was, didn't I, Joy? Yeah, I signed everything. Everyone. Okay. The medical records they gave me, by the way, was my patient portal notes. I already saw my patient portal notes. And guess what? Nowhere on there does it say where they administered the shots or the globalin. All it says is what they did. That they gave me a post rabies, I came in for rabies um exposure, and that's all it said. It didn't show, did it, it didn't say anything. It's this isn't even my chart. I'm like, this isn't what I asked for. There's no nothing, there's nothing here. So now we're on our it was ridiculous. So we're going back to now we have to meet this lady at time frame. So we're headed back to, which is a little ways away, what about five, ten minutes away. Yeah, we're and we're exhausted. I'm sick. I'm headed back, so we can talk to this lady, the patient safety liaison, about this situation. And this is all I have with me, and this is still not what I need. They're still holding my records, which is ridiculous, because I signed for everything to be released to me. Alright, so we get there. We're waiting now for a while. We done seen cross-contamination. So it was bad. So we're sitting there, it's only like three people in there still. This should give us a clue that don't go here. But we're still here, and now I'm sick as a dog. My head's in my lap. I'm sick. Joy's worried about me. And we're we're frustrated even more because nothing's still being handled right, and the medical records I asked for, I still don't have. I just have my patient portal. Honey, I could have printed that off. I'm like, stop already. So now Sandy's in a meeting. We she finally comes, we go into this room, and it's her, and she introduces herself, and she's very sweet. And Joy goes in there with me because she's my witness, and plus I'm not feeling good, and I need somebody to to you know be there with me. And I start by telling the same thing that I've been saying in this podcast, what happened. And the same RN, and I assume she's a charge nurse, and I'm gonna just say Kim. That's her first name, and she has a license. And she comes in, and now mind you, she's not the one that gave me my first series of shots or Globalin. Okay, she's day three nurse that came in to swear up and down that I was fine and give me my vaccine only that day. And in the shoulder, she said that they she just needed to give it to me. Okay. She's there, and then there's this other nurse that I never saw either. So on that day, I don't even I've never seen this one. So she's in here too, and they're both RNs, it says it on their batch. And I go in with my story, and this nurse is so defiant. She was so like she's instead of saying, I am sorry, like the patient's liaison said, she was darn and determined to swear up and down on whatever it was that no, it was done right. And I say, How do you know? Then I let them know that I'm a nurse practitioner and that you have no idea who you were dealing with your first days, but you do now. Because I'm gonna let you know I've been in healthcare for a very long time. Okay, so didn't I say? And then their heads drop, and I tell them I've seen cross-contamination in my life, I've seen misrepresentation, I've seen misdiagnoses, and I've seen stuff swept under the rug all my life. And I have PTSD from an emergency room event prior to this that happened. If I wouldn't have advocated for myself, then I would have been dead. So you're not telling me this, and plus the chart that I have is not even the chart I need. It still doesn't even say what it's supposed to say. So I have no idea while you're swearing up and down, everything was done right, nothing was done right, because one, I'm the one that witnessed it. Two shots went in the glutes. Then the nurse that I don't even know, that was never there, says, Oh no, he would have never put it in the glutes. By the way, that nurse is not there that didn't put in the glutes, um, because that's not where that would have gone. Okay, fast forward, it's patient. So we're like at this point, and then Joy speaks up because she's like, We just go ahead and say what, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah, because mind you, is it's just the fact that we were already given the runaround. We were told to go to medical records that all the information we were assured that everything was going to be on that paperwork. So we go all the way over there and come back, and then at this time, you know, Michelle's not doing good. She hasn't been feeling good all morning. Nobody even bothered to look at her womb, where she got bitten at to see how that was doing. When she was in there trying to explain what was going on, what she needed, the type of records that she needed to physically like to see visibly see, um, they're busy just talking over her, you know, jumping over and just being completely unprofessional. I never seen or even expected something like this to happen in healthcare. So while she's busy um just rambling and just wanting to be so loud and um just heard, I jumped in and I say that's not what she's saying. The nurse wanted to be heard, not me. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, the nurse, the nurse, not Michelle, not not Michelle. Michelle was just trying to explain what she was, you know, needing, uh requesting, and you know, the the nurse was just so busy rambling about, well, I called this person, I did that, and all that, just like totally going off. We weren't even talking about that. We just want to know I didn't talk to these people.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

I don't care what you talked to. I didn't talk to these people for a peace of mind. I don't know. Now you've lied three times now, Kim. Miss Miss Ari and Kim, you've lied to me three times, and now I'm very upset.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Right. And so just for a peace of mind, Michelle specifically wanted to see these records so she can know which shot was administrated in you know what part of her body. And instead of this nurse telling her, she's just going all around the world, okay? So that's when I got frustrated, and I'm like, that's not what she's asking for. She's not asking for any of that. She just specifically wants to know. And oh, and then she said, I'm not talking to you. If I you're not the patient, I'm not, I don't have to address you, I don't have to talk to you, and all that. And I remember I just kept rambling saying, Well, that's not what she's asking for. You're not, you're not paying attention. You know, and she just was so adamant about um ignoring me.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

So she probably just and here's the other thing. I tell her, so then she gets on her knees in front of me, swearing to me, I'm you're gonna be fine. I know that you have PTSD from an emergency room event. And I'm thinking, now, now I see you've done really messed up because now in my head, I'm in healthcare, you done clicked, you don't care what I'm saying. But I'm surprised that you have the audacity in front of the patient liaison to say all you did. But that's why I brought her in, honey, so we could have witnesses the right way because she has to take charts and she took all this down and she knows what you said. You're looking at me now and you're trying to say something from the past is causing me to go through this. No, honey, your mistake is causing me to go through this. You're not the one that gave it to me. This is wrong. So I still want my records, and at this point, I'm giving in. I'm giving up, didn't I? I I got quiet and just agreed with everything because at this point they're not going to correct their mistake, they're refusing to put the global in my lower left leg. And we already have people involved with the state and everywhere about this, so they knew today I was gonna go in there and do this already. I had told them I was, and they told me to do this because this was the absolute last day for them to fix this mistake, and still they're refusing to fix the mistake. So at this point, they're not going to give me the globalin to help me in my womb. And the reason this is the last day, day seven is the last day for that globalin to be placed in the womb, is because after day seven, your body starts taking over, making antibodies itself. Now, it's not gonna make enough if it's not done correctly. That's why they wanted them to go ahead and do this today. I have lupus also, so that compromises my immune system, which they knew, and they still are not doing it right. So at this point, they're just talking over everybody, and the audacity of it was horrible. I work in healthcare and I have a wellness spot. And if somebody came in to me, and you know this, if somebody I would go over backwards, first of all, if it's life-threatening and there's a CDC guideline on it, and there is a protocol that you mishandle, honey, you better be apologizing. They never apologized, they didn't care. They had the know it all attitude that we know it all, we're gonna do it our way, we're not fixing this mistake too bad. Okay, absolutely, and so I just that was it. We ended that I was like, I don't want to get anybody in trouble, I'm not trying, and I really wasn't. All I want you to do is fix the mistake. I don't care what you do, just fix the mistake on me, please, because I want to be a grandmother. I'm gonna be a grandmother, I have kids, I'm a wife, I'm a friend, I'm a daughter. Fix the mistake, but now you're not, you're refusing, you're not gonna do it. Oh no, you're fine, you're good, you're fine. That's what we left with. Well, you're good. So at this point, we're like, okay, we get to the car and I say, I'm gonna go over their heads now because apparently the patient administrator has no control over this staff. This this this charge nurse, RN, who's just an RN, the nurse practitioner that saw me the first time, and the nurse that saw me the first time never was in there. They never even graced the door. How that what kind of audacity is that, first of all. And second of all, the patient liaison just sat there and agreed with that. She don't know. So she's taking notes, though, which is what I needed her to do. But she's she's apologizing and feeling bad for everything, and it's sad, but there's nothing being done. She's not correct in the nurses, they're not getting in trouble for talking to us like that, and they're their way's the way. So I tell her, I'm going to go back and get my patient chart, my medical records. I want them all because they asked me if I could check all the boxes because they were confused also as to why they only printed out the patient portal, which was really sketch in the first place. So I said, I don't know, but I checked all the boxes. Joy's my witness, I checked everything and signed everything. They should have gave me everything, but they didn't. So I want them. So the patient liaison calls the pay the medical record department, and then we're on our way, and they call me and say, We've got your medical records ready now. Oh wow, they should have had them done earlier because we were there. Exactly. And I say, Okay, I need to get them. So I say, mail them. At this point, I want it mailed because I'm not driving all the way back over there. I'm sick as a dog, nothing's been done, and now my nervous system is a wreck. I am terrified because you this this the place that's supposed to help you that took an oath, the state and the CDC and doctors are saying you have to do this right. And a charge nurse is allowed to say, no, we don't want to do that, we're not going to do that. I swear she's fine. That's not okay with me. And I own a wellness spa, and I would never have treated anybody like that. If you have a concern or a problem, we'll talk about it. And I would say, and actually, I would have probably done it because it's not like we were told it's not gonna hurt have it done in the leg on day seven, but it will hurt you later if it's not done correctly. So there was no reason for them to deny that at all, but they did. We left there with no help, feeling worse, and knowing that this system had failed and that these people could care less. And it was fine. They and they were just thinking that this was gonna be it. Well, it wasn't it, because I told Joey that I'm gonna call the state again, who told me to go do this. I'm gonna call other people, and we're gonna get other people above them involved. This hospital is a state-funded hospital, it isn't a town where this should have been better. This is we have a university there that's great, and we deserve better. And so now we're gonna go to day 14, the next episode. But we got nothing done, did we?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

I just cannot go without mentioning that her name was wrong on the paperwork, and everything was just so unprofessional. It's just I can't even go I can't even get over the whole day. It was just it felt like a waste of time.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

And we I was still not getting any relief, so now I've got to go home knowing one, nothing's done right, they're not gonna correct it. So now it's in God's hands, which thank God He's so gracious and mighty that but it's in God's hands now. And remember you said, What are you gonna do? And I said, Honey, it's in God's hands now because they made a fatal mistake that they're not correcting, and they this was the last day, the very last day for them to correct what they messed up, and they're not going to do it. And remember, you said no, don't say that. And I said, I don't know what else to do. Because if you go somewhere else, you gotta start this whole process again. This is the place that did it, they're the place that's supposed to correct it, and now you know, like what do you do? Um, so anyway, that's how that day went. Um, it wasn't good. We were sad and sick, and now I'm going home. I have to tell my husband this story, and he is very upset now at this point, very, and he keeps saying, Nothing better happened to you, this was horrible, you know, and then I have to let him know that tomorrow I have to call all these people again and let them know how this hospital handled this. I did what you said, and this is what happened. I even have a witness, and this is still what happened, and I have to, and I was crying and I was upset and scared, and I have to go sick, scared, nervous, not sure what's going to happen to me now from this point. What what what do I do next? And I still have to go back to this hospital for day 14 shot, and I really don't even want to see their faces. I mean this will happen in April whenever she um said this is about in July.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Yes, so this should be so far behind her, but because they were negligent, it didn't do what they were supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

We're still going through this. And we'll talk about that on the episodes, the next episodes, we're gonna talk about all the things. So the next episode will be day 14, and we're gonna talk about how 14 went and what the state said when they got involved again, and how that went. And then we're gonna talk about you know everything that happened. And mind you, I'm not taking my herbal medicines, I'm have lupus, and now and I'm absolutely miserable and suffering because the vaccines are already causing so many complications with my system. Um, it's setting my lupus flares and overdrive. Every joint on my body is hurting by day seven, and I'm having these weird symptoms, and nobody's asking me about my symptoms. Nobody. I tell the state about my symptoms, but the nobody cares. Nobody saw the nobody cared if the wound was infected, nobody cared. Um they didn't do anything. You know, they didn't say anything.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

They were quiet.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

They didn't say anything. They were quiet on that part. They said nothing. They didn't document it or anything, and they're supposed to document. They did nothing. So I was having eye twitches, um, eye pain. Um, I was losing sight, my sight was going weird. And by the way, I was allergic to the vaccine. By day seven, we realized I was allergic to the vaccine. I was breaking out in hives, um, my inner arms, and it was awful and itching and sick, and I was it was I looked horrible and felt horrible, and nobody cared. But since I wasn't not breathing, of course I'm still having to get the shots because it's fatal. But I was like, this day seven was really rough for me, and nobody cared about my hives, nobody even wanted to see them. Nobody cared that I was allergic to the vaccine. They didn't say, Oh, should we change this out? It was nothing. It was it was absolutely I've never in my life, never in my life. I would never treat anybody like that, like ever. And so nobody cared. So I went home with hives. I went home with fear. I went home with being scared. I went home with being sick and wondering what symptoms come in next because I'm apparently allergic to the vac this vaccine that you're giving me. And my body, and then also I'm having six serum. I don't even know if it's been properly administrated. I don't know what was mixed, I don't know what in the world, what you're saying, one thing, but there's they're doing another. So it was a lot. It was a lot for my nervous system to take in, it was a lot for my mentality, it was a lot for my home, it was a lot for my husband being worried, it was a lot for my friends being worried. They actually experienced me do going through this. It it was a it's it's a lot, it's a very lot. So next episode, we're gonna talk about day 14, what that looked like, what happened, and how the state, um, what the state did and how what they said and how they got involved. And that's on our next episode, unfortunately. Um so stay tuned, um, stay well, and feel beautiful. Thanks for listening. Next episode will be next Monday, and it will be episode about day 14th. Thanks.