July started in an interesting way this year. I took my daughter on the rally for jobs, and spoke on the panel, that first day in July, we talked to legislators, and had a great deal of impact on that day, I felt I had a purpose, even though I didn’t and still don’t have a viable job.
I traveled home in my usual fashion, dropped off my daughter ,who was exhausted from the events of the day, to get groceries. Little did I know that that trip to get food changed my views on healthcare, dramatically.
Upon loading groceries into my near classic GEO, (ok it’s just old), I used my wooden prop to hold up the very heavy hatchback lid. When I turned around, I bumped the prop and the hatch lid came crushing down on my spine and left kidney, I just kinda stood there with a grimace of pain, until I hobbled to the driver’s side door, and slid in to hide my obvious tears. I’m a survivor, so I went home and made dinner for my family. An hour or so went by, and I still found no relief, I called up my buddy Chel, and she drove me to the hospital, in my car. When we arrived on at the local ER, I was told it would be at least 3 hrs. to get into a room and possibly another 3 hour wait after that to be seen, so after a bit of waiting in the uncomfortable chairs, I left. I opted to drive back, because, well, Chel hadn’t driven a stick shift in a while, and the jerking was too much for me. I spent most of the holiday weekend, in bed and on Monday, before the fireworks brought in a new slew of triage victims, I went back to the hospital. There was a pregnant woman and me, I drove myself this time as I had no idea how long it would take, and I didn’t want anyone to change their plans, etc. After waiting a couple of hours, with just two of us in the waiting room, I was taken back to an examining room. I had come in because, embarrassingly enough, I couldn’t go to the restroom and needed to be catheterized. I have had kidney problems in the past, but now my system shut down, nothing, not a drop…My bladder had ceased altogether. A nurse came in, took my vitals and left. I watched my vitals go up and down and listened to the chatter of nurses and doctors, while there were now only 3 of us in ER and I could only hear of 1 being treated. The doctor finally came in and asked if I could give a sample, I tried and succeeded, but produced only pure dark red blood in my sample. After waiting an hour or so more, and many unsuccessful trips to the ladies’ room, he came back and announced I had a whopper of a UTI. This was no surprise to me, but when he said you can go home after you take this shot and 8 antibiotic tablets. When he came back in for discharge, he said,”You’re set to go home.” To which I replied, “I still can’t urinate, that’s why I came in.”
“Oh, I guess we better have the nurse catheterize you” was his reply and she did, and then they sent me to drive home, with a catheter shoved into my urethra, and a huge clear plastic box hung from my belt loop. I stayed this way for 3 or 4 days, until I could get an appt. with my urologist. I showed him an obvious problem with my sample, and he disregarded it somewhat and sent me for a CT scan 3 days later. When I got there she said I would have my results, probably by the next day as they sent them out immediately, unfortunately my community hospital lost my orders, twice, and I had to phone the Dr. office myself to have a new one sent over. I had the CT scan on Monday the 12th of this month, still a whole week after the incident, it is now the 15th and the week will end tomorrow, and I still have no course of action, and am as weak as a baby in chronic kidney pain.
… On the other side of town, the day after they sent me home from the ER, I got a call from a friend, who said his dad was taken to ER, for blood in his urine. They catheterized him and held him for 3 or 4 days at the hospital, and wouldn’t let him leave until his sample was clear. What is really unfortunate is that the news wasn’t great except they had found the problem early and as soon as he was diagnosed; he received treatments in hours, and is on his way to recovery.
I wish him the speediest of recoveries, as he is a sweet old guy, but I was left wondering,” Why is my health so unimportant?”
I’ve watched the hospital dramas, and I know the first line of the Hippocratic Oath that doctors adhere to, is “First do no harm.” That means to not intentionally hurt others.
I am still in immense pain, I ran out of that medicine because the doctor was diligent in telling me to try to make myself comfortable. So now after almost 2 weeks since the incident, I still have no answers, still have no cure, still have no relief, while in another hospital in Ohio, with a traditional insurance plan, a man with the same symptoms has been kept, cured and released.
Where is the reasoning to have Medicaid, when it results, almost always, in substandard care?
Why is it that people who have employer based insurance receive more comprehensive care than folks on Medicaid? Does it mean that the poor have less value, and therefore have fewer rights to a hospital room and care when it’s evidently needed? This friend’s dad had an infection as well in his sample, but more tests were expedited to save his life, and I can’t even get a call back or a prescription refilled, not to mention, still no test results, positive or negative? I am not looking forward to another weekend in bed, I am 45 years old and still have kids to raise, I prop myself on pillows to do my online homework, and hope that the answers come soon, because I can’t stop life for an ailment, I still do job hunts and interviews, and would drag myself to work, if I could find some. But I am upset that life is valued by the almighty dollar sign, and that the Hippocratic Oath is just a joke to today’s Medicaid practitioners.
