There’s a lot of talk about health care right now due to President Obama’s and Congress’ attempt to reform our health care system. There is especially a lot of talk about how health care reform with affect seniors and the aging due to their tendency to require long-term care. It’s a scary time.
On Twitter today, one member stated “Obamacare for seniors = a hospital bed with a lid”. Well, I don’t know if that’s completely true but considering how hard it is to get a senior ADMITTED to the hospital in the first place, it has a lot of validity.
This past 2 weeks I have spent a large amount of time in the emergency room with my father. The first time was because he was having lower abdominal pain, was confused and was falling almost every day. They diagnosed him with a UTI (urinary tract infection), told me the confusion was due to THAT )(which it could be…..to a certain extent, but NOT to the extent that he was confused)and sent him home. It took 3 of us to get him in the car and they sent him home with me ( a 5’2″ female who then had to get him OUT of the car). Thankfully my knight in shining armor arrived to help me.
The next visit ( less than a week later) was for stroke symptoms…………which they diagnosed as a TIA…..and, of course, sent him home. Never mind the intractible back pain he was having; the x-rays were negative for a fracture. And never mind the episode of apnea that I witnessed. He was now breathing.
3 days ago, more stroke symptoms, totally not making sense, tripping over his feet even with the walker, running the walker into a table and staring at it, not being able to write his name, repeat a sentence, or stick out his tongue. I didn’t even bother to attempt a repeat performance at the ER. What’s the use???
I did call his physician (who was not available) but was able to speak to his nurse. I specifically stated what I wanted this time…..I want him admitted for 2 days for additional diagnostics and then I want him placed into rehab so that his back pain can be addressed. “Well….I think we can fit you in on Friday close to noon (It’s Tuesday today!). Just hang in there.” YAY……………not.
Could Obama’s health plan possibly get ANY worse than this?
Clearly, our country neither cares about its seniors, nor its babies. But by God, we do care about cars.
*Coincidentally, when I was searching for an image to add to this post, I typed in “health care” and 2 pages of photos of PILLS came up. Isn’t that interesting??
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Wow, I just had similar experience. Three ER visits within ten days, first for a bad fall. 7 hours and mom is still a wreck, so “nothing is wrong,” and discharged her at 3 am, though I was all alone and she could hardly stand. Nausea persisted, and they thought “concussion” so came in again. They didn’t find what CAUSED THE NAUSEA, but repeated scans to find concussion. No concussion…get outta here. Nausea persisted (along with “Just let me die” sessions I had to deal with), and they repeated head scans and scans of GI tract. Mom’s a wreck, but nothing’s wrong. Get outta here. The blank look on the young doctor’s faces was almost chilling. They had NO WAY TO FIND OUT WHAT WAS WRONG, and ran after what COULD be wrong. That doctor said to see her regular doctor, who had no interest in finding what was wrong either. “Make sure she gets plenty of fluids. She must have caught a bug somewhere.” Based on WHAT?
I kept hoping for a “Chinese doctor” or a naturopath. They have an approach that both sees the whole person, and gets right to the actual cause. A good body worker could have checked for muscle strains, a chiropractor would have been in order for Mom’s fall.
The frustrating thing is that I’ll bet each ER visit would have cost mom $5000 if she had to pay for it all. The hospital gets to brag that with its o-so-computerized records that they did all these tests. BUT IT DID NOT LEAD TOWARD HEALING, and NO one there thought wholistically, Not one person. Only ME.
Mom is better now, by the way. She would have been better sooner if the doctor had realized I was OD’ing on the mylanta, which then caused diarrhea and intestinal cramps. I had to figure that one out. The advice nurse said to use the Mylanta. Anyway, I’m pissed. And I too tried to have her admitted to the hospital for overnight so I wouldn’t have to bring her home at 3 am and risk another fall getting her into the house. I hope that woman “doctor” had nightmares because of her decision.