Two ER Visits in Two Weeks is Too Many!

I’m sitting up tonight thinking about my younger sister who lies in a hospital bed tonight and who has been through hell for the past several months. She is finally (finally!) being taken seriously by medical people because they had to, not necessarily because they wanted to.

Why does it take almost dying when you’re a woman to get someone’s attention?

Last Friday she drove herself to a local hospital (I’ll stay generic, so I don’t get sued, but if things go south and she doesn’t recover nicely, or at all, I will name the hospital and the insurance company in a New York minute). The triage nurse took one look at her and ushered her in immediately for an EKG and some blood work to be sure she wasn’t having a heart attack.

When they assured themselves that she wasn’t having a heart attack, they essentially patted her on the head and told her to go home and follow up with her regular doctor. Frightened that she might have another attack before she could get in to see her regular doctor, she asked them for just enough prescription pain killer to get her through the weekend if the pain came back. She got that and returned home. (She hates taking pain medication. She has heard the horror stories of people becoming addicted and won’t take it until she’s just about our of her mind with pain.)

On Monday she called her regular doctor and told them what happened and that she still had major concerns and discomfort. (Side note: She has been through so many tests trying to figure out what’s happening inside and why she’s always in such pain or discomfort and exhausted all the time, it’s ridiculous. All tests have come back normal except one for her gallbladder last year; that one indicated it wasn’t worked as efficiently as it should, so they put it on their “watch” list.) This week her doctor said she would schedule her for a new gallbladder test but it would take some time because her insurance company (new to the Pacific NW but not a new company) had to approve it in advance. When she asked how long that would take, they couldn’t give her an answer. So my sister suffered through the week, taking the few Vicodin tablets as sparingly as she could to make it through.  I rubbed her back a lot; that seemed to relieve the nausea and discomfort and give her some relief.

Yesterday she started throwing up and shivering uncontrollably. Her blood pressure skyrocketed to scary levels. Her son drove her back to the same hospital. This time they ran some additional tests and came up with gallstones and pancreatitis.  So they admitted her last night. She will be having surgery to have her gallbladder removed as soon as she’s stable enough to undergo the operation…unless she goes farther downhill  and they have to operate before she stabilizes.

So there is grave concern now. Where was their concern last week? Why weren’t these tests run last week? The symptoms were the same. Was it because I have a doctor friend who suggested to me yesterday that they run pancreas, gallbladder and aorta tests, so I called to make sure they did? Did they just run a heart test last week and decide, “Well, she’s not dying right this minute so let’s get her out of our hair and move on to the next ER patient”?

I am pretty sick of  the medical/insurance/pharmaceutical corporation runaround. The powers that be seem to want to push pills and tablets and run scores of tests to address symptoms but they’re loath to discover their sources and move forward with all deliberate speed to treat the cause rather than the symptoms.

I’m sure insurance and pharmaceutical companies make a helluva lot of money this way. And I have no doubt that this mandated protocol frustrates the hell out of medical men and women who are on the front lines doing their best to save lives and alleviate suffering every day and night.

It would have been far less expensive to take out her gallbladder a year ago when they found out it was malfunctioning than it has cost since then to have her running back and forth for additional tests, pills, nostrums and other things. She has been to acupuncturists and other alternative medicine professionals trying to find relief since the medical establishment has been dragging its heels. All because they (I actually blame their overlords in insurance and Big Pharma more than I do them) seem to want to treat symptoms and run tests for as long as they can get away with before they tackle the actual problem.

Am I pissed off? You bet. I have been witness to her constant suffering and worry. She has stated several times that she thought whatever she had might kill her before they found out what it was. And again, she is NOT a complainer. She was frightened and resigned to the fact that she might perish before she got the help she has so desperately been seeking.

So I’m complaining for her. I will be delighted when health care becomes a right, not a privilege.

(YAY! Bernie Sanders and progressives — I’m behind you 1000%: let’s get universal health care for all, the way the rest of the civilized nations do, so the insurance and pharmaceutical industries get their just desserts, patients get the care they need when they need it instead of a gigantic runaround, and doctors get paid without having to jump through a million hoops and reams of paperwork to do their freaking jobs)!!!

I’m strongly urging Jackie to change doctors, hospitals and insurance companies when this is over. My doctor (a wonderful, caring, knowledgeable Nurse Practitioner, Holly Torgerson, in Lakewood) listens to me. My insurance company (United Health Care, which I get through AARP and Medicare) was quick to provide the coverage I needed when my gallbladder went south and when my DVT and PE’s happened. The hospital I go to (St. Clare in Lakewood) has been absolutely fabulous both times. (I’m naming names in this paragraph so you can eliminate them from your list of suspects in Tacoma!)

Sadly, my dear sister has enjoyed none of the above. Her doctor, her hospital, and this new insurance company in our region have not served her proactively or in a timely manner as her health problem escalated.  I’m up in arms about it. She’d better pull through this with flying colors, or I’m going to be naming names to the state insurance commissioner and raising hell from here to eternity.