|
The solutions to the UI infections are causing GI problems, which then make the UI infections worse. It's been an endless circle. I feel like I'm in a House episode.
On top of that, she had a bad reaction to one of the medications that caused tachycardia. We had one of those "crash cart" scenes with people running around and bringing in more and more equipment and hooking up a million wires and everybody pointing at half-a-dozen different displays and I'm squished up against wall going :wtf:.
She came in by ambulance. She's had an X-ray and an endoscope, been seen by at least five different doctors, had enough blood taken to keep a vampire happy, two IV's simultaneously, stool and urine samples. She's been there two days already and will be there at least two more days to get all the results sorted out.
You know what's really scaring me - the bill so far. :scared:
$2.95 - coffee
$8.00 - pop
$4.50 - milkshakes
$6.95 - sandwich combo
$0.35 - pay phone
$3.50 - parking
$4.95 - donuts
...oh, I forgot....
Uplift to semi-privite room - $24.00 per day, repayable by Blue Cross, and the room's not available yet and probably won't be the way things are going.
Ambulance - $119.00 (or something in that ball park - I don't get the bill), repayable by Blue Cross. I probably could have driven her but I thought the ambulance would be safer in case things got crazier on the way. They hung around for about half an hour making sure our paperwork at the hospital was sorted out and we were good to go.
At this rate I'll be bankrupt.
Yes, I'm kidding. By some wierd coincidence, I watched Sicko the day before all this happened, which brought it all home. The Canadian part was filmed in Ontario, which has shorter wait times than where I am (Alberta). We sat in Emergency for four hours before being seen, but the nurses were aware of the situation and were going around taking everybody's (OK, not mine) blood pressure and temperature every hour and if anything had changed, she'd have gotten bumped up the list. The problem was we were in the receiving hospital for one of the rougher parts of town AND the landing site for the air ambulance (which landed twice, shaking the building) AND the regional hub for outlying hospital for patients with cases too complicated for them to handle. I was seeing ambulances from places half-way across the province and multiple patients for two car accidents. I hit the pop machine later in the evening and the waiting room was deserted. There was no lineup for X-ray or diagnostic imaging, lots of beds in Endo, lab results were coming back right away, I was getting absolutely NO sleep 'cause of the nurses in and out checking on stuff, every time I'm in there they've got all new gadgets, replacing all the all new gadgets from the last time, you can't put your feet down 'cause somebody's mopping or swapping out the garbage and sharps collectors...
and it's... All. Fucking. Free.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
