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Having spent a fair amount of time in emergency rooms at really quite respectable hospitals, I have to offer this thought: If we had nationalized healthcare and legalized drugs, just think how much better our emergency rooms would be.
And have several cocktails in you before you open any envelopes marked "Care[no hyphen]First". . .
From friends and family that do not have health coverage, what's wrong with all Americans having coverage? Something I do not for the life of me don't understand. And will never understand.
Me personally since I can remember have always had Kaiser. My father thru his job LAUSD (Los Angeles), and now my husband (Los Angeles Probation Department). So in essence, I always had coverage. I've also had dental coverage thru Blue Shield, etc. and still have coverage thru my husband's dental program. He's retired now and therefore the medical and dental coverage is free (they don't take anything out of his retirment money). I do have to pay $5.00 co-pay. Medications are $7.00 (prescribed).
I think it's shameful that a lot of Americans are unisured and have no medical/dental coverage. When I was working, I dealt with Medi-Cal, Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Aetna, Kaiser Permenente Hospital, and other insurance health carriers. And from what I experienced in dealing with them it was somewhat surprising.
Medical facilities high cost for charging for everything.
I was 14 when I had appendicitis. My father thought I was making an excuse for not going to school because my stomach was hurting. So he took me over to my aunt who was a school nurse. She didn't believe me neither. She gave a two alkiselors(ok the spelling is wrong) and told me to lay down. I promptly got worse and my father and my aunt realized that I was really sick. They rushed me to Kaiser on Sunset Blvd. and of course the doctors testing for everything and by night fall they prepared for surgery.
I was told later that it was the doctor's first surgery. That the appendix exploded in his hands after he pulled it out. The young doctor came in the see me later that night, either I was still high but what a vision I saw, a fine looking man. LOL
Rest up!
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
I know exactly what you mean by the ER. It indeed is a trip.
Back in my bike messenger days I wound up in the GW ER a few times, and on at least one of those occasions I waited on a gurney in the hallway for hours, it seemed, until they could be bothered with a nondying patient like me. That time, there was another guy in the hallway -- he was a student from Galludet who looked like he had been beaten within an inch of his life. I kept asking the docs and nurses why they weren't doing anything for the guy. And I never got a good answer.
Keep your chin up, your incision uninfected, and you'll be fit as a fiddle in no time!
Now why did the mention of an appendectomy bring to mind the film "Ensign Pulver" and marbles...?
If they all know this, why do it?
Glad to hear your back home and on the mend.
not sure why this befuddles so many native speakers.
Glad you're feeling better. Well documented and I can't believe that your mouth was too small!
Thinking of you in Santa Fe!
Despite the wisdom of encouraging people to walk, drink plenty of water, and eat healthy, I found that most of those are successfully accomplished once home. Glad you're there and not still in the hospital.
Glad they figured it out right away and that you are all right.
Then there's the "we denied your claim" letters, that you might not even know "you" submitted.
Don't forget the HIPAA authorizations either or no one (except probably your parents or siblings), not even Carlos, will be able to get any medical information about you.
Weird...
Just had the same thing done--posted comment on it in another thread but then saw this one so sorry for the duplication. I suffered the same symptoms after eating Thai food for dinner...by 330 am I thought there was some hybrid monster parasite in my stomach trying to gnaw its way out. Its the only way to describe it. Couldn't walk or anything. Got the ER--no one else in there. The receptionist was horrible and the nurse was on break--being the drama queen I am and in the pain I was I just laid down on the floor in front of their desk when they told me it was an hour wait. They then took me in. After running my vitals (high fever, abdominal pain, nausea/vomitting, spiked white blood count) they just couldn't figure it out. I was crying and yelling in pain and they told me to watch my mouth...I was astonished. The Dr. ran a CT on me and told me nothing was wrong--I was just gassy and he would give me pain killers and I needed to go home. At this point it was 5 am and I called a Dr. friend to advise me--he told me to tell them to admit me, transfer me, or I was going to sue. I got admitted. 12 hours later a nurse was looking at my chart as I lay there pumped full of dilaudid and screaming like I was in labor. She wanted to do a CT scan and I told her already had one. She took one look at it and said that my appendix was rupturing. Emergency surgery. I had been awake from the surgery for a few hours and billing called my room wanting to know how I was paying what my insurance wouldn't cover. I was apalled. Had a bill at home the next day. It was the worst experience of my life.