That's how much my first bill from the hospital is for. That's JUST for the hospital. Not the doctors' consults, the radiology stuff, the surgery itself, the anesthesiology, etc.
Granted, this $89k amount hasn't gone through the insurance "process" yet (thank GOD I have insurance, or The Geej and I would literally be out on the streets), but still... When you open up a bill and see that amount on it, it's enough to give you a massive heart attack and put you BACK in the hospital.
Cripes.
Showing posts with label seriously the American healthcare system RAWKS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seriously the American healthcare system RAWKS. Show all posts
Monday, October 09, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
Another crappy day is Suck City.
Bad day. Good day. Bad day.
I smell a pattern here.
Yesterday afternoon, I started hurting in my abdomen. Badly. Sharp, unusual pains. It was to the right of the drain site, and felt just like the pains I had in the hospital when the first drain they'd put in me had become infected. I kept wishing it would go away, but it didn't. Instead, it got worse overnight. Luckily, I wasn't having any fever, but still, by morning, I could barely get out of the bed by myself and I couldn't stand up straight. So bright and early, I get on the horn to the colo/rectal doctor--Dr. M.--and leave a somewhat frantic message with his nurse about what was going on. I say "somewhat frantic" because it was FRIDAY morning, and I feared that if this pain kept increasing over the course of the weekend without me being checked out, I was going to end up in the god dang ER once again.
Of course Dr. M. was in surgery all day, but his nurse scheduled me for an abdominal CT scan for this afternoon and told me not to eat anything until the procedure. Remember, dear Internets, that I JUST HAD A FUCKING CT SCAN 2 DAYS AGO and how much fun it was, so suffice it to say, I was thrilled with this news.
I had a 1:15 appt. with the infectious disease doctor--Dr. B. No big deal: they just refilled all my meds, cleaned up my PICC line, drew some blood and gave me an antibiotics infusion. After that appt., I went to the radiology place--it was 3:00pm. I drank my big jug of berry flavored barium and waited. I got changed into my hospital gown and pants and waited. Finally, at 4:30, they called me back to--you guessed it--try and get an IV started in that same damn arm that they couldn't do on Wednesday, right in the same damn spot even! Of course, their attempts failed miserably (as I told them they would) and left me more bruised and in tears. They finally got me up on the table and, once again, had to do the iodine infusion into my PICC line by hand. Eternal. Did the scan and told me to get dressed and wait to hear what Dr. M. had to say.
So I did. And I waited. And waited. And finally at 6:30, the radiology tech comes in and says, "You can go." Um...what? He said that the radiologist had spoken with Dr. M. about my scans, and that Dr. M. had said I could go home. The end. No other information available.
And yes, I'm still in pain (although the vicodin is taking the edge off somewhat). But now I'm even MORE frustrated because I spent my entire afternoon getting an expensive test done and I know nothing. Would it be too much to ask for the damn doctor to call me and let me know what's going on? I guess so...
Fuck.
My spirits are flagging, folks. Big time.
On the upside, Jules will be here in a couple of hours. Yay Jules!!
I smell a pattern here.
Yesterday afternoon, I started hurting in my abdomen. Badly. Sharp, unusual pains. It was to the right of the drain site, and felt just like the pains I had in the hospital when the first drain they'd put in me had become infected. I kept wishing it would go away, but it didn't. Instead, it got worse overnight. Luckily, I wasn't having any fever, but still, by morning, I could barely get out of the bed by myself and I couldn't stand up straight. So bright and early, I get on the horn to the colo/rectal doctor--Dr. M.--and leave a somewhat frantic message with his nurse about what was going on. I say "somewhat frantic" because it was FRIDAY morning, and I feared that if this pain kept increasing over the course of the weekend without me being checked out, I was going to end up in the god dang ER once again.
Of course Dr. M. was in surgery all day, but his nurse scheduled me for an abdominal CT scan for this afternoon and told me not to eat anything until the procedure. Remember, dear Internets, that I JUST HAD A FUCKING CT SCAN 2 DAYS AGO and how much fun it was, so suffice it to say, I was thrilled with this news.
I had a 1:15 appt. with the infectious disease doctor--Dr. B. No big deal: they just refilled all my meds, cleaned up my PICC line, drew some blood and gave me an antibiotics infusion. After that appt., I went to the radiology place--it was 3:00pm. I drank my big jug of berry flavored barium and waited. I got changed into my hospital gown and pants and waited. Finally, at 4:30, they called me back to--you guessed it--try and get an IV started in that same damn arm that they couldn't do on Wednesday, right in the same damn spot even! Of course, their attempts failed miserably (as I told them they would) and left me more bruised and in tears. They finally got me up on the table and, once again, had to do the iodine infusion into my PICC line by hand. Eternal. Did the scan and told me to get dressed and wait to hear what Dr. M. had to say.
So I did. And I waited. And waited. And finally at 6:30, the radiology tech comes in and says, "You can go." Um...what? He said that the radiologist had spoken with Dr. M. about my scans, and that Dr. M. had said I could go home. The end. No other information available.
And yes, I'm still in pain (although the vicodin is taking the edge off somewhat). But now I'm even MORE frustrated because I spent my entire afternoon getting an expensive test done and I know nothing. Would it be too much to ask for the damn doctor to call me and let me know what's going on? I guess so...
Fuck.
My spirits are flagging, folks. Big time.
On the upside, Jules will be here in a couple of hours. Yay Jules!!
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