Window Shopper

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Despite my wonderful charm and influence, I found myself inside an ER again. And while I may be getting up in years to some, I am still a vital person. Unfortunately, I fell on my leg a week ago Saturday. It developed some SERIOUS pain and swelling. By Tuesday, I could hardly walk. Decision time. My experiences with hospitals in general and the ones around here have been like night and day, the ones here being the night side. This particular ER is new to me since we avoid places that used to be bandaid stations in the expectation that they still might be that. It was where the ambulance dropped me off.

The doc there was pretty good, seemed like a nice guy, seemed to have a clue what’s up. After the check in, I was treated to a few xrays to see if I had a broken leg. Nope. Then they wanted blood. Now I have to admit that my veins are a nightmare to some people. They roll, collapse and every other thing possible. It makes blood draws such a nice thing to go through. They tell me that this girl that looks like she belongs in high school applying acne care products instead of trying to start an IV in me is something of an expert at this. Wrong. She blew it. Someone finally started one in my left hand which, by the way, hurts a lot. Usually they don’t once they are in. So what I have is one on one side putting in an IV and the other side is someone taking blood. Nice.

They give me an IV of antibiotics because the doc says I have cellulitis which is an infection of the skin and muscle tissues. Then they give me a pain killer. Not bad. I was sort of out of it for a while. The doc finally comes in and lets me know he can’t justify me staying in the hospital even overnight. The agony of this infection is awesome. At home, I can hardly walk to the bathroom and back, at no time without help. And they want me to go home. The bed they put me in cannot go down enough for me to put my foot on the ground. When they get me up to shoo me away, I have to step down over a FOOT to the floor. The incompetence screams at me.

Eventually, we went to get the prescriptions at the local pharmacy to the hospital. We lived about 30-35 miles away and would not get home in time to get them filled there. While the doc wrote out a prescription we could not get, my husband was inside getting someone to call the doc back. Took 45 minutes. I was sitting in the car in shorts, tshirt and shoes. It was 40 degrees. Nice. Now I have a nurse coming out a couple times a week.

I cannot tell you how much I am beginning to hate living where I do. The reality is that I used to like it here when there were no medical issues. But now……….Just a small clue. Even if you do not have medical issues, check out what is around you. Make sure when the time comes, you have adequate and hopefully more than adequate medical care.

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I have to say that in all the years that I have gone to doctors, our present doctor and the office are quite pleasant. But it was not always that way. Our current doctor simply does not have a fit over things we do not do. He believes that we are grown adults, subject to feelings and needs. When it is necessary, he is quite persuasive. My husband had a small, persistent pain that he could not shake. We ended up at the doctor’s office thinking that he might have a pill or some suggestion. He did. We went to the hospital where my husband’s appendix was removed and fairly quickly. If he had not gotten there when he did…well, it would not have worked out well. Due to our doctor’s swift diagnosis and insistence that he go to the hospital, my husband is still here.

There have been other doctors over the years. You know the ones. Nice, chatty, willing to be your best friend…until you don’t do what they want. Then they become Godzilla on steroids. It turns into a trial to see them. Even though their office staff love to give out promotional pens and calendars, their attitude truly does not fit what a doctor’s office should be. One doctor we went to was very good..at the beginning. He was thorough, friendly, compassionate and understanding. Somewhere along the line, we questioned a diagnosis he made. We were then considered a pariah. After that, it was uncomfortable and difficult. He even had me do a test that was not relevant to my problem at a time when I was very sick. The test required me standing for a period of time, a mammogram. I was dizzy and unsure of myself. Eventually, I realized that I had an infection. He finally got around to treating it. What it took to get us to leave was when he was on vacation, I needed a new prescription for some meds he was writing for me. I had no idea that the level of med was toxic to me. Found that out when I asked and the nurse practitioner told me that I can’t have that much. (It was for stomach problems) I insisted that she was wrong because the DOCTOR was writing it that way. Had I known it at the time, I should have sued him for giving me the meds at that level. It was hurting me a lot.

Other doctors seem to be fine, compassionate, able to sit with you for some time, not rushing out the door right after you have sat for two hours, getting to see him for all of two minutes…..until the HMOs get them. At that point, find another doctor no matter what you think of that one. I am telling you, it will only end in tears (quote from Anastasia, the animated movie, but appropriate). One doctor that did end up in the clutches of the HMOs worked himself literally to death. He was the one that could only stay in the room for a couple minutes since he was in such a rush each and every day.

Not all doctors are created equal. Not all are compassionate, have a sense of humor and are really good. Some are just there to fit the image of the parents, want to be king/queen of all he/she surveys, love the god complex that goes with it and other things like that. Do the research. Find the one that’s totally right for you. If you happen to live in a rural area like we do, check out each one of the doctors. Find someone that everyone else likes, especially the older folks. They will tell you like it is. Some people believe that as they get older, they have the right to say what they like. That’s the person to see regarding your next doctor.

So, it is never REALLY pleasant to go to the doctor but it can be less aggravating as long as the office people are nice, pleasant and helpful. As long as the doctor does not feel he/she knows it all. I find it refreshing to have a doctor that says he does not know but has someone in mind who would. That is worth it’s weight in gold!

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Sometimes, older is better. I was pretty blessed in my teen years in that I didn’t have some of the things that others had. But I did feel the way most do. Parents are better left at home. Though we didn’t call them this, I didn’t have a lot of zits or other such problems either. My life wasn’t bad. The only thing that was a real problem was that my parents didn’t think I was mature and I did think so. When I got out on my own, I still thought so.

Over the years, I have grown up….some thought it took longer than necessary, but there ya go. And now in my more knowledgeable years, I see that some things never really change. Teens and young adults still see themselves as grown up when they are not. Have you been to a high school lately? You can still see the kids need to recognize that they are not grown ups and that they still need acne treatments until they get older. In my high school days, it was a horror. The doctors had little clue how to deal. Kids had to go to school with the problems. Anyone remember the big zit on Marsha Brady’s nose? That was in the 70s. And now, I guess it wouldn’t be the big deal it was then. What do you know.

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An industrial chemical called melamine is the cause for the tainted milk products that China produced. Recall after recall happening for products that came from China are causing more and more concern over whether people in this country ought to be buying things with the China label at all. Our family has decided that if it’s from China, it is not worth the risk. This newest scare is just one of many causing a scandal of giant proportions involving everything from baby formula to chocolate. Latest testing in batches of the milk powder has proven to be eye opening. 100 batches have been tested, all having the chemical in them. 4 deaths and many illnesses have been attributed to the tainted milk powder.

Often when such stories come out, it is assumed or verified that the cause is an accident. Something in the environment of the factory caused the problem. No so with this particular tainted milk powder story. It is believed that the company involved at the center of the problem and some suppliers were trying to boost sales by diluting the powder with melamine which has high nitrogen content. This fools the testing into showing more protein content. Melamine is normally used to make plastics and fertilizers.

Apparently it wasn’t enough to try to boost sales, the individuals and companies involved were then trying to cover up the situation. Many have been forced to resign. Others were ignoring the safety officials and doctors concerning this very hazardous situation. Included in the scandal is a cheesecake product that was for the Japanese market.

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Thinking back, I have been wearing glasses for over 49 years now. Only once did I even begin to think that I wanted contact lenses. One of the big things in my life concerning my eyes is that they are very sensitive. Therefore, I did not believe that it was possible to have contacts with such eyes. So, I have never gotten them. That makes me old fashioned, I suppose. But living with a nearsightedness and then astigmatism as well, it has not been as easy as all that. For instance, right now I cannot see the screen as well as I used to be able to. I have to hold my glasses up to the bifocal part so that I can see the screen successfully. Actually, I have no idea whatsoever if having contacts would help or hurt that.

On the other hand, I have thought about the Lasik procedure since it seems to be ideal for so many people. Yet my age might be against me there. Of course, this would have to happen at a time when we don’t have the money for such procedures. That is not right now. But I do believe it would be the one way to deal successfully with my eye problems permanently.

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For a while now, I have had a nurse visiting our home and taking vitals on me. Doctor’s orders required that they do a personal visit to see that I was doing all right. As you may or may not remember, I was in the hospital for a blood clot. And right afer I got home, they started visiting me. I found that to be fantastic. And I want to tell you that those ladies have been wonderful. Unless you have been in that type of situation, you cannot know how much of a relief it is to have a health care professional checking up on you to make sure that you are all right.

Every time they were here, they took the vitals like blood pressure and listening to my heart. Included in that was taking my pulse with what I now know was a pulse oximeter. That is one handy little device. It gives a reading for your pulse and your blood oxygen content at the same time. Honestly, I wish my Mom had one of those little devices since she has COPD and must medicate for her breathing.

In addition to doing the vitals, they wanted to know how I was feeling, if there were any other problems or symptoms or anything that might be different. All the information was then given to my doctor for evaluation. At times, I did get a call from the doctor’s office concerning one thing or another. The best part was that if I needed anything or was having a problem, I could call them 24/7. That was so comforting to me in a time when I had no idea what could happen. See, I did not get much information concerning the DVT (blood clot). Those at the hospital did not tell me much. I got more information from the nurses than anywhere else throughout the problem.

They have stopped coming now. However, I was told I could have them back anytime I felt a need. I find that comforting, too, in an area where we have little medical coverage. Our hospital, if you could call it that, is over 60 miles away. That’s if you want to go to that one. Otherwise, there’s one about 70 miles away in either of two directions. We have an urgent care clinic here but it closes at 11pm. I have no clue what is expected after that unless you make the long trek to the hospital. So, I am grateful to the nurses of the home health care services.

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Yes, there are still tattoo artists that will give you that “tat” if you want it. I have seen some really covered individuals. Frankly, I do not see what the shouting is about with that. Hey, it’s permanent!!! What happens if you have a change of mind in a couple of years? What if you suddenly decide that the eagle on your chest has turned into Big Bird and is too droopy now? Yeah, that’s one of the risks of that sort of thing.

Ah but now there is a new thing on the horizon. Did you see the 3 Lord Of The Rings movies? We have them and watch them once in a while. We were particularly interested in the elves. Weren’t you? When I first heard about elves, as a kid, I envisioned some little guy about 3 ft. tall with pointy ears and a fat belly. Those little guys were more or less like leprechauns. Not quite the same but in the same creature style…..at least that’s what I thought. Then, when I started reading about elves in fantasy books, it occurred to me that they were tall and thin with pointy ears. So I got the pointy ear thing right. My first experience with pointy ears was Mr. Spock though. He wasn’t an elf.

I digress. The newest rage is to truly have pointy ears. Yes, people are actually having their ears altered to be pointy. I suspect most of the people doing that are more or less obsessed with either Lord Of The Rings or elves in general. Of course, the hobbits also had pointy ears, lest we forget. But it would not surprise me if someone who had that done were to speak elvish. Honestly, I cannot imagine a plastic surgeon who would want to cut the cartilage on a person’s ear and then sew it back on with a point just to look like an elf….forever. At least with a tattoo, if a person does change their mind, they can have it removed. You know, I cannot imagine going to all that trouble and pain for either thing. But to have someone cut the ears and make them pointy is absolutely insane. It was really hard to believe anyone was that stupid but then I think of all the stupid stuff going on in the world and I realized that someone having their ears altered doesn’t sound that stupid anymore. Sigh. What a world.

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Why do I call it a fiasco? Because that’s what it ended up being. I have been in the hospital recently for a blood clot in my leg. Since then, I got a really strange rash that our doctor said was bad enough that I needed to be in the hospital or at the least, get to a doctor that knows about this thing. He sent me on to a hematologist. She told me that as far as her medical knowledge, I was healthy…blood-wise. But that she agreed with my doctor that something needed to be done. She called a couple of doctors, none of whom was willing to admit to admitting privileges at the local hospital. The hospital itself was not about to admit me with an unknown origins rash. Interesting right?

So, the docs decided I should go to another facility. We did that. Bearing in mind that I have a blood clot in my leg, we traveled by car from our house to the docs, the second docs, back home to pack and on to another hospital, roughly 180 miles or more. That’s where we stayed for several hours while the ER doc decided whether I could be admitted there or not. He came in and said that I needed a better hospital than theirs and wanted to send me on to Springfield, Mo. hospital. I hated the idea because we had been on the go all day, my leg was aching badly and I was so tired, I was about to fall over and would have except I was on a narrow gurney in an exam room, leg up for once. By this time, I am entertaining ideas of going on one of those Mediterranean cruises and getting the heck out of Dodge. But it was not to be. He did want me to travel by ambulance due to the clot but we were unsure as to how my husband was going to get there if he could not get a ride. (He can’t drive at night)

The doc returns with a funny look on his face. I am getting the picture. Springfield did not want me there either. Interesting, isn’t it. We ended up staying in a motel that we got to around 1:30am. It was a pit. We didn’t argue though we should have. It was incredibly hot in that place due to the air conditioner that wouldn’t. Eventually, it did but that’s just the icing on the cake for the day. Next day we got back home. It was Saturday. On Monday, I get from the doc’s office that we went to the wrong hospital and if we had gone to the one he wanted us to go to, we would have been admitted……probably. Uh huh. And then he wanted me to go on to that one despite the fact that we were still tired from the previous situation and that he had no guarantees that we would be admitted. The capper is that this one is over a hundred miles from the house to the city..that’s one way. We had already traveled over that to do the other runaround. No thanks.

In the end, the rash is disappearing. Funny, huh? Not to me. Strange, weird, not funny. Tiring.

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Apparently, one trip to the hospital with a spider bite is not good enough. Last Friday, I took a trip in an ambulance to the hospital south of us about 50-60 miles away. I will not really go into the absolute circus this particular stay involved. I will tell you that it was extremely unpleasant, even for a usual hospital stay. That brings up health care in general. Where we live, there are doctors and an urgent care clinic. Other than that, we are left to our own devices. We did have what people used to laughingly call a hospital but that closed some time ago. The owner of the property and building where the old hospital was will not sell it for less than a huge amount.That means that we are not going to have one for the foreseeable future. Not good.

Health care in Arkansas can be good, depending on where you live. In our area, the doctors try to do it all. That cannot work simply because they are human and need time off too. Most of the time, however, health care here is as bad as my trip to the hospital south of us. I do want to mention one thing here. And this is specific to this particular hospital. I am on several meds that are needing to be taken at specific times….every 8 hours. But this place is much different in how it gives out meds. For one thing, despite the fact that you might have your own with you, it is policy for them to hand them out. I can understand that. They want to know everything you are taking.

This hospital has also a policy or rather the pharmacy at the hospital does. If you specify every 8 hours on a med, they will give it to you with a “2 hour window” every 8 hours. What does that mean anyway? However, if your med says that it has to be taken 3 times a day, that is a different kettle of fish. Frankly, that does not compute to me. 3 times a day works out to every 8 hours. Not so. According to this pharmacy, if it states 3 times a day, you will find your med being given to you at 9am, 1pm and 5pm regardless of what it might do to you. That is simply nuts, in my not-so humble opinion. I have never heard of such drivel until I went there. In fact, it was in a hospital that I learned that you cannot take those meds in less time than that. I used to take meds every 4-6 hours and go to bed. Nope. That’s why you find yourself getting awakened at the hospital to take a med. They are on the 8 hours schedule. Usually. This whole thing makes me want to look up those Brazil vacation packages and just take off and forget I ever heard of Arkansas and the beautiful way they treat people.

You know, this is one of the most prosperous countries in the world. You would think that it would then include adequate to superior health care. But I have heard too many stories of how this place and that place are too horrible to return to. This particular facility is now in that category for me. Unless there is no other way to do it, I do not think I will end up there again. That was too much of a circus. Oh it was more than the med policy. I do not have enough energy to go over it all right here. Just believe me when I say that I do not want to go there again!!!!

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I just have to get this off my chest. And I am going to talk about my trip to the hospital because I cannot stand people who will not do their jobs right simply because it’s either more fun to do it badly or just being hateful. What am I talking about?

I was in that hospital for 4 days. During that time, I was treated like most people in that facility and became someone’s pin cushion daily. Yes, they wanted blood over and over. The first day, the lady was really good although I did get the expected bruises. She said it would do that. She took an amazing amount of blood in my right arm in two places.

Right before that, a nurse came in and put in a heplock. For those who do not know what that is, it’s the little device that allows them to hook you up to the IV solutions when necessary. Because I am a touch stick, they decided to put it in my right hand. I AM right handed so that was a bit unhandy, not to be handing out puns today. No really.

By Sunday night, I had already had three blood draws. It could have been more, I admit, but that was more than enough. Then the worst happened. The heplock slipped out. It meant that I had to endure another one being put in. The person who tried to do this had no idea how to do so and that hurt a lot. She did try to put it in in several places but to no avail. She finally got a person who actually had the capability to do it.

After that, I got moved out of that unit into a regular room. I had so many sore spots and places that were bruised that I could not stand one more. All day long, no one came to get any blood. I thought I was home free. That night or rather at 5:30am, some woman came into my room, said my name so loud that I am sure that the neighbors were awake too. Then she proceeded to snap on the brightest light in the room. Both my husband and I were very much asleep. And then we were not. Very rudely not.

This woman was so rude that I told her NO when she wanted blood. She did not ask. She was simply going to take it. NO!!! I SAID NO!!!

A person like that has no business, I said NO BUSINESS being in health care at all. She needed to be reported. I probably will do this. Does this person not have a clue that people are in the hospital???? That they are sick? Some are elderly. Is it possible to scare someone to death? I’m certain that is possible. And rude women like that do not belong there.

There. That’s my gripe session for now.

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