Friday, December 2, 2016

Medical Advice to Everyone

A lot has happened since last post; most not good.

We had postponed our Thanksgiving dinner until Friday so both kids could be here.  They had just helped my  MIL into the house and she was standing in the kitchen  doorway holding to  the frame  and suddenly went straight down.  We rushed to her and saw her leg was bent about 5 inches above her foot in a 45 degree angle.  We called the ambulance.  Max and our son went to ER with her....I  was left  to feed  dinner to remaining family.  It was a very subdued dinner.

In the ER they straightened her leg and wrapped it from  foot to just below her knee.  The orthopedic surgeon who happened to be in the hospital answered the call and did that.  He also told them how he treats this kind of break ;  wrap, wait l0 to l4 days before surgery so all swelling is gone. The patient is then sent to  a skilled nursing facility for this time. Of course this conversation was not where Max or Steve could hear.   Instead, the first mistake happened.  They admitted her telling us they would do surgery in 4-5days.  For the next 4 days someone would tell her each day, no surgery today,  maybe tomorrow.  Finally at day 4 I decided to see what was happening.  The surgeon, who actually called and talked to me in her room, apologized and repeated what he told the ER.  I worked with a nurse liaison person, a patient rep. (social worker), her on duty RN, a Nurse Practitioner from the surgery group, the hospitalist.  We were  first told her insurance and Medicare would not cover her stay past two days and none of her Skilled Nursing Care.  They printed off the rules.....!  I protested loudly and reminded them non of this was not her fault.....finally after them appealing to two different doctors who reviewed her case, at 4 pm.  they told us all was covered and would be for the l00 day rehab time.

Next step is I am getting her out the the present skilled  facility asap.  I don't know if I can do it before her scheduled surgery on Tuesday or not but she is not going back to it after.  They gave already made two errors.  Her leg was swollen above the wrap and no one had checked that leg at all the night she was brought in nor all day yesterday until I called and asked  the RN to do so......still waiting for a call to see if the resident doctor sees it today.  Sylvia also told me no one checked it in the hospital.  Unbelievable.

I guess we could just set our old folks out on an ice floe and push them off shore like some cultures used to do.  They are almost treated as disposable people.

People let this be a lesson!  If the patient cannot be his or her own advocate,  they must have someone representing them who cares. 

OK.  Rant done.  This was very scary to me.  I used to think once under hospital care you could relax and quit worrying......wrong!!!

Something pleasant now:

My internet provider installed new equipment at no charge to work with their new system and it almost  doubled my speed and clarity.  I am a happy person. I stream lot of things  from Amazon and Netflix on my computer.

Second, my red maple finally got color.


13 comments:

  1. Dear Glenda ~ I am so sorry to hear this about your dear MIL. Personally, I don't trust the medical establishment, especially the older I get.

    Love, hugs & prayers for all of you, especially your MIL ~ FlowerLady

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  2. Bless you, Glenda, for stepping in on behalf of your MIL. These days, it seems if you are sick the worst place to go is to the hospital. We recently had a scary thing happen with my husband's 43 year old niece. After much discomfort she went to the ER and was diagnosed with an impacted bowel and suspected infection. The staff in the ER was trying to decide what to do and she heard one person say, "If there is an infection present, we can't give her XYZ (medication). She was admitted to the hospital and given XYZ medication which caused her infected bowel to burst. She spent 5 days in the ICU and is, thankfully, recovering but now has a colostomy bag which they hope can be eliminated after her bowel is repaired.

    Once again, your MIL is so fortunate to have you in her corner. And I agree with you in that older folks are often neglected.

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  3. I am sorry to hear about what happened to your mother in law.

    Thank you for your rant. I think that everyone who has experienced or witnessed a loved one experiencing this type of care (or lack thereof) should all be ranting, a lot.

    My father in law passed away just last week. When he was taken to the first hospital he was diagnosed as having had a stroke. Then he went into a rehab hospital where it was decided he would not be improving. Then he went to a skilled nursing facility, where he was exposed to and developed C Dif, which made him very sick, so he was sent to a second hospital. The CT scan there showed that he had a brain tumor. The first hospital never saw the brain tumor, only what appeared to be a stroke on their scan. The second hospital saw no signs of a stroke, but only a brain tumor. An MRI confirmed that it was a brain tumor. It was progressing quickly and he was declining rapidly. Our family is so upset. Had the first hospital diagnosed the rapidly progressing, deadly brain tumor, my father in law would never have been put into a rehab hospital or skilled nursing facility, and probably would never have suffered C Dif. He would have been able to return to his own home. After the diagnosis of the brain tumor he qualified for hospice/comfort care. We could have arranged for around the clock nursing. For the short amount of time he had left it would have been do-able. But it seems to me that every medical establishment along the way wanted a piece of his savings and any insurance money they could get. We had all better start ranting and raving about some of the things that are going on in hospitals and health care these days. A person never knows when it will be their turn, or their loved ones', to go through some type of medical mill treatment. Something needs to be done toward improving this way of doing things.

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  4. I'm so very sorry about what happened to your MIL. The break was unfortunate. The situation at the medical facility is horrible. I just hope that her surgery is excellent and that she has good care after that during rehab.

    During both my Mother's surgery and rehab, I practically lived next to her bed. They could not remove me. I saved her from an UNNOTICED blod clot (one leg 2ce as big as the other) after her brain surgery, medication alergy, etc.). You HAVE to advocate, especially for older people. And you think it's bad now? The new administration is lusting for our SocSec and Medicare entitlements. I don't think seniors are on their a-list. We face many challenges ahead. Hang in there. And take care of yourSELF. You are much needed.

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    1. I keep hearing these same kinds of stories from others. We must all try to be aware of every little thing with our medical care.

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  5. I am so sorry to hear all this has happened. I worry about my husband and who will help him if something happens to me. My daughter lives 9 hours from here. Make sure you take care of yourself since it looks like a good bit of this falls on your shoulders.

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  6. We all have those same worries. Both of our children live 3 and 4 hours away but couldn't be here for daily details.

    I am taking care of myself by staying out of doctor's offices................

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  7. Glenda,

    OMG, thank God your Mother In Law has you and your husband to help. Doctors, Nurses, and Hospitals have become a real pain in the a_ _ and from what I understand will continue until something changes with the health care system.

    Sending prayers for a speedy recovery for your MIL, and for your family.
    Hugs,
    Sandy

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  8. I am very familiar with your situation. Went through this twice
    Hospital DO NOT take care of patients like they use to and nursing home or rehabilitation center DO NOT.

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    1. Welcome to reading my on again/off again ramblings. Even the surgical nurse agreed that we could not just put ourselves in the hands of the medical staff.
      Sad but true. So far, the nursing home/rehab is super and we have no complaints at all.

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  9. I guess you are in the deep freeze too. It's warmed to 32 but I think I'm staying in.

    Merry Christmas.

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  10. Oh, Glenda, I have not been very good at blog reading and didn't see this till today. So sorry about your MIL. Bless you for being an advocate for her. I guess there's not much point, in the minds of those responsible for caring for us, in delaying the inevitable for those of us who are age 70 and above. You'd think the least they could do would be to end our lives humanely instead of leaving us laying there to suffer. I just heard today that Zsa Zsa Gabor died after being on life support FOR FIVE YEARS. OMG.....

    I worry about Hubs and me, we can't depend on either of our children or grandchildren to advocate for us. We don't even hear from two of them at all, and the other two are so busy with their own lives that they have very little time for us. Already there are so many times that I wish I had someone to just take me by the hand and lead me through difficult decisions, but there is no one. Been thinking about that nurse hotline service Medicare has sent me. That might be my only option if push comes to shove. Hope you and Max are getting through this cold spell, we are in it too, and house-sitting plus feeding dogs for neighbors who went on a cruise. They were supposed to get home yesterday and didn't. So hopefully they'll be home today and everything will be ok. If no sign of them today, we'll call their daughter and find out.

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  11. As we get older, we all worry about the whole process. I used to think I would be taking care of Max, but he bounces back from these heart attacks so well,thank God!, that it may be him taking care of me!

    I am sorry for your family troubles. Even though our two live some distance, I feel they would be here for us.

    We are surviving the cold....but not liking it at all.

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