Health Care On Life Support

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I had the great misfortune of having to spend an afternoon and most of the evening and into the night and damn near into the next day embroiled in a healthcare situation.

What a mess we’re in.

It starts with the primary doctor who is essentially useless. I don’t even bother to go there for my own health care needs because they do nothing for me.

Ever.

I had one episode where the nurse practitioner started it all by asking me what “Do you think it might be?”

“How the hell do I know? I’m a safety guy and a writer. I feel like crap. You tell me.”

She looked as if I slapped her.

The primary doctors are also scared of their own shadows.

“The insurance company may deny the x-Ray.”

“We don’t like to prescribe anything stronger than Ibuprofen. You can may be able to get something over the counter that might help.”

I pay a co-pay for that?

And of course, prices are ridiculous. If they give you a saline drip it’ll run about a grand. It’s salt water!

Back to the latest visit.

The receptionist was a mean, nasty woman who literally growled before she yelled.

“Who pissed in your corn flakes?” My Dad might’ve asked her. 

I let it go.

The fact that Covid has every building short on beds, and every person scared to look at the patient is absurd.

The doc examined Kathy from 20’ away!

Then the waiting around!!!

There were four people in the waiting room when we arrived. We thought we were fortunate, but Godzilla at the front desk mentioned that they only basically did x-Rays and little else.

However we saw at least 10 people in scrubs. Ten people working on four seemed to be decent. Perhaps we wouldn’t be waiting all day and night.

But wait we did!

We were on our 4th episode of King of Queens before anyone popped their head in.

“Should be just a few minutes,” the one smiling nurse said.

A few minutes in a health care setting is short for ‘another two freaking hours!’

“Let’s just leave,” Kathy said, but we were four hours into it!

“Let’s get it done,” I said.

As it turned out…

…it won’t be a super quick fix.

So, we are going to have to battle it out in the wonderful world of mean-ass people, charging way too much, scared of insurance companies, and willing to put people in the poor house to get care…

…just a little while longer.

What a mess.

And it certainly is a shame that we live in a world where we don’t expect answers from the doctors, or even service with a smile, all while wondering if a second mortgage will be necessary because they took a CT scan which some insurance rep will deem as frivolous.

Wonderful.

Just what someone needs when they don’t feel well.

Particularly with Godzilla greeting you at the door.

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